I want to increase my punching power, what exercises are best?

[Joshua N]

Good technique and endurance.

Paulie Malignaggi also had good technique and endurance.

 

[Pit-Erson]

Perhaps this invention can help

It actually looks like it would help, turning your wrist with the push ups correlates with building your punching muscles strong and solid when turning over your shots...…..

 

[Joshua N]

It actually looks like it would help, turning your wrist with the push ups correlates with building your punching muscles strong and solid when turning over your shots...…..

I think so too

 

[blaseblah]

Does punching while your arms are weighted do anything? Seems like it would.

 

[Brandon Robinson]

technique is best, chopping wood and hitting a tire with a sledge hammer are good exercises

 

[Joshua N]

technique is best, chopping wood and hitting a tire with a sledge hammer are good exercises

How do you think this actually affects the strength of the puncher? Why then can't Paulie Malignaggi strengthen his puncher

 

[Brandon Robinson]

How do you think this actually affects the strength of the puncher? Why then can't Paulie Malignaggi strengthen his puncher

trains explosive power, and endurance, using the correct muscles for boxing.

that'd be because after technique is down, the fact of the matter is genetics primarily make up punching power. You can't train yourself to hit like foreman

 

[Zanderlini]

So forget techniques etc forget timing this is purely from a strength and conditioning frame of mind.

Ive been told heavy squats deadlifts and Olympic lifts and nothing else is that good advice?

Hitting the bag, pads and shadow boxing. You will develop 80 percent of your power through being able to punch correctly using your kinetic chain also you'll loosen up. Within 6 months to a year you'll know if you can punch hard or not.

As far as strength and conditioning for power punching kettlebells are great. Kettlebells are easier to use safely then olympic lifts for newbies. Kettlebell swings, snatches and clean and press. Also you can make your own using concrete mix, a bucket, pvc pipe. It'll cost you 15 bucks to make a 30-60lbs kettlebell.

I'll get shit for this as I can't find the article but Soviets figured out there was a correlation between max bench press and punching power. So bench press too.

 

[deadshot138]

Punching power comes from body mechanics, not muscular strength. In fact if you're flexing muscles during a punch you're likely bleeding power and slowing yourself down. The only thing weight training will do is make your arms weigh more which may help with KO power.

Hit the heavy bag.

 

[wufabufa]

Punching power comes from body mechanics, not muscular strength. In fact if you're flexing muscles during a punch you're likely bleeding power and slowing yourself down. The only thing weight training will do is make your arms weigh more which may help with KO power.

Hit the heavy bag.

No way bro, flexing while punching is what generates power. Plus you get a sick as fuck pump.

 

[Ian Coe]

Punching power comes from body mechanics, not muscular strength. In fact if you're flexing muscles during a punch you're likely bleeding power and slowing yourself down. The only thing weight training will do is make your arms weigh more which may help with KO power.

Hit the heavy bag.

Why has flexing your muscles got anything to do with muscular strength.

That's like say having a four wheeled vehicle is slower than a 2 wheeled because you have more friction with the road.

 

[deadshot138]

Why has flexing your muscles got anything to do with muscular strength.

That's like say having a four wheeled vehicle is slower than a 2 wheeled because you have more friction with the road.

Is it easier to walk through mud or air? Overly tensed muscles are the mud btw. Energy doesn't transfer as well trying to bench press someone's face vs throwing a technically sound punch.

 

[SandaKicker]

Is it easier to walk through mud or air? Overly tensed muscles are the mud btw. Energy doesn't transfer as well trying to bench press someone's face vs throwing a technically sound punch.

I think you are half right.

There is evidence the most powerful punches follow a double peak in muscle stiffness. The muscles stiffen at the start of the movement, relax midway through to increase the velocity and then stiffen on impact;

https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/..._a_Double_Peak_in_Muscle_Activation_to.8.aspx

From the Journal;

"Smith and Hamill (16) tested gloves and noted that higher-skilled boxers imparted more momentum to a bag even though the hand was not travelling at a higher velocity. They suggested that the skilled boxers created a higher effective mass."

Power = Force X Velocity. The speed of the arm and the force on the chin on impact both determine the impact of the punch.

 

[deadshot138]

I think you are half right.

There is evidence the most powerful punches follow a double peak in muscle stiffness. The muscles stiffen at the start of the movement, relax midway through to increase the velocity and then stiffen on impact;

https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/..._a_Double_Peak_in_Muscle_Activation_to.8.aspx

From the Journal;

"Smith and Hamill (16) tested gloves and noted that higher-skilled boxers imparted more momentum to a bag even though the hand was not travelling at a higher velocity. They suggested that the skilled boxers created a higher effective mass."

