shadow boxing with weights

[Scrap]

The more you extend a joint the weaker it becomes the more you stretch bands the weaker it becomes, plus it brings the Hands back naturally with the recoil. Ive noticed at the Uni a lot of press and Squat machines are being tested with Rubber instead of weigths at the moment, seems someone is taking notice at last.

[killersheep]

I did a little shadow boxing with light weights, never full force or fast though. I would do 1 round with 5 pound weights really, really slow focusing on form and getting my hands back to my face. I would then do another round with 3 pound weights slightly increasing speed. I would never fully extend or punch full power with weights in my hands. After that I would drop the weights and do a few rounds full speed. I definately noticed an improvement in my hand speed. Admittedly my advice is bad though because my trainer was a conditioning guy not a boxing coach.

[Drago]

cheers guys, yo killersheep i am looking more for conditioning anyway just want to try something different, sounds like i gotta take it easy with them then or risk injury?

[killersheep]

cheers guys, yo killersheep i am looking more for conditioning anyway just want to try something different, sounds like i gotta take it easy with them then or risk injury?

Yeah definately take it easy with them, like I said never ever fully extend or go full speed with weights. For conditioning on top of regular roadwork he had me do a lot of pull-ups, sledgehammer swings, a few kettlebell exercises, plyometric jumps like box jumps, split jumps and the like, and whatever it's called when you flip a tractor tire over. A big thing that helped me with my conditioning was in every session doing a warm-up then plyometric exercise, some kind of compound lifting, something for balance, something to work on reaction, bag work and finish with some low impact cardio. Keep in mind I wasn't specifically training to box though, I just wanted to get stronger and faster in general. Anything Scrap says to contradict this, take his word for it not mine.

A great exercise to strengthen your shoulders is to get dumbells and hold both of your arms straight out to the sides until you can't hold them out anymore count 3 slow breaths lift them out in front you again until you can't hold them anymore count 3 slow breaths again and repeat 3 times, don't do this before bagwork or you will regret it.

[Salty]

I think the worst thing about them is they teach you to be tense while punching, instead of making a fist at the end of the motion your doing it from the get go. A muscle will only do what it has been taught, so you don't want to teach it an inefficient motion, velcro straps and elastic can add great resistance for much greater benefit.