Usually for my warmups i do some shadow boxing. Today i did it with an extra 10lbs in each had, left,right, upper cut, all kinds of punches and footwork. My shoulder and basically my whole arms got a huge pump from it and my punches became so light and fast.
I think i am going to start doing this every time, i can only imagen the outcome?
what about you guys does anyone do this?
[quote]mrl179 wrote:
Usually for my warmups i do some shadow boxing. Today i did it with an extra 10lbs in each had, left,right, upper cut, all kinds of punches and footwork. My shoulder and basically my whole arms got a huge pump from it and my punches became so light and fast.
I think i am going to start doing this every time, i can only imagen the outcome?
what about you guys does anyone do this?[/quote]
I hear it’s a bad idea. It throws off your punching mechanics. Could just be a myth, though.
Unless your name is Marius, 10lbs would probably be enough to change your punching mechanics
thus not a good way to develope power or speed. I’m sure doing it once or twice, a month or so, wouldn’t cause a lot of harm. But it’s not neccessarily doing a lot of good either.
If you really want to do this…
I’d stick to weights under 5lbs
using probably 2lbs the most often and I’m not sure if I’d even go above 3.
But truthfully you’ll be spending so much time decelerating your punch that it’s not even worth it for such a ballistic movement. Its really not even in that great plane of motion, you want the force going TOWARD your opponent not downwards to the ground.
If you can get a small medicine ball, about 1-2lbs in weight, and took the posture of a “right cross” (or left whatever), and held the med ball in your striking hand, and initiated the movement from your back foot, changed levels slightly and exploded forward ballistically with the ball (aka punched and let the ball go). Then that would be the best exercise I can probably think of.
Striking is all about synergy. You need power generated starting with your big toe to go alll the way through your body out to your two big knuckles.
Do exercises that practice synergy but dont require you to learn overly complex motor qualities… squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, olympic lifts (power variations for ease) as well as swings and snatches (dbells/kettlebells).
My personal fav. are thrusters (a special thank you to Dan John).
some other exercises:
Rotation based torso work
unilateral leg work
1 arm pushups
pistols
turkish getup
1 arm bench press
1 arm oh dbbell squat
overhead squat
pullups (weighted)
dips (weighted)
Basically if it involves your entire body it’s worthwhile for you to practice. I personally feel that the 1 arm snatch is a good implement that you can judge potential striking power by. Heavy barbell stepups have been the best thing I’ve ever done for my thai kicks
Also NOTHING beats the heavy bag for generating striking ability. It’s basically a plyometric exercise. I reccomend a Thai bag as it wont be some 40lb bag that weighs as much as a kindergartner and gives you a false illusion of power.
The time you spend perfecting your striking vs lifting weights should be above 2:1 … you need to develope the motor efficiency to put that power you develop in the weight room into your striking ability. Otherwise you’re just a strong guy who can’t punch right. So prioritize training your striking over the weight room.
[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
But truthfully you’ll be spending so much time decelerating your punch that it’s not even worth it for such a ballistic movement. Its really not even in that great plane of motion, you want the force going TOWARD your opponent not downwards to the ground.
[/quote]
Ding, ding! The pump you are feeling is simply from holding the weight up. Not a worthwhile endeavour in my opinion. Get some heavy gloves and pound the bag.
Yeah, to develop power, hammer the fuck out of the heavy bag, pad, mitts, etc. To get better at hitting something you must hit something, hard. I went the air punching route years back as part of my martial art and got very little out of it.
Every idiot strength and conditioning expert can give you whatever bullshit advice they want…punchers and the mechanics thereof is a born/genetic trait.
If anything, weighted punching drills will do anything BUT develop knockout power. Technique of punch/genetics/co-ordination = KO power. If you’re not born with it…forget about it…ain’t gonna happen at an elite level.
MMA pretty much doesn’t count… on acount of the chinniness of most BJJ/wrestlers and the 4 oz gloves…any non-punching pussy can 1/2 miss and still KO some pussy who didn’t grow up taking real punishment.
[quote]puglet wrote:
Every idiot strength and conditioning expert can give you whatever bullshit advice they want…punchers and the mechanics thereof is a born/genetic trait.
If anything, weighted punching drills will do anything BUT develop knockout power. Technique of punch/genetics/co-ordination = KO power. If you’re not born with it…forget about it…ain’t gonna happen at an elite level.
MMA pretty much doesn’t count… on acount of the chinniness of most BJJ/wrestlers and the 4 oz gloves…any non-punching pussy can 1/2 miss and still KO some pussy who didn’t grow up taking real punishment.[/quote]
True to an extent, you can maximize the abilities that you DO have though.
Knocking someone out is more about timing and accuracy than it is “Power”
You get the right angle on someone and you can barely drop your weight and knock them out I don’t care how big/strong they are (or their chin).
You bring up a good pt, in mma it should be easier to create a knockout. 4 oz glove that doesn’t do shit…
That’s probably why you see it (knockout) more often than in boxing. But I think it’s because of the higher level of striking and defense in boxing (as well as the glove being bigger to hide your head…and spread out the impact of the punch).
