strength without the muscle

[Ironberg]

In the striking arts especially, power has a great deal of mental energy tied to it. Your mindset effects your punching/kicking power. Think about a punch and imagine a bodybuilder throwing one. Even if he is throwing his hips into it he looks ackward and somehow slow. Now, imagine an average practicioner who is starting to put more mental focus into his strikes.

 

The average joe has to spend alot of time with this, but technique is mostly about cutting away the unessentials and intensifying the movements of the body that dynamically strike. You first realize that the cross travels in a straight line to get the most power. Then you realize that the twisting of the fist adds a bit more. Then you realize that the hips put the qeight of your body behind the strike. Then you realize force = mass times acceleration, so you focus on acceleration to compensate for low mass. After time, your fast punches will be more powerful than the bodybuilder simple out of sheer technique and speed. You see, mass accompanied by little speed is useless when you compare something small getting alot of speed - and striking with only the first square inch of knuckles helps with that philosophy.

 

Make sure you can do a good number of pushups, and do lift weights if you have a chance (as long as it doesn't slow you down). Focus on lifting more than twelve or so reps. This is secondary to technique, but is essential to many serious martial artists.

[TheDevilAside]

Good post, Ironberg.

 

You should not issolate either, good technique is good and necessary, but good technique with (the right amount of) physical prowess is even better.

[SevenStar]

Think about a punch and imagine a bodybuilder throwing one. Even if he is throwing his hips into it he looks ackward and somehow slow.

 

That's because the bodybuilder isn't trained. Once he's begun training, that will change. As long as he stretches, this won't be a huge problem.

 

You see, mass accompanied by little speed is useless when you compare something small getting alot of speed

 

That's most people's fatal flaw - they think somone big will be incredibly slow. you have to be INCREDIBLY slow for what you say to be true.

 

Make sure you can do a good number of pushups, and do lift weights if you have a chance (as long as it doesn't slow you down). Focus on lifting more than twelve or so reps.

 

That will not build strength past a certain point. 12 reps is an endurance rep range. To gain strength without gaining mass, you need to do heavy weight, low reps (5 or less) and low set (3 or less).

[Rich_2k3]

I quick question, a bit off topic, but I think its still relevent.

 

When ppl have big hands they say "oh, he'd be a good boxer" but surely the smaller the size of ur knuckles, regardless of strength, the more pressure exerted and the more damage inflicted on ur opounent, remember; the lower the surface area, the higher the pressure exterted (sorry for the physics lesson).

 

Heres an example, an elephant standing on ur toe would do less damage than a women in a stilletoue heel, and thats true. Now boxers have big hands, but surely smaller hands will be better, what do think?

[Rich67]

You have a good point, but I think that the surface area of a larger knuckle compared to a smaller knuckle is such a miniscule amount, it's immeasurable. You're comparing a elephant to a woman in stilettos. I agree with you there. But if the matter of knuckle size is only a fraction of an inch, you won't notice much of a significant difference. Either way, the real issue about punching damage relates to the execution of the punch. Boxers can cause more damage to cranial bones since they are well trained in the execution and placement of punches. Not to say martial artists aren't but some of them aren't trained in full face contact techniques. A lot of them also don't do any heavy bag work. This is evident when I train with some of them and hold the handheld bags for them. They punch like weak girls! I believe that anyone, even a guy with small knuckles and hands, can do some devastating damage to someone providing he learns proper punch execution, proper contact with the knuckles, and proper puch placement (nose, lower jaw, temple, etc). I have also seen big guys with big hands punch weakly. It works both ways. I think a guy with larger hands and a guy with smaller hands can both be equally matched as far as punch effectiveness is concerned, providing they both follow the same training regimen.

[nathanjusko]

Lift heavy, basic, and intense. If you want to get strong, change your mentality to that of a football player or a wrestler, for an hour or so a day become a brute neanderthal type of guy and workout like one. Sounds funny but try it, just make sure to turn it off as soon as you leave the gym before everyone thinks you're a jock/*.