Strengthening your punch?

Posted by: ZiNe

Strengthening your punch? - 01/09/06 05:00 PM

This has probably been asked before, but I searched and found nothing. Either way onto my question. Is there anyway to strengthen your punch? I know the proper form and everything, I just want to know what muscles to target to make you punch harder and if there is any techniques to strengthen it. Thanks Peace.

Posted by: Blindsided

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 01/09/06 05:57 PM

punch stuff, lift weights, etc

Posted by: Cord

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 01/10/06 12:48 AM

Quote:

I know the proper form and everything

If this is the case, then practice, practice, practice.

There are no 'special exercises' for punching, just make sure your conditioning focuses on leg and abdominal power, then allow your body to incorporate this strength into your punching when you practice. Over time you will begin to hit harder.

Posted by: Supremor

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 01/10/06 09:12 AM

Quote:

Quote:

I know the proper form and everything

If this is the case, then practice, practice, practice.

There are no 'special exercises' for punching, just make sure your conditioning focuses on leg and abdominal power, then allow your body to incorporate this strength into your punching when you practice. Over time you will begin to hit harder.

I agree. It takes much longer to master a punch than it does to learn one. Example- most people can be shown how to shoot a basketball in about 10 minutes. They're still rubbish at it until they practice an hour a day for 2 years

. Actually I've been doing it for about 8 years, and I'm still rubbish.

So Practice, Practice, practice, and it'll get much better. Practice on heavy bags, practice on focus mitts, practice in the air, practice on paper targets, whatever takes your fancy. Just practice, ok?

Posted by: ShaolinNinja

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 01/10/06 09:22 AM

What everyone's said is true, but let me add a warning against practising punching in the air too much - use pads or bags whenever possible.
You could strengthen your punch by building muscle, but a far better way is to practise. I like to use the analogy of golf - the guys who can drive the ball the furthest don't have bigger, stronger muscles than the others, just better technique. Weightlifting is not a good way to improve your golf drive, and not a good way to imporve your punch.
The muscles you use in punching depend on how you punch, which depends on what martial art you practise.

Posted by: TimBlack

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 01/10/06 03:40 PM

That would be a good analogy except that golf players don't aim to hit the ball harder than each other - if they did, you'd soon see them hitting the weights. A better analogy might be boxers - sure they train technique like mad, but you won't see boxers with liddle arms and chests, because they weight train for strength.

Strengthening _will_ give you a harder punch, but technique will do just as much. The way I see it is do both, get the best of both worlds.

Posted by: Cord

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 01/10/06 04:32 PM

Quote:

What everyone's said is true, but let me add a warning against practising punching in the air too much - use pads or bags whenever possible.
You could strengthen your punch by building muscle, but a far better way is to practise. I like to use the analogy of golf - the guys who can drive the ball the furthest don't have bigger, stronger muscles than the others, just better technique. Weightlifting is not a good way to improve your golf drive, and not a good way to imporve your punch.
The muscles you use in punching depend on how you punch, which depends on what martial art you practise.

Many golfers have adopted resistance training to strengthen the core muscles and avoid back trouble that plagues frequent players.
Technique is without doubt the most important aspect of a punch, but the more strength, power and weight you can direct through your technique, the harder the punch will be, that is why there are weight divisions in combat sports.
Lennox Lewis and Marvin Hagler. Two awesome punchers, one with about a 5 stone weight advantage (notice the term). Hagler would never be able to punch as hard as Lewis. Simple fact.
Hit the weights for strength and power, practice punching correctly to utilise the power you have gained. Two different procedures that compliment one another.

Posted by: Landus

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 01/11/06 11:10 AM

I asked the same question and the most useful feedback I got back - Which is most practical aswell, is to aim through your target. If you was going to punch someone in the stomach, imagine a target behind that persons stomach. This technique has increases my punch tremendously and is very simple.

Posted by: Keros

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 07/31/08 09:10 PM

There are lots of little things that can contribute to a more powerful punch. Technique plays an equal role as strength training. What's the point of having lots of muscle without having a good technique to utilize it?

As it has been said many times, practice makes perfect. Keep repeating the technique you were taught, but don't be over repetitive. If you do that then you will end up mindlessly getting yourself in a routine and you might end up slacking off.

Other than practice, there is a muscle you can exercise to help strengthen your punch. Not many people know this, but weights can hinder and slow down your punching strength if you are using them incorrectly. I forget the name, but I think it's the tricep you want to develop, the muscle between your elbow and your armpit. (Sorry if I sound dumb. I had a long day.) The tricep is the muscle you use to extend your arm, in other words, to throw a punch. The biceps retract your arm, the recoil after a jab for example.

I've been doing excercises to strengthen my tricep and I have seen much improvement in speed and power. Not to sound braggish but I chipped teeth with my jab alone and I use my weaker arm.

To sum it all up. Practice and improve your technique and exercise the tricep. You should see a steady improvement.

Posted by: karate_popo

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 08/01/08 10:05 AM

Quote:

What everyone's said is true, but let me add a warning against practising punching in the air too much - use pads or bags whenever possible.
You could strengthen your punch by building muscle, but a far better way is to practise. I like to use the analogy of golf - the guys who can drive the ball the furthest don't have bigger, stronger muscles than the others, just better technique. Weightlifting is not a good way to improve your golf drive, and not a good way to imporve your punch.
The muscles you use in punching depend on how you punch, which depends on what martial art you practise.

why do you warn against practicing punching in the air? are you saying it doesn't help to get them stronger?.. or something else?.. that is the way we do them in class.. and i was told to strengthen mine, to punch the makiwara.. just curious....

Posted by: MattJ

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 08/01/08 10:19 AM

Quote:

why do you warn against practicing punching in the air? are you saying it doesn't help to get them stronger?.. or something else?

Both. Punching air will not strengthen your strikes. And, the lack of resistance can cause problems for your joints, if done repeatedly at full speed/power.

Heavy bag and sparring FTW.

Posted by: karate_popo

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 08/01/08 11:53 AM

i wouldn't think it would cause problems?.. as far as i know.. not many people in my dojo train hitting something.. as well as the guy that has been there 20 years.. maybe our styles are different with punching.. but i am trained not to extend the arm fully for punching.. so i'm not sure if this is the same with all styles.. fully extending the arm could def. cause problems.. i would think.. and the theory of course with not extending the arm, would be that the perp is right no front of you.. so you don't need to extend too far

Posted by: ThomsonsPier

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 08/01/08 12:15 PM

Punching something trains different things to punching nothing. I see value in both.

I was under the impression that the only reason to avoid punching air was that a great many people do so improperly and end up hyper-flexing the joints. I found this to be more of a problem when I did karate than now when practising kung fu.

Posted by: itfoldschool

Re: Strengthening your punch? - 08/10/08 10:03 PM

Stand facing a wall, assume your on-guard stance, do a slow motion punch until your fist is against the wall. Close your eyes. Pick up your forward leg. You will muscles, tensing from your foot, in contact with the floor, up your legs, through your hips, core, shoulders and arms. They are the muscles which are driving the punch. Focus on them when punching. Everything locks in on impact of the punch.