Interview Dated August 2006

Strength Trainer Brian Caldwell

Brian Caldwell is the secret behind the power of some of Houston's top pro fighters. The 34-year-old Missouri native uses a scientific and very hands-on approach to help his clients achieve peak physical conditioning. He works out of the Savannah Boxing Club.


HBS - Where are you from originally?

BC - Maryvale, Missouri.

HBS - How'd you end up in Houston.

BC - Finished graduate school at Oklahoma State and answered an ad at the Jess H. Jones Health Center and found myself in Houston, Texas.

HBS - What was the ad for?

BC - For a physiologist.

HBS - So that's what you have a degree in?

BC - Yes, I have a degree in Applied Physiology.

HBS - Can you explain in layman's terms what that means?

BC - That would just be the study of human movement, basically working on athletic style stuff. So just knowing the body and how the body actually works and trains.

HBS - So you planned to be a trainer, that's what your degree was all geared toward?

BC - Yes. Since my undergrad degree was in Wellness and Business and then moving on to the Physiology degree in graduate school, yes, the whole time to be a trainer.

HBS - I'm guessing you were doing some of that before you got into college or how did you become interested in this field?

BC - As an athlete in high school, a three-sport athlete, and then moving on to try and continue my athletic career in college, when that didn't work out I still knew that was my passion and I just wanted to stay around it. I love being in the athletic field and my dream was if I can't play in the majors I want to at least train in the majors and what that meant was whether it be football, boxing, baseball I just wanted to get into the pro circuit.

HBS - So you ended up at the Health Center down here and what were you doing and how did that led you into boxing?

BC - I started as managing a group of trainers that were at the facility and that's where I met Willie Savannah. He was watching me with some of my clients there and asked me if I'd be interested in meeting Juan and Jose (Diaz). That was eight years ago and that's where our relationship began.

HBS - Let's talk a little bit about what a strength trainer is. When someone thinks of strength training they might think of a lot of weights and power lifting but that's really not the case in boxing.

BC - No, actually the primary purpose in boxing is to make sure that your athlete is in peak condition at a certain date. That's your whole goal. It's not to actually build a group of mass of what you would perceive as being body building, that's actually the opposite. We do a multi-functional program which involves cardiovascular work, flexibility, speed enchancement, mental preparation, dietary needs, so it's a full range and a full perspective of what I handle.

HBS - I would imagine you then tailor a plan or a program to fit each different athlete.

BC - Sure. You find out what the strengths and the weaknesses are of the particular athlete and then you tailor to get around that, to get them equal on all bases. You definitely don't train a Juan Diaz like you would train Adam Richards, a lightweight versus a heavyweight. Totally two different people and two different methods.

HBS - Lately you've been working with Rocky Juarez. Tell us about what you've been doing with him.

BC - With Rocky, we've really been getting his functional strength up, in the short time that I've been with him just enhancing his cardiovascular, his endurance, so he's able to enhance his already natural strength. He's extremely strong alrready so what we're trying to do with him is just to dial everything in.

HBS - When you say functional strength, what does that mean?

BC - Functional strength is just strength that you would use in your natural habitat. Say for instance the guy can bench press 315 pounds but he may not be able to actually use that in the outside. For a fighter it doesn't matter. You could put a guy in the ring and he could bench press 400 pounds and get knocked out in the first round. It doesn't matter. So you have to really get a different viewpoint on what you're doing and for Rocky it's been a wonderful process. He's a hard worker, he's really taking to it and I think he's got big plans for Barrera.

HBS - What are you working on with (W.B.A. Lightweight Champion) Juan Diaz? When you work with him what do you do?

BC - With Juan we're trying to really enhance his power, his explosive power. Juan has already got amazing hand speed, he's got amazing endurance and so basically the thing for him is just to increase that one-shot power and he's improving. He's doing very well.

HBS - That seems to be one of the biggest criticisms of Juan is that he doesn't have the big one-punch knockout power. How do you go about increasing that? What kind of exercises or training do you do to enhance that?

BC - With Juan we use a lot of plyometric work in the upper and lower body.

HBS - Plyometric, what is that?

BC - Plyometric is using explosive movement to increase your strength. Say for instance if you were doing a pushup, instead of a normal pushup, you came to the top of the rep, touched the top of your head and came back down. Or a leap. If you leap off the ground, that is a plyometric and we use that to increase his strength. It also will increase your speed. Juan being very fast, it definitely hasn't hurt him either so he's getting stronger by the day.

HBS - It seems there are some basic exercises that you use, this plyometric formula, is that one of the primary weapons in your arsenal of training so to speak? Or what are some of the other things that you use?

BC - It is one of the basic methods. I also rely a lot on swimming and a lot on the stairmill. I'm a firm believer that I don't want to beat an athlete's body outside of the ring. With that being said, it's not to overtrain an athlete, it's to get them in that peak condition for that moment or that day of the fight. So instead of using a lot of the old-school techniques, we've disinhibited a little bit more science to that and so far it's just worked wonders and there's always room for improvement but I think we have a good formula and a good program.

HBS - You're a guy that certainly willing to go the extra mile. The first time I noticed you was several months back and you were in the ring sparring with Juan and he was ripping you with some pretty heavy shots. Tell us about that. It seems to be something not every trainer would do but you're in there taking shots when you need to.

BC - That actually came about after Juan's seventh professional fight. I realized that not only did I need to have a better understanding of what he felt and actually went through, I also needed for them to really respect and to follow what I was going to tell them and to be quite honest with you, at that point in time I did the next training camp with him and then I fought in the Golden Gloves and it gave me a lot of understanding. Just as much understanding as going to grad school, about how a man feels, his mental capabilities, what it's like to get hit, how your legs feel, that whole process and it did. It helped me put together a better package and I think it also helped the guys respect me too because they know that hey, this guy will do what he says he's going to do and it was a great learning experience and I love to box and I've got to spar with several professional guys and not everybody can say that you know and that is a good feeling.

HBS - So you're doing that not so much for them but as much for yourself.

BC - Yeah, it was a learning experience and one that I think I needed. I needed to know how these guys felt and what it was like and when a guy comes to me and says "Brian, my arms are sore in this fashion," or "my legs are this," now I know how to counterbalance it and that way again, we keep them healthy, we keep them in shape, because I understand what they're telling me. Before I didn't really, you're just gong by what you know textbook-wise, but sometimes you need to go by feel and when you combine the both of them you lead yourself to a better product.

HBS - You're kind of the unsung hero or the behind-the-scenes guy. When Rocky wins or Juan wins or someone you train wins, your name is not the one announced but of course I'm sure there's got to be a lot of satisfaction when your fighter wins.

BC - Yeah, I mean that's what it's all about. You get your reward when they get their hand raised and to be honest with you, to have Juan as a world champion and to have Rocky hopefully become a world champion, there are not too many trainers that are going to say I have world title rings on my finger and you don't get a chance with a guy like Rocky unless you have Juan and these other guys that are going to call for your services and when you get to the top of your field I mean that's reward enough. I don't need to be in publications or whatever else. If you do good, people will know and that's all you need, and that's good for me.