I think if the technical skills in striking increased in mma you would see a lot more knockouts.
perhaps its just american mma, but you still see a lot of swatting and wild punches.
Sometimes a wild hook knocks someone out, but the times that I’ve actually seen someone out so cold that they needed to waken up with salt it was a nice stiff punch right down the fucking middle. One of those punches that you hear crack the sound barrier.
As with most sports movements. Think of the mechanics of punching, force is generated by the lower extremities, the hips rotate then lock, and the force generated it transferred through the trunk as it comes round, and ultimately to the arm. Very simular to the way a pitch generates force.
To improve punching power, work on the core compound lifts such as squats, RDLs and Deadlifts. Some sort of explosive lifting (e.g. olys) are important too. These are awesome exercises which you should definately do. However also include exercises in different planes.
Use rotary exercises such as medball throws, and a variety of cable chops, lifts etc… When performing these exercises remember powerful hips with a stable spine (strong pillar). You don’t want any energy links.
Regards. Pete.
The myth isn’t that you can improve punching power, the myth is that you can’t.
Probably because it takes so long to develop a world class punch that the people who have it want to seem even more elite.
You know what, Jack Dempsey said that punchers are developed, not born, and I believe him rather than every schmuck that logs onto sherdog.com and reads some other schmuck saying you can’t increase punching. And the second schmuck was quoting some other schmuck himself and so on.
There’s nothing more to punching power than experience (what people call technique), balanced muscle development (if your pushing muscles are stronger than your pulling muscles you can say bye bye to punching) and a good nervous system.
The more you develop these the harder you’ll punch.
It’s the same as bodybuilding. “OH NO. I have shitty genetics because I’m not growing on my two hamburgers a day and 3*10 routine!!! What to do, what to do?”
Xen Nova I I thought you had gone off the deep end explaining special medicine ball drills and different exercise before I saw you had included heavy bag work.
I’d steer clear of this practice. Like others have said, it does a lot more harm than good.
[quote]Classy_Cojones wrote:
The myth isn’t that you can improve punching power, the myth is that you can’t.
Probably because it takes so long to develop a world class punch that the people who have it want to seem even more elite.
You know what, Jack Dempsey said that punchers are developed, not born, and I believe him rather than every schmuck that logs onto sherdog.com and reads some other schmuck saying you can’t increase punching. And the second schmuck was quoting some other schmuck himself and so on.
[/quote]
Although Dempsey learned to fight in bars in the West…he was a “born power puncher” himself though, wasn’t he? No one really trained him, at least initially.
I do think that there are some guys who are born with it, but it can be developed. Maybe not to the same extent, but at least greatly improved upon.
Every batter in the majors can’t hit like Ortiz, but anyone can be a John Olerud- and have perfect technique that makes up for a lack of genetic gifts.
Look up some of Ross Enamait’s stuff if you’re interested in this sort of thing.
This dumbbell concoction is probably a bad idea though.
I’d stop,I read on a boxing site that it is bad for you.It screws something up later.
If you must do it,dont use dumbbells,use wrist weights.Just dont go over 5lbs.That way you “form” is less affected.
I guess you duys are right, i stoped using it, right now i am just hitting brick walls…
Punching strength can indeed be improved…anything can be improved. An “average” puncher may become heavy-handed, this is still not true KO power. Until you’ve engaged in alot of sparring/fights, you may find this hard to “grasp”. You have to get hit to be able to understand the difference. Do all the twisting/posterior-chain/rotational stuff you want. It may indeed make you stronger, it still won’t make you a “true” KO puncher. If it was simply a matter of skill and strength development, then why hasn’t every world champion eventually turned into a devastating KO puncher as their careers progressed? Punchers are born. If anything, heavy strength training may be used to improve handspeed via higher neural efficiency and therefore improving KO power if the fighter has it to begin with.
[quote]JNeves wrote:
Xen Nova I I thought you had gone off the deep end explaining special medicine ball drills and different exercise before I saw you had included heavy bag work.[/quote]
actually got that drill from rossboxing.com dude knows his shit i have a bunch of his stuff.
Get a set of 16 oz gloves for your workout, work on speed. You’re asking for a multitude of problems with weights.
You can use some bands or tubing with your punches but weights are a bad idea. However, a weighted belt or vest will give you good results. You can also attatch the bands to a belt and train you punches that way so there is resistance when you drive forward.
LOL at the ‘pussies who grew up without taking any real punishment’ comment toward grapplers!?!?! I would say it is a different kind of punishment those athletes take relative to boxers. Both are great sports and required for MMA.
Anyway, When you’re looking for punching power you kind of have to ask yourself, am I landing punches? If so then you have the distance, timing and some speed down.
Are you landing them in the right spot? If so then you have accuaracy going for you. My guess is if you are landing fast punches on the right spot then you are knocking people out.
If not then maybe you need to work on power a bit. Ross boxing does have some good stuff for that.
Plyo pushups, med ball crossover pushups, wheel barrell ‘runs’ are all good. First and formost though is that you are throwing a technically correct punch and you are landing it on the right spot.