No one carries with them a bigger aura of confidence than hard punchers, and there is a good reason for that. Power punchers are feared by their opponents. There is also a good reason for that. The reason is a power puncher can put you down and out at any time during the fight. You can win rounds 1, 2, 3 and then boom, lights out, one punch can end it all. That is why more power never hurts, at least if you’re the one wielding it, otherwise, it hurts pretty bad. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a super skilled, defensive fighter, power punching isn’t just for fighters who come forward. Increasing punching power can help any fighter, no matter the style.
Benefits of Punching Power
There are a few things that happen when you have heavy hands, and all of them work to your advantage.
Confidence
The first, is you will feel more confident in the ring or cage. When you know you hit hard, it’s hard to get discouraged in a fight because you know you can still end the fight at any time. If you look back at Connor McGregor’s fights, you will see that in any fight, even where he struggled, there is never a look of concern on his face. This is because he knows that he still has the ability to win the fight at any moment. In the Chad Mendes fight he was getting taken down and pummeled, and yet every time he got up he would ask Chad “is that all you got?” The fight ended with Connor knocking Chad out.
It will also give you the “take one to give one” level of confidence. If you know you’re the harder hitting fighter in there and are up against a defensive fighter that is hard to catch, then you can always time to catch his shots and dish out one of your own, knowing that yours are doing more damage.
Respect
Another thing that punching power allows you to do is fight at your own pace. This is because once you touch the other fighter with your power and they feel it, they will seize to take risks rushing in or trying to walk you down overly aggressive. Floyd Mayweather may not be a heavy-handed fighter, but when he hit guys, their plans of rushing him and walking through his punches went out the window. Once he hit them and they felt that his punches could knock them out, it became a fight that was fought at Floyd’s pace.
Pacquiao is another fighter who hit you to let you know how the fight was going to go. In his fight against Cotto, Miguel was dominant with his jab in the first 3 rounds. After a few hard counter left hands by the Pac-Man, that jab was no longer seen in the fight. Manny used his counter, and power to take the jab away from Cotto.
Fear
Nothing drains a fighters skill level and full potential more than fear. Fear can take a great fighter and turn him into an okay fighter in a matter of seconds. This is why it is important that your opponents fear you in a fight because it will make things much easier for you. The best way to scare your opponent is to hit them and hit them hard. Let them know that the next one landed, could be the last one needed. It also helps to have a long streak of knockouts prior to the fight to demonstrate what happens to guys who get into the cage or ring with you.
The 5 Steps to Increasing Punching Power
Even though I’m sure you already knew the benefits of hitting harder, a reminder helps. Now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about the 5 steps to increasing your punching power.
Step 1: Strengthening the Body
The first thing you will have to do is strengthen your body. Whether you believe punchers are born or made, strengthening your body will increase your power no matter what your belief is. However, it isn’t traditional bodybuilding or weight gain that will help you get there. Here are a few things you can do to strengthen your body for power.
Power Puncher Exercises
To increase your punch output we are going to mostly focus on compound exercises. These include calisthenics and compound lifts. All of these work on connective strength in the body rather than a focus on individual muscles. They also help with explosiveness and core strength, where a lot of your power comes from.
#1 Pushups
One of the best, if not the best exercises to increase punching power. Push-ups work most of your upper body and build the explosiveness necessary to let off bombs. Guys like Mike Tyson, Charles Bronson and just about every other fighter out there has been known to have a strict, high volume push up regimen. A good number to aim for is a 400+ a day.
#2 Pull-ups
Probably one of the toughest workout there is. The pull up builds up your lats and core strength. A lot of the power from the punches comes from your lats and building strength in that area is a good idea. The benefit of doing pulls ups instead of weight machines is you’re also working on your overall body and core strength. You are forced to pull your own body weight up and it forces you to use more than just lat strength.
#3 Squats
These can be weighted or bodyweight squats, either one will work. You can do the weighted squats if you don’t mind putting on weight or are focused purely on increasing punching power. With the weighted squats go heavy and focus on sets you can only do in 3 to 5 reps.
Body weight squats will take longer to get through the workout but, on top of power, will also assist you in explosive agility on your feet. Think Roy Jones Jr hopping around when throwing his uppercuts or Mike Tyson leaping from a dip in his knee into a straight right hand.
Most of what we call punching power comes from the legs so it is important to make sure your legs are strong.
#4 Shoulder Press
When it comes to hitting hard, strong shoulders are the second most important muscle after legs. Your power will come from your leg, core, and shoulder snap working together in unison.
The shoulder press will work your core, shoulders, and back. This will increase the output power of your shoulder when you throw every shot. This is one of the most often forgotten exercises for punching power but is super important. It will also strengthen your neck so that you can not only give but take a better punch. Cus D’Amato is rumored to have had Tyson doing shoulders shrugs to strengthen his neck and shoulders. This was said to be the only weights that he lifted in his prime.
