Sometimes there are situations where we can’t avoid the physical conflict. No matter if it’s a boxing, kickboxing, MMA match or just a fight, some extra punching power is always helpful.
The purpose of this article is to help you increase the power of your punches dramatically. Before we dive into the tips, let’s first look at what is actually the punching power.
The 6 factors of the punching power
When I started boxing, I was wondering why some people hit really hard while others can’t even slightly move the heavy bag when hitting it. So I did a research. And I found that there are 6 main factors, which impact the force, that a person is able to generate when throwing shots. Here’s what I found:
Weight – The force equals mass times acceleration. Which, in the physics of boxing, means, the heavier you are, the harder you hit.
Technique – With a proper technique, even a lighter person is able to punch much harder than a heavier one. We are going to discuss how you can improve your punching technique later in the article.
Explosive power – There is strength and there is also explosive power. The difference between both is that we call maximum strength, the max force you can possibly generate. Which can be tested, for example, by measuring the maximum weight that you can lift. On the other hand, maximum power is the maximum force you can generate in a short period of time. So, in order to punch hard, you need to focus on your explosive power, not on your strength. That’s why popular weight exercises such as bench press or biceps curls won’t increase your punching power at all.
Body conditioning – The better your body is conditioned the more energy it’s able to generate. In this guide, you will learn which are the most important muscles when it comes to punching and how to strengthen them.
Mental aspect – The intent with which you throw a punch can impact its power significantly. The same goes for
the way you visualize the shot when you throw it, which is quite interesting. We are going to discuss this more thoroughly later..
Genetics – Some people are born with the ability to punch hard. However, even if you aren’t gifted with big punching power, there are some things you can do to punch even harder than someone with better genetics.
Improving
The genetics are the only thing out of these 6, that we just aren’t able to improve. But, we have control over the other five which is completely enough. The tips in this article are separated into 5 parts, covering all these aspects. I picked the best exercises and techniques that will help you punch harder from my experience, and after hours of research.
What is your current level?
The elite boxers are able to generate up to 1,300 pounds of force when punching, which is more than double than the results of the beginner boxers. And is also multiple times more than what an average sized untrained person can.
So, roughly, your punching power is probably anywhere between 200-500 pounds, depending on the factors described above.
But no matter how hard you can hit so far, I am pretty confident that you will be able to increase your punching power with at least 40% after reading this article and implementing the tips. Because here you will find the exact steps on how to improve your technique and the exercises you should do, plus recommended sets, repetition, and rest time.
So, let’s get started!
Part 1: General tips
1) Do heavy bag work
The heavy bag is essential exercises when it comes to punching. I like it because the bag it’s mimicking the human body, which conditioning your hands for hitting a real opponent.
You can do many different drills on the heavy bag. For example, you can move around it, throwing jabs, or push it and try to dodge it as it returns. By doing that you will improve your footwork and your timing.
But if you want to learn how to punch harder, you should plant your feel (to be flat-footed and stable) and then start throwing some power shots. You can do that for several rounds, 3 minutes each (when doing boxing workout, “rounds” means “sets”).
It’s obvious, that you can’t hit the bag, entire round, with 100% power. Because you will spend a lot of energy while doing so and gas out quickly.
That’s why I recommend when doing heavy bag work for punching power, to hit it with very quick but non-powerful punches for around 10 seconds, and then to throw 3-4 really hard shots. Do this for about 5-6 rounds with 60-90 seconds breaks between them. By doing this for about 1-2 weeks, you will start noticing that you can punch much harder.
And if you don’t go to the gym, and you don’t have a heavy bag at home – don’t worry. There are a bunch of ways to increase your punching power at home, which we are going to discuss.
2) Shadowbox with weights
Shadowboxing is another basic exercise. You can do it at home, at the gym or anywhere, as long as there is enough room. And you don’t need any equipment at all. Boxers love this exercise because it helps them improve their technique which increases their punching power.
And shadowboxing with weights is even better. Because when holding light weights while punching, that strengthens some of the muscles that generate the power of your shots (mostly the shoulders and the back muscles).
When I do shadowboxing workouts, I like to alternate, rounds with weights with rounds without weights. It’s a really effective exercise.
Here are some tips for shadowboxing with weights:
- Always start with a round without weights so you can warm up
- Don’t commit with the punches too much when holding weights. Try to keep your balance and the proper form.
- Throw punches with roughly 80% speed
- Use weights that you can easily lift. I use 3-5lbs weights. You can use bigger if you feel that such weights are too light for you. Just don’t pick too heavy weights otherwise your technique will suffer.
