Improving Punching Power

[Pavlik]

I am not a boxer but I was just wondering on how to improve my punching power. Can heavy bench presses help and hitting the heavy bags for hours? Can you give a regimen that I could utilize to improve punching power.

[Tyler Durden]

Of course muscular growth increases punching power
but you will gain much and I mean MUCH more punching power once you punch the correct (boxing) way. Using almost every muscle in your body to produce clean, fast and powerfull hits. Correct stance, correct movement, corect twist in legs, hips, lower back, shoulders and of course the arms is by far more important that huge biceps.

And that is something I cannot teach you here, you must attend a gym for it I am afraid. And if not, you better produce a lot of muscles

Good luck

[dopes]

clapping pushups can really improve your power.

[Douglas]

I am not a boxer but I was just wondering on how to improve my punching power. Can heavy bench presses help and hitting the heavy bags for hours? Can you give a regimen that I could utilize to improve punching power.

I wouldn't suggest hitting on a heavy bag for hours on end. It can lead to wrist and knuckle damage.

When lifting weights such as the bench press or when doing pushups, the idea is to go down slow, and then snap it back up. Working your shoulders and upper back can also increase punching power.

[KirkhamsEbooks.com]

I am not a boxer but I was just wondering on how to improve my punching power. Can heavy bench presses help and hitting the heavy bags for hours? Can you give a regimen that I could utilize to improve punching power.

First time post here. Found you folks by searching punching power. If you must train alone and with weights pulley weights emulating your punch in which your trying to improve will do a better job than any exercise which isolates as opposed to groups your striking power muscles

Rick

[Rocky Balboa]

x2 Tyler Durden, you can workout and get super strong and explosive but nothing will improve punching power like solid technique. You can to a certain degree improve technique. I worked on my jab by myself for months and when I got to a good boxing gym, they said my jab was perfect. I'll tell you one word that sums it up: M.E.T.I.C.U.L.O.U.S. But it turns out no matter how much you train by yourself its not like being in a good gym with a good trainer. I've learnt tons in the last month or so. Look up Thomas Hearns, a tall lanky boxer (not that muscular or strong in the weight room), but that guy had fearsome power. How? He used great leverage via.... technique. I know weak guys that can throw bombs and strong guys that have sissy punches. Why? Its all about technique. Combine those and you will have good punching power.

[StrictlySP]

Hi Pavlik,
Re-read Rocky's post; he hit it on the nail...

Just to tailgate off of Rocky's fine post and add my two cents to the mix, when it comes to punching power (and for that matter, almost all other physical aspects of boxing), SKILL is the base. Anyway, AFTER you have taken the time to gradually and methodically MASTER the proper body mechanics behind all the punches in boxing's arsenal, here are a few things you can do to "turbo-charge" them for punching power improvement.

1. SINGLE PUNCHES ON A HEAVY BAG
Spend lots and lots of time on a heavy bag doing SINGLE power shots. At first, do them in a deliberate, conscientious manner, taking great care to execute your punches with impeccable "technique" (i.e. perfect body mechanics).

Once technical mastery is attained, then start "bombing" the bag with your single shots with focused intent on power. Be sure to sharply exhale upon exertion, hip-whip, strike through the target, and execute each shot with the mentality of "violent intent." Moreover, "imagine" your fists as "iron balls of destruction."

DO single shot training with all the punches in your arsenal not just your favorites.

Backtracking a bit and going off of a tangent for a moment, a key to punching power is to be grounded with your feet using the ground as a "conduit" to generate power from the bottom up. What this means in the technical sense is that you can't be "bouncing," "dancing" around on your feet a la Ali or have your feet too close together. Again, power punching entails having solid grounding to allow you to generate maximum leverage behind your shots.

Another hindrance to power punching is "sliding the scale" towards too much speed. Now, while speed (more rightfully expressed as acceleration) is a component of power (more rightfully expressed as force), often times, the "speed" manifested is applied without any body weight (more appropriately expressed as mass) "behind"/"in" it. The grounding and kinetic linking is sacrificed for "speed." Anyway...

Another component of punching power is timing (i.e. hitting the desired target at the most opportune time). Timing is best honed through sparring.

Having said all that, focused, disciplined effort doing single shots on a good, firm heavy bag is, in my opinion, the single best way to improve pure punching power.