#5 Deadlift
The ultimate testament to strength is the deadlift. Nothing says you’re strong as hell like lifting something directly off the ground and dropping it, especially if it weighs 3 times more than you. The deadlift works close to 70% of your body and strengthens your core and legs(see a pattern), as well as neck shoulders, and back.
Combined, these will all make you an explosive monster and not only will your punching power increase, but it will make your body strong enough to take punishment. You will be more durable in the body and more capable of taking a strong punch, which is a great ability to have with heavy hands.
#6 Isometrics
Bruce Lee was the biggest proponent of this and it definitely helps you build the body. It makes you denser and forces muscles in your body to work together and strengthen as a whole. Isometrics is essentially holding a position for as long as you can, putting consistent, and built up the strain on your body. Holding the pushup position is an example of an isometric exercise. You can incorporate this into the routine mentioned above.
Hardening Your Punch – Adding Hard to Heavy
Punchers aren’t all built the same, you can hit heavy, and you can hit hard. I fought a lot of guys in my day who wore skinny, not necessarily heavy-handed, but when they hit me I felt like they had concrete in their gloves. Not a fun fighter to fight. Think Golovkin, when he hits guys you can see the pain they’re experiencing.
You can accomplish that two ways: strengthening the knuckles and strengthening the forearms.
How to Harden the Knuckles
To get your knuckles to feel like concrete you have to take Wolff’s Law into consideration. Wolff’s law states the following:
“…bone in a healthy person or animal will adapt to the loads under which it is placed. If loading on a particular bone increases, the bone will remodel itself over time to become stronger to resist that sort of loading. ”
This means you have to expose your fists to a little bit of pain.
Knuckle Pushups
The first and most convenient way is incorporating it into your pushups routine since you will already be doing that to increase your punching power. The harder the surface the better. If you can’t handle the pain, try starting out on a yoga mat or a carpet, the thinner the better. Keep using it until you progress to harder surfaces. The harder your knuckles get, the harder they will feel to your opponent.
Heavy Bag Without Gloves
Start off hitting the heavy bag with wraps only, this way you prevent any long-term or built up damage. Don’t begin offloading all you got and instead work your way up in power to see what your hands can handle. You can make it part of your heavy bag routine. Just take the gloves off at the end and go hard without them. As time goes by you will see yourself being able to dig into the bag harder and harder without feeling any discomfort, that is when you know you knuckles are toughing up.
The Newspaper Method
Back in the glory days, when men were still tough, there was something called the Newspaper Method. I’m making up the name but the method did exist. The way it works is you put up a bunch of newspaper on the wall, you can nail them in or whatever you prefer. This will have to be a lot of newspapers depending on how fragile your hand is. You stick them to the wall and proceed to hit it every day for about 5 to ten minutes. Then every day you will peel one sheet off the wall until you’re basically hitting the wall. Expect some sheets to tear, that’s a good thing, it means you aren’t as big a sissy as you thought you were.
Forearm and Wrist
If you ever watched Popeye, then you know how important big forearms are. The forearm is a place where the energy of the impact will travel through. The harder the forearms, the more impact stays in your opponents face.
Your deadlifting will definitely help strengthen your forearms, however, the most convenient way is to get a Crush Trainer, Grip Trainer, Hand Gripper or Hand Trainer. They’re all different names for the same item. You can do this while you’re driving(at your own risk) or while you’re at home.
That’s it for strengthening the body. You do this I guarantee you will feel a difference, but the best part is that we aren’t even close to done.
Step 2: Improving Form
When it comes to punching power, the most referenced and thought of person is usually Mike Tyson. This, of course, is with good reason. Mike was able to run through guys who are world champions in a matter of minutes, sometimes seconds. Ironically enough, Mike attributes his power to working his form on the heavy bag and has very detailed explanations as to how to throw punches. The truth is a lot of big guys don’t hit hard and it’s because they don’t know how to. If you could only practice one thing to hit harder, proper form is it. Normally a coach or some tutorials can help you with that (coming soon) but here are some words in the meantime that can paint that picture.
Here is What to Do:
Hip, Pivot and Shoulder Snap – All One Motion
A lot of rookies look to pros and say “Why do I have to pivot? Roy Jones doesn’t always do it.” Well to put simply you aren’t Roy Jones, yet. When you first begin learning the fundamentals you have to pivot every time you throw a power punch so that you can feel what it’s like to throw your body into the punch. Eventually, you will be able to learn how to do it without doing every time, although you still should because you get more leverage on your shots. If you feel like you skipped out on this lesson, it’s time to re-learn how to throw a punch.