- Try to visualize a real fight. Imagine your opponent trying to block or dodge your punches, and firing back. Then you try to stop his shots. That will pay off, later when fighting against a real person.
- Don’t overtrain. Because if you do so, that will cause muscle soreness in your back and shoulder muscles. And you may not be able to train for 1 -2 weeks.
- Start with 5-6 rounds. And rest around 60-90 seconds between them.
If you don’t have light weights (<10 lbs), you can always just shadowbox. It’s will also improve your technique and the power of your strikes significantly.
3) Gain weight
Many of you probably want to stay at the same weight and just to learn how to punch harder. And that’s completely fine. But gaining some weight is an effective way to increase the power of your shots, so it’s worth mentioning it and giving some tips.
By weight, I don’t mean body fat (although it will also work) but gaining some muscle mass. As long as it isn’t too much, the muscle mass can benefit you when it comes to punching. And to gain some muscles, you simply have to do two things – eat enough (and properly) and exercise. We will discuss the exercises which will help you punch harder later, so now let’s focus on the eating.
Nutrition
To gain muscles, try to eat around 35-45% of your daily calories from carbs, another 35-45% from protein and around 20-30% from fat. Also, the overall daily calories you consume needs to be around 25-40% more than the calories you need to maintain your weight. Otherwise, your body won’t be able to increase its muscle mass. A great app that will help you with these calculations (to calculate your calories, macros etc) is MyFitnessPal. You can install it on your phone, it’s very easy to use and it’s free (there is a paid version but you don’t need it).
Eating
Try to eat small meals multiple times a day. The only big meals you consume should be the breakfast and the meal you eat after a workout (so your muscles can start growing).
Around 1-1.5 hour before workout try to consume carb-rich foods so you can get quick energy just in time. To do this, you can eat rice, potatoes, bread, crackers etc.
To consume enough protein you can eat meat, eggs, fish, etc. And if you need fat-rich foods you can try nuts, cheese, avocado or fatty meat.
Of course, you can gain muscles without counting your calories. Just make sure you consume enough protein, so your muscles can grow and also carbs so you can have enough energy.
Also, it’s important to not overeating. Instead, try to gain weight slowly. Otherwise, you are risking to gain more fat than a lean muscle mass.
Part 2: Explosive power exercises
As I already stated, the explosive power is one of the main factors that determine how much energy you are able to generate when throwing a strike. So in order to punch harder, you need to increase your explosive power.
You can do this by doing explosive, whole body exercises (or at least exercises where you use multiple muscle groups).
When doing such drills, our goal is to generate a maxim amount of power for a minimum period of time. That way we will activate our fast-twitch muscle fibers which are responsible for the explosive power. If you are interested, you can learn more about this in the article about the sings of the hard punchers.
Tip: These exercises require a lot of energy, so do them at the beginning of your workouts.
4) The Snatch exercise
The Snatch is one of my favorite exercises for explosive power because while doing it, you are using your whole body – your legs, core, shoulders and arm muscles, increasing your overall power dramatically.
You can do it with a dumbbell or with a straight bar. If you are using a dumbbell (which I personally prefer) it’s important to use the same weight with both of your hands. That way your dominant hand won’t become much stronger than your off hand.
Unlike the isolated exercises, which you need to execute slowly, when doing explosive power drills you need to use all of your power and to do them on max speed (but of course, with the proper form). Also, you need to use heavy weights.
Here is a short video showing you how to do snatch (with a dumbbell) correctly:
Weight, Sets, and Reps
Weight:
- Straight bar: When doing the snatch with a straight bar, the weight that you use should be around 85% of your 1RM (One Repetition Maximum – the max weight you can lift, doing this exercise).
- Dumbell: When doing this exercise with a dumbbell, we are aiming at more reps, so you can use roughly 60% of your 1RM.
Reps:
- Straight bar: Do around 1-3 reps with no more than 60 seconds break between the reps
- Dumbell: You can do 10-12 reps or a 30 sec sets for each hand.
Sets: Depending on your progress and the intensity of the workout. You can start with 4-6 sets and see how it’s going,
Rest: Try to rest no more than 2 minutes between the sets.
Tip: To find your 1RM, try slowly adding more weight to the point where you can’t do more than one repetition.
5) Medicine ball throw
Almost every fighter, who relies on his punching power does this exercise regularly. That’s because when it’s done properly, it’s really effective. And to do it properly you need to mimic a real punch (not just to throw the ball over your head).
There are two variations of the exercise:
- