Bar speed-punching and kicking power

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by neems, Apr 23, 2017.

  1. neems

    neems Valued Member

    I've noticed that if I'm lifting very heavy,low reps where the bar speed is generally slow that I don't feel the benefit of the strength gains in my punching and kicking.

    I've actually found it's most effective staying in the 8-12 rep range.
    I think it's more to do with the speed the bar travels at than anything else.

    So I think I could lower the reps and keep increase the weight only as far as I can lift the weight easily (and quickly).

    I'll experiment with that at a later date.

    Regardless of the actual exercises (that's another issue) what do you find works best for increasing punching and kicking power?
     
  2. neems

    neems Valued Member

    Just realised I've posted this in the bodyweight section
    :bang:
     
  3. icefield

    icefield Valued Member

    Best things to increase striking power is first and foremost technique work, striking is a speed strength sport which means it's so low on the strength spectrum that increase your max strength won't really make a big difference.

    Leaning good technique and becoming more explosive will. Striking is mainly an alactic exercise (short explosive work followed by relative rest) so lightish weights, explosive exercises (med ball throws, jumps, ply push ups etc) short work periods and long rest periods would be a good idea
     
  4. neems

    neems Valued Member

    Good technique is a given,plyometrics are great too (though I never do them weighted,too high risk imo).

    So you,yourself notice your best gains in punching and kicking power are with light weights done quickly?

    What rep range?
    % of 1 rep max?
     
  5. Fish Of Doom

    Fish Of Doom Will : Mind : Motion Supporter

    Also gotta keep in mind that whatever general gains you make in speed and power at the "local" level, you still need to be able to apply them to your striking. Remember you are trying to improve the speed and power of your strikes, and for that, you need to always strive to strike as correctly as possible, else, you may get faster on your lifts, or your muscles may twitch more powerfully, but if your striking motor pattern happens to be off, those powerful muscle contractions will not happen in the correct sequence or the correct moments, and the speed and/or power of your strikes will not improve.

    Lifting-wise, proper, what Icefield said. I'd perhaps venture that you'd be better off not thinking in terms of set and rep protocols here, as what you want is not a physical/"architectural" adaptation to mechanical stress (ie getting bigger), nor a functional adaptation specific to moving maximum weight (ie getting stronger), but rather a motor skill improvement (as Icefield said, technique work), so sets and reps are entirely secondary to correct movement and high rep speeds through max acceleration, a combination which will deteriorate very easily from fatigue, which can come both from excessive load and from excessive volume. So for example yeah, the 8-12 rep range is a good place to be, but likely not if you're doing sets of 8-12 reps, but rather doing low-rep sets at that load, while accelerating the everliving crap out of every single rep while trying your hardest to do them all as close to perfectly as possible (and even then, for pure power it's probably on the high end at best). I would also suggest mixing up both bounce and paused/dead start work, as learning how to take advantage of the stretch reflex can be a great boost, but you'll probably also want to be able to go from 0 to 100 as efficiently as possible for later application to striking with minimal wind-up/telegraphing.
     
  6. neems

    neems Valued Member

    Thanks for the in depth reply.

    The problem is keeping an eye on progression,the reason I'm focused on reps is because at the moment I'm having success with an old fashioned program.

    8 reps per exercise,with as you say maximum acceleration,and adding a rep when I can do so without sacrificing any speed,get to 12 reps and put the weight up and reps back down to 8,where again I can do them all with maximum intensity and so on.

    Followed this for a few months now and I'm noticing better results than I have following any other program/routine.

    Thinking about it,maybe it's the fact progressing never sacrifices bar speed at all,unlike say on a 5x5 where when the weight goes up the bar will slow down a bit.
     

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