Double training days, ‘brutal' track sessions and 1,000-rep abs workouts – Inside Jake Paul's training for Julio César Chávez Jr. fight

Independent

3 hours ago

Jake Paul's journey to professional boxing is far from conventional. While his pedigree in the sport is regularly debated online, his work ethic rarely is.
His ambitions are equally unambiguous, with the 28-year-old telling DAZN: 'The main goal now is to get a belt, that's the only thing I haven't accomplished in the sport of boxing. I've won knockout of the year, [ I won the ] most-viewed fight ever, so for me the only thing that's left is to become world champion.'
Let's Build Champions author Larry Wade has been subjecting the star to an intense pre-fight training camp containing double training days, 'brutal' track sessions and 1,000-rep abs workouts.
This is what a week in the life of a YouTuber-turned-professional boxer with world-topping aspirations looks like.
Jake Paul's typical training week
Larry Wade has an enviable track record as a strength and conditioning coach, with fighters winning 14 belts under his watchful eye – a few examples include Shawn Porter, Rolando Romero, Badou Jack and Caleb Plant. This was a major motivator for Jake Paul bringing him on board after his loss to Tommy Fury in 2023.
In the lead-up to the Chávez Jr. fight, Wade has Paul training five days per week, with most days containing a morning and afternoon session.
'One of these sessions is usually boxing training only, then in the evening it'll either be strength and conditioning or just conditioning, which will be either pool, bike, run – some form of cardio,' Wade says.
'The actual work in each training session,' he adds, 'is about an hour-and-a-half, and when I say training, I'm not talking about warming up and preparing because that usually takes 30 to 45 minutes if you're doing it properly.'
Wade's training format varies depending on how far out his athletes are from their next fight.
'We have pre-camp, then we have camp,' he says. 'In my pre-camp, this is when I do an evaluation to see how guys are physically and find out where they're at from a conditioning standpoint. I just want to see what your baseline is; I want to see how strong you are, and how much stronger I need to make you.'
Wade says he is 'not a bench press guy' and would never use this exercise in a camp.
'It can cause limitations from a punch standpoint,' he says, 'and we want athletes to be as elastic and as strong as possible'.
However, he will occasionally use it in a pre-camp setting to establish his athlete's baseline strength.
'A guy like Jake Paul, if I was to max him – and I haven't maxed him in quite a while because I don't need to – he could probably bench 350lb.'
In camp, Wade prefers alternative exercises with more boxing-specific carryover, as he details below.
Jake Paul's workout to develop strength and conditioning for boxing
'A typical strength session with me would be some pull-ups, push-ups, decline sit-ups, isolated dumbbell raises, definitely vertimax jumps, box jumps and kettlebell turns for the wrists,' Wade says. 'And you've got to strengthen the neck, every session.'
He also includes a minimum of 500-1,000 reps of abs exercises each session, including everything from Russian twists to toe touches to decline sit-ups.
'You want to be able to brace when you get hit with a body shot,' he explains. 'You want to be able to sustain it. But here's the other thing: real boxing trainers understand the power comes from the ground up.'
Wade explains: 'You push off your foot and it goes through your body – your abs are like a transfer centre of power. The torque is at the bottom with your foot, it travels up your leg, it transitions through your core, through your chest and to the end of the punch. The stronger your abs are, the more whip and the more power you can put behind that punch. That's the concept behind it.'
Another favourite abs exercise of Wade's is the standing resistance band twist, where the arms are extended in front of you, you are holding a resistance band attached to an anchor point off to one side, and your trunk is generating rotational forces.
There is a simple reason for this, he says. 'People don't realise there are two different ways to develop strength; you can do it concentrically [ the lifting phase of an exercise ] and eccentrically [ the lowering phase of an exercise ], and that's really important when you're dealing with boxers.'
He adds: 'You want to throw a punch with speed and power, but you also need to bring your hand back with speed to protect yourself. Because strength isn't just about having the ability to hit someone. It is also about being able to endure getting hit. If the body's not built up from a muscular standpoint, after a while, those punches are going to break you down. Can you get hit and still stand strong?'
Larry Wade's 100-rep fitness test for boxers
- Push-up x100 (unbroken)
Wade says there is one protocol that has remained constant throughout his career coaching boxers.
'I test every last one of my athletes to do this,' he says. 'Before we go into a fight, I need to be able to see you do 100 push-ups, straight. If you can give me 100 push-ups straight, that means not only do you have the strength, but you also have the conditioning to support it. That means when it's time to throw hands, you ain't gotta take a break.'
Jake Paul's 'most brutal' workout
Complete four rounds of:
- 800m
- 1min rest
- 400m
- 1min rest
- 200m
- 1min rest
- 200m
- 1min rest
Strength and conditioning, as the name implies, is two-pronged. A boxer needs to be strong, but they also need to have the work capacity and cardiorespiratory fitness to back this up.
To develop these latter attributes, former track and field coach Wade likes to use running intervals. Paul has said these are the most 'brutal' of all of his training sessions.
'The workout Jake talks about the most is the 800, 400, 200, 200 workout,' says Wade. 'He'll run 800m, then 400, then 200m and another 200, all with a minute of rest between. Depending on where we are in camp, we can do that a minimum of two times to a maximum of four times. '
Despite sitting at around 200lb, Paul is able to polish off the 800m intervals in less than three minutes, Wade says. The 400m intervals are finished in sub-85 seconds, and the 200m intervals take less than 35 seconds.
Jake Paul's diet to prepare for Chávez Jr. fight
Wade is one of a wide team supporting Paul through this training camp. This includes boxing trainers, videographers and chef Eric Triliegi – a nutritionist who specialises in weight cuts for fighters.
Given Paul's drop from heavyweight for the Mike Tyson clash last year to cruiserweight for the Chávez Jr. fight, his diet looks a little different this time around.
'When he was a heavyweight, he had a little bit more freedom,' says Wade. 'You can almost eat what you want to eat – but of course getting stuff that's very nutritious – because there's no scale you have to fight. But at cruiserweight, you have to be more specific. Caloric intake has to be at a certain level, so I'm grateful that Eric is there and he's doing the job he's doing.'
However, while Paul's pre-fight diet might be more restrictive, Wade says he is far more comfortable and athletic as a cruiserweight.
'When you're at heavy, and that's not your natural weight,' he explains, 'the cardio part is very difficult, because now you've increased your muscle mass, you need more oxygen for that muscle mass to be used, as you may have seen sometimes with heavier fighters.'
Wade adds that, for the Tyson fight, 'heavyweight was not necessarily the weight we were targeting, but it was where the opportunity was', before confirming that cruiserweight is where the pair hope to claim a belt.
Jake Paul recovery
To train five times per week, twice per day, while maintaining the intensity of a pre-fight training camp, recovery is key. Sleep is priority number one, but Paul also turns to tech to stay at his best.
Case in point: he owns a hyperbaric oxygen chamber – an enclosed cylinder that delivers pure oxygen to the body, with purported benefits including boosting immune function and helping the body grow new skin, blood vessels and connective tissues.
'We have red light laser therapy, ice baths – which he does almost every day as well, massages – and he does use a sauna sometimes as well,' Wade adds. 'We'll even do some pool stuff to recover, but he has some top-of-the-line stuff in place that can help him recover.'
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