Power = Force X Velocity. The speed of the arm and the force on the chin on impact both determine the impact of the punch.

I forgot to mention the stiffening on impact. Obviously you don't wanna hit someone with a wet noodle.

 

[MatterOverMind]

Obviously you don't wanna hit someone with a wet noodle.

Don't tell me how to live my life.

 

[TeTe]

So forget techniques etc forget timing this is purely from a strength and conditioning frame of mind.

Ive been told heavy squats deadlifts and Olympic lifts and nothing else is that good advice?

and nothing else? Lol, my boxing trainer also stressed the importance of working your core. After all power transfer from your lower body has to come through your core.

Also, one of the best overall exercise you can do for striking are wood chops.

EDIT: just realized this was an old thread

 

[No Skill Gap]

Is it easier to walk through mud or air? Overly tensed muscles are the mud btw. Energy doesn't transfer as well trying to bench press someone's face vs throwing a technically sound punch.

The problem is that pure strength has nothing to do with speed necessarily, and doesn't automatically lower your power output.

Francis Ngannou has big muscles on his limbs and overall, he's a big strong guy. He's definitely very strong in the absolute sense. Does that automatically make him stiff or slow or not a power puncher? Obviously not.

Also being bigger = more mass = more impact. Mass x Acceleration = Force, simple physics. Hence why guys at 125lbs aren't anywhere close to the same knockout rate as LHW or HW. That much is obvious.

But it's pretty clear, the more strength you have does help. The more power you generate is the key. That is going to be through technique too, genetics and natural power. But how to increase it like this thread is based on? I'd imagine squatting and deadlifting would be ideal. Then increasing strength-speed and speed-strength along that spectrum, olympic lifting, loaded jumping. Then explosive jumping, sprinting, upper body movement aka punching for speed.

And someone mentioned punching with dumbbells. Scientifically that sucks. It makes you punch slower, you don't want to do that really unless you somehow had the load so small it made sense, but then again that's basically wearing boxing gloves vs not.

 

[teepsandbarleywine]

I forgot to mention the stiffening on impact. Obviously you don't wanna hit someone with a wet noodle.

I enjoy my sex life however I want, thank you.

 

[No Skill Gap]

The problem is that pure strength has nothing to do with speed necessarily, and doesn't automatically lower your power output.

Francis Ngannou has big muscles on his limbs and overall, he's a big strong guy. He's definitely very strong in the absolute sense. Does that automatically make him stiff or slow or not a power puncher? Obviously not.

Also being bigger = more mass = more impact. Mass x Acceleration = Force, simple physics. Hence why guys at 125lbs aren't anywhere close to the same knockout rate as LHW or HW. That much is obvious.

But it's pretty clear, the more strength you have does help. The more power you generate is the key. That is going to be through technique too, genetics and natural power. But how to increase it like this thread is based on? I'd imagine squatting and deadlifting would be ideal. Then increasing strength-speed and speed-strength along that spectrum, olympic lifting, loaded jumping. Then explosive jumping, sprinting, upper body movement aka punching for speed.

And someone mentioned punching with dumbbells. Scientifically that sucks. It makes you punch slower, you don't want to do that really unless you somehow had the load so small it made sense, but then again that's basically wearing boxing gloves vs not.

To double reply here and be more succinct:

Who would punch harder, a hypothetical clone of Mike Tyson that didn't ever touch a weight or do any strength training or anything but ~speed work (and didn't do steroids probably lol) or the Mike Tyson that existed in our universe?

Obviously the latter is going to hit harder. People lift and workout for a reason. It's not necessary to max out your potential in the deadlift or squat to be an awesome MMA fighter or boxer, but it definitely helps to strength train. And one of the biggest reasons people don't deadlift heavily for example is simply due to recovery and time.

Why increase your deadlift to get 3% better at fighting via strength when you lose X hours sparring and drilling technique due to recovery and dedicating time to lifting weights. It's really a balancing act and I don't think anyone has it down yet in MMA specifically. But you look at Cejudo's last training camp and he was deadlifting and doing explosive jumping and shit. Also some goofy functional stuff I bet, but he was doing a lot more stuff I'd see from popular pro sports S&C like Football/Hockey, etc.



Zercher squats, trap bar deadlifts, banded deadlifts, then explosive plyo work, power output medicine ball throws and the tornado ball shit, you get it lol. (also wasn't succinct at all, two long posts my bad)

 

[Ultra O’Dia]

shotput and badminton