Boosting Boxing Power: How to Punch Harder Than Ever
19th Feb 20
When it comes to boxing training, how hard you can punch is an essential characteristic, as well as a strength test. It’s not just about trying to fight better, but a range of things. As an exercise, punching, and boxing in general, is an incredible way to build strength, stamina, burn calories, and just about everything in between. To make sure you’re getting better, punching harder can be the key.
Punching isn’t as black and white as it sounds, either. There’s way more to it than meets the eye. Whether you’re trying to punch harder for your boxing performance, bag work, or even to be faster in a focus pad workout, it can be a great thing to do.
Truly mastering how to punch harder is about more than all of this. To do it, you need to completely dissect what punching is made of, from the outside in. Let’s do it.
Want to move fast? Jump to the right section below.
Dissecting The Movement
The first place to look at how to punch harder comes from the whole movement itself. That’s what your body actually does when you punch. The motion relies on your whole body and the momentum that you are able to put behind yourself consistently.
Most people are quick to think that the force is completely generated through your arms or even your chest. That’s due to the pushing movement that you’re essentially doing as fast as you can, but this isn’t the case.
Your chest and arms do of course have some impact on your impact, but the vast majority of your punch power will actually come from your core, your legs, and your back. They all work in unison to move your whole body into the punch rather than just pushing your arm out.
This is usually a natural way to punch without even thinking about it, but there are some ways to explore how to really take this up a notch.
Adding More Force
Learning how to punch harder doesn’t stop there either. To boost it, even more, you also need to look at how to build the power you can put into the motion too. That comes from the force you’re able to generate quickly.
The power created from a punch is largely determined by how much force you are actually able to create as you move into it. The more mass you have generally correlates to more damage that can come out of it. As a result, that means the stronger your punch will be.
To help all this along, all of that together means that one of the best ways to help improve your punching power is by adding more mass to your punch. That drives more force, and as a result, means your punch is harder to some extent at least. To do that as well as possible, you need to train the right way.
Weight Training
The most obvious way to increase the mass you can roll into your punches is to begin extensive strength training. You may lose some fat which will take your weight and thus your mass down, but you will increase muscle in the appropriate areas where you’ll be drawing your power from, making it the best way to go about it. You’re replacing wasted mass with muscle mass, keeping you light and hard-hitting. that’s the perfect combo. (Remember to add cardio too)
The best way to go about your weight training to help you punch harder is with the right kinds of training. Some of the best in this instance is going to come from training styles like compound exercise workouts, push-pull legs training for a while, and even plyometric training.
All of these help boost your strength as well as muscle mass, and they all help you build on your twitch muscle fibres too. They’re responsible for exerting the most force rapidly, i.e. a punch.
Use them all in your training from time to time, or even take a few weeks with a lesser focus on boxing to help boost these areas. It’s a short term boost, but you’ll soon see which is the most beneficial to you.
Practice Technique
The other way to add more power to your punches is to improve and perfect your punching technique. Nothing teaches you how to punch harder than learning how to punch better.
A good successful punch needs you to be primed in almost every physical manner. You need to nail everything, from having your feet in the right place and pushing your body into it, right through to turning your body whilst you explosively throw your arm forwards. It’s an art form.
In your next punching workout, consider putting a focus on positioning your feet side onto the punching bag, and twisting your upper body as you go through the punch to generate more explosive power from your core.
This is where you’ll see the fruits of your training, as your posterior chain fires up and you begin to deal real damage with your shots. Practising on a bag is a good place to start as you can figure out where your flaws are. On top of that, you get used to the reaction your punches have on you too, as well as the bag. That’s how to perfect knowing where to land your next one.
Side note
There’s more to punching than just punching, and you should always remember that here too. This is sound advice no matter what you train for.
For consistent punching power, some cardio training is advisable. If you intend to maintain this punching power for a long time such as a full boxing match, you’ll need stamina. A lot of it too. Make sure you’re training is varied and completely efficient for your full body, whether you’re training to fight or just for your own fitness.
Before beginning any exercise or nutrition program, consult your physician, doctor or other professional. This is especially important for individuals over the age of 35 or persons with pre-existing health problems. Exercise.co.uk assumes no responsibility for personal injury or property damage sustained using our advice.
If you experience dizziness, nausea, chest pain, or any other abnormal symptoms, stop the workout at once and consult a physician or doctor immediately.
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