Strength training has become more common throughout the years, but we need to question if it directly impacts your ability to throw a punch.
Read on as we determine if strength training makes your punches stronger and if it’s possible to improve your skills by focusing on it.
Strength Training’s Impact on the Body
Understanding how strength training affects the body is crucial to determine its effects on punching power.
Engaging in resistance exercises, such as bench presses and bicep curls, builds muscle mass and increases the strength of muscle fibers.
This strength-building bolsters your ability to generate force. Additionally, strength training enhances the structures that support your muscles, like ligaments and tendons, and contributes to stability and power delivery.
The body’s ability to exert force, which is crucial in punching, combines various mechanical elements. Any weak link in your body’s movements significantly impacts the force exerted.
Strength Training’s Impact on Punching Power
The primary movers are the pectoral muscles, deltoids, triceps, and the muscles of the forearm.
Strengthening these muscles through exercises like shoulder presses and push-ups contributes to more driving force when punching.
However, the strength of these muscles provides a fraction of a punch’s damage. While you need strength training to build the muscles that may reinforce the punch, the real power comes from the action’s speed, form, and balance.
Focusing solely on muscle growth without the speed and coordination elements results in cumbersome, slow punches that lack the explosiveness you’ve seen in a martial artist’s movement.
Explosiveness is vital in delivering knockout power and creates the propelling force that knocks someone back.
Although strength is important in any strike you make, you should avoid relying on strength training to make your punches stronger and focus on the other aspects.
Training Tips for Throwing Stronger Punches
For martial artists looking to increase their punching power, there are certain ways to improve their skills alongside strength training.
For all forms of martial arts, balance is essential. Without balance within your moves, your punch will look and feel sloppy on impact. Practice foot placement and keeping your body steady as you punch to improve.
Martial arts, like Judo or Karate, have slightly different demands regarding punching. Tailor specific movements and muscles pertaining to that style to improve your form and strength.
Make sure you incorporate some of the top core-strengthening workouts to improve punching power. As you shift on your feet to punch, that power needs a medium to transfer to your arms and deal damage to an opponent.
Your core needs the strength to transfer that force and help you drive your punch forward with speed and energy.
Strength training may make your punches stronger, but only when done with other vital training components, such as speed, technique, and coordination.