Now, as far as sets and reps are concerned. Keep in mind, if your objective is to strictly improve punching "power" then don't "clutter" it by "killing two birds with one stone" and working on other attributes at the same time (i.e. don't work on muscular and/or cardiorespiratory endurance). Stick to the single objective--Punching POWER. Keep the sets and reps relatively low and focus on MAXIMUM IMPACT with each single shot. While doing so, be sure not to get into any kind of fast, rhythmic, mindless cadence. Execute each shot as if it were your first and your last. In other words, SAVOR the explosive expression of each shot in the moment.

So, with each punch in your boxing arsenal, I recommend doing one to three sets of three to six reps with two to three minutes of rest in between sets.

2. ISOMETRIC WALL PUNCHES
This exercise was taught to me by the late, great Archie Moore who I was able to spend a few days with when I was a Junior in high school (my boxing coach was an old friend of Archie's and had him guest coach us for a few days when he was in town promoting a Campus Life program if my memory serves me correctly). Anyway, this power-punch improving exercise consists of positioning your designated fist against a wall with your body/arm/fist in any particular punch's alignment. For example, place your left fist against the wall in a left hook position with proper body positioning for head to toe. From this position, "press-punch" the wall with all your might for six seconds, pivoting on your lead left foot, rotating your left hip to the right and mentally driving your left fist through the wall with the focus of trying to move the wall to your right. Be sure to exhale with exertion; DO NOT hold your breath. I recommend doing six reps of six seconds each for each punch in your arsenal. By the way, Archie did not designate a specific set, rep, time scheme; my recommendations on isometric time and reps are based on my independent research on isometric training principles.

You can also modify this exercise and make it a quick, micro-second isometric burst of explosive force repeated several times in rapid-fire succession. Using the left hook as my example punch again, place your left fist against the wall (by the way, at head height though you can do body level or any level for that manner) and position your entire body in a body mechanic perfect left hook position and instead of "left hooking" the wall for six seconds of all-out exertion repetitions, in this variation execute quickly repetitive, micro-second bursts of explosive isometric exertion in rapid-fire succession eight, 10, or 12 times in a row. Really "dig-in" with each quick, explosive burst, utilizing impeccable, optimal left hook body mechanics. I recommend doing one to three sets of (as mentioned) eight, 10, or 12 reps for each punch in your arsenal.

Remember, the left hook is just an example I picked to convey how to properly perform this exercise. You can use this exercise (both variations) with any and all punches.

I LOVE this exercise and rank it second behind exercise #1 above. I really believe it helps with improving punching power. Besides, who am I to question the late, great Archie Moore (the former undisputed world light heavyweight champion and THE undisputed KO king of boxing with somewhere between 127 to 145 KOs scored in a long, prolific fight career.). It has worked "magic" for me and the people I've trained over the years.

3. PULLEY PUNCHING
Set a cable pulley weight stack machine's pulley at shoulder level or slightly above (depending on what punch you're doing) and perform weighted punches. I only do punches in this weighted manner with cable pulleys only and NOT with dumbbells. Using dumbbells while shadow boxing is a common practice, it is a bad practice because of gravitational pull concerns altering punching mechanics. There are some weight distribution problems doing pulley punching but there are no gravitational concerns which is definitely contraindicated to form and function.

Anyway, this exercise is more of a muscular endurance exercise for punches because you can't really use heavy, heavy weight without significantly altering your body mechanics/weight distribution in executing the designated punch. I look at this exercise as helping to strengthen the stabilizer muscles involved in punching along with improving muscular endurance. I do one to three sets of 10, 12, 15, or 20 reps for each punch (it depends on my mood and what else I'm doing with my particular training regimen for the day).

On a final note, keep in mind, the Law of Specificity (which is an exercise physiology principle) whenever you want to specifically improve something. It basically means specifically doing/practicing what you want to improve. So, if you want to improve your punching power, practice punching with power...

Well, I hope these exercises help you out. Give 'em a whirl for an eight to ten week period of consistent usage and let me know how they work out for you.

Oh, one last thing, if you have high blood pressure problems I would be cautious about doing the isometric wall punches (or any kind of isometric exercise). Isometric exercise is contraindicated for high blood pressure patients. If that's the case, just do the other two exercises.

Take Care,
Lito

[Tilt A Whirl]

Put your hips and shoulders in to the punch
No excercise on earth will help as much as that

[Howlin Mad Missy]

boxing helped my punching power.

[Youngblood]

oldest bumped thread ever?

[Rocky Balboa]

Oh wow! I just read the dates... 2003?!?!

Great post Lito

[superheavyrhun]

oldest bumped thread ever?

It is now.