Weighted Bag Gloves?

[aaron_c]

Hey guys, first post on this particular board, so I'll start by saying that I've ALMOST settled on the Title Gel bag gloves, though the IMF Tech's are begging to be purchased (they run about $10 more, though, and I'm going to have trouble affording the Title Gel's at $59). My question is this- the weighted Gel's are the same price as non-weighted, should I go with the weighted ones w/ removable weight inserts? Are there ANY cons to having weighted gloves, since the weights are removable? One of my biggest problems when I train is keeping my hands up for long periods of time, so I'm thinking weighted gloves would help with that, while allowing the removal of the weights to spar around a little with a good friend of mine that has been training at the same boxing gym I'm at for the past few weeks.

thanks guys!

[AdamGB]

If you struggle to keep normal gloves in your guard then there's not really much point in wearing heavier gloves.

That'd be like me benching with 75kg for 6 reps and deciding to try lift 85kg for 8...

No point progressing to one level if you don't find another easy! I use pretty heavy gloves on the bags... I definetly feel like I have lighter, faster hands when I'm not wearing them but the only reason I train with 18oz bag gloves is because I'm a fairly big lad and my hands could do with the extra padding.

I'd much rather train with lighter gloves and be able to produce more movement during training with my energy than, than take that same ammount of energy and be able to less with it. Obviously the heavy bag offers some resistance, but it isn't resistance training so adding weight isn't really an issue.

Same with these sweat suits "I burn more calories, they make me have to use more energy when I run...' great, why not take the sweat suit off and use that energy to run faster/further etc? Do you want to get better at running or sweating?

[Scrap]

Good commonsense Post Adam

[Rocky Balboa]

I'm not quite sure... Many of us use resistance bands or DB's in order to increase our punching power/speed. We will box several rounds which are much harder with the added resistance. We overshoot so that the real thing is easier. This same logic should apply to the case the OP gives. If he struggles to keep his hands up over the course of several rounds, then using weighted gloves would make holding up unweighted gloves so much easier. He won't be able to hold up his gloves nearly as long but through training with them the real thing should become so much easier.

So either one of us is totally wrong or I misunderstood the OP

[AdamGB]

I can see where you're coming from and weighted gloves do have some uses but they're fairly limited and if the guy can't keep a guard up effortlessly during normal training then they're not relevant to his fitness level!

(resistance bands are good but that's a whole entire different kettle of fish all together, they affect the muscles different during the range of motion you travel through compared to a weight at the end of a joint chain)

All weighted gloves will do is make him unable to produce as much activity on the bags.

His output alone will be enough to stimulate adaptations, there's no need to add weighted gloves on, he just needs to concentrate on keeping his hands up with normal gloves on. Muscular endurance doesn't work like that.

All weights on his gloves will do is make him have to generate more force to generate movement, that doesn't carry over into muscular endurance though. Possibly power but again, the bag is the resistance here, not the body.

heavy bag work is basically plyometric training and the whole way that develops power is by rapidly recruiting the muscle fibres involved. the theory method behind it whether it's squat jumps/clap press ups/what ever is that as soon as contact is made with the surface that you are contracting against you leave it.

When you punch your body is like a chain and your hands are the very last part of that chain, I can see the sense in adding weight to a squat jump to force you to give more output to develop power... not punching though... if you were going to add weight to a clap press up then you would wear a weighted vest, because your trunk is the load you are moving, you wouldn't tie weights to your wrist because you'd simply be sapping your force generation by nipping it in the bud.

So yeah, don't think weighted gloves offer an awful lot in terms of power development and like I've said before - he needs to adapt to keeping normal gloves up before progressing on to anything else... keeping his guard up during prolonged bag work is more than good enough.

Weighted gloves are just going to make it so he can't keep his guard up for as long, we're talking endurance here, not strength. The more time he keeps his muscles contracted in that position the longer he will be able to do it for with out fatiguing.

To use an extreme analogy: I'd get more physical adaptation from lifting 85% of my one rep max 4-5 times than I would from doing 1-2 reps of something heavier.

The benefits of using them are they you require more calories to generate movement because you're having to output more force, so you'll get Anaerobic/Aerobic conditioning benefits (though my theory is I'd rather use that energy on quality, but if you don't have long nothing wrong with squeezing the intensity up that way), but not muscular endurance.

[AdamGB]

Purely in terms of muscular endurance, the best way to look at it is like this:

I'm a pretty decent runner, I normally do shortish runs... 4 miles or so (the odd 6 miler here or there), during these runs I do a lot of hill sprints. Sprinting and punching are both plyometric activitys. Sprinting up a hill means your muscles have to work harder against the resistance of the hill, same as adding weight to a punch.

I'm very good at sprinting and just running up hills in general... I've ran 3 half marathons. The way I run (the hill's resistance and intensity) has made me Aerobically and Anaerobically very fit but the first two times I ran a half marathon I struggled in the last 3-4 miles to run...

I didn't struggle because my cardiovascular system was fatigued... that was easy. It got to the point where my hamstrings were so muscularly fatigued that I could barely flex my knees, I could feel the fibres beginning to tear.

I did the same run again a year later... inbetween that time I'd been doing my usual style of running, I'd been ranning faster and up steaper hills (ie: more resistance) and guess what happened when I ran - my muscles didn't have the endurance to work for that long and the same thing happened, I spent the last 3 or so miles running with nearly straight legs.

the THIRD time I did it though I did my usual running like I normally do (because it's relevant to boxing and I'm a boxer, not a long distance runner... just run them for fun/charity) the only differences was that this time amongst my normal road work I threw in a few 8-9 mile runs.

I pissed it (granted my legs were pretty sore the next day, though nowhere near as much as the other two- they always are when you've ran 13.5 miles!) but during the race my legs felt fresh the whole way... if I'd ran the last 3/4 of a mile any faster I would have been sprinting.

The problem the other two times was a lack of muscular endurance in the relevant muscles, even though the intensity and resistance of my interval running had increase, my muscular endurance hadn't - until I simply increased the duration that I ran at or tried to run at my 5-6 mile pace for.

[johnashton]

Shadow Box With Light Weights

[Youngblood]

Shadow Box With Light Weights

Resistance bands are a better way to go. I have a sports doctor I see, and he pointed out last year my training with light weights with quick movements and extentions, shadow boxing etc was likely one cause for a lot of lower back muscle probs I was having. That he sees the association quite regularly.

[cnote111]

I enjoyed this thread thoroughly! - Thank you for that Adam...

[Rocky Balboa]

Ahh ok I see what you mean. Great post, should go in the Most Useful/Important Subforum