Whenever you throw a power punch, make sure that the foot associated with the punch is always on the pivot. The point of the pivot is to get the hip into every punch. You should feel your hip snap and twist and propel the punch in one fluid motion. Once you let the punch go you have to snap your shoulder into it and deliver force from your body, into your relaxed hand.
Your shoulder must “roll” into a different position and you have to feel it snap as it extends fully. This is best seen during Mike Tyson shadow boxing.
The key here is fluidity.
Throw Efficiently
The fastest way to get anywhere is in a straight line. Make sure your hands are up to your chin, and when they roll out the extended all the way out, snap the shoulder, and then pull it back as fast as you can to create a whip-like impact. Make sure your pivot, hip, and shoulder all flow as one, rather than separate motions. They all have to compliment each other and while forceful, you have to remain relaxed. Practice throwing each power punch individually until you feel you are throwing your hardest each time.
Step 3: Increase Your Speed(or Size)
Sometimes you have to bring a little science into the sweet science and in science, Power = Speed x Mass. Without having to do the math, all that means is the faster you throw and the heavier you are, the harder you will hit. So one of the ways to cheat punching power is to eat a lot of cheeseburgers while doing everything mentioned above and your power will increase.
However, if gaining weight isn’t an option, you will have to increase your speed to hit harder.
Throwing fast punches is much like anything in life, the more you do it, the more you will be able to do. So the faster you throw, the faster you will be able to throw. However, since we are focussed on speed and power, we can’t just shoot out arms punches with the hopes of looking fast.
What you have to do is focus on one punch or one combo at a time, and throw it as fast and as hard as you can each time. After you do it, try throwing it faster and harder than that. Once that’s done, throw even faster and harder than before. Max out the power and speed of your punches when you are on the heavy bag or shadow boxing and you will see your power increase.
Other ways to increase speed include using resistance bands, and speed bags in your workout.
If you increase the speed of your punches without compromising form and intensity. You will punch harder.
Keep in mind though if you aren’t training as a pro and just simply want to hit harder for the sake of it, you can always put on mass, preferably muscle mass, and it will translate to power as long as you follow the rules above.
Step 4: Be More Accurate – The Art of Precision
As Connor McGregor is often quoted saying: “timing beats speed, and precision beats power.” I say why not have all of the above and you’re unbeatable. A part of a “Hard Punch” is the accuracy in which it lands. Hitting hard is about hitting your target and hitting them in the right places. If your goal is to punch walls and inanimate objects ignore this step. However, if you’re looking to win fights, you will have to train your brain to land where you want to land.
The best way to do this is to Put X marks on the heavy bag and land combinations on them consistently. Gauge how many times you’re off the mark either by recording yourself or having a partner watch you.
The sway bag and reflex ball are also great to practice your coordination.
Last but not least, sparring is where you will get real live training. Instead of just trying to hit the head or the body, pick specific points on the head and body that you need to land on.
The Power Puncher Workout
Now that you know the steps, let’s run through a workout you can do. You can treat it as a buffet and implement this daily, split days, or split hours. But here is a sample on what you should be doing.
Strength Training Routine
Pushups on Knuckles: 400+ (Daily)
Pull-ups: 200+ (Daily)
Squats: 400+ Body weight squats or 5 sets by 5 rep max weighted. (3 times a week)
Shoulder Press: 5 sets by 5 rep max (three times a week
Deadlift: 5 sets by 5 rep max (twice a week)
Abs: Sit-ups 5 sets to failure and leg raises 5 sets to failure
Isometrics: Implement at the end of each bodyweight workout.
Bag Work
Heavy Bag – No rounds
Max Potential – As Hard and As fast as you can each time.
100 Jabs to Max potential
100 Straight Rights
100 Hooks (each hand)
100 Uppercuts(each hand)
100 Combos(No Gloves) – make sure you aren’t holding back on either punch. Here you can practice your favorite variations. Each combo counts as one.
Step 5: Mindset is Everything
Whether you’re training or fighting, you will have to change your mindset. Don’t go in that ring and try to compete with the man in front of you. Don’t go and try to hit the bag, go into the ring or training to destroy everything in your sight. Feel it in your bones that you’re heavy handed and have confidence in your punches. I’ve got suckered punched by a lot of big guys that could’ve put me down but didn’t because they punched me with a defensive mindset, they were afraid, and their body followed suit. You have to go out there and you can’t be afraid of yourself or the other guy. Make sure you’re putting everything you got into that punch and eventually your mind will be in sync with your body and you will be able to knock someone’s block off whenever you decide to.
If you want to hit harder, hit harder!
Drop me a comment or contact me if you have any questions.
Brawl all day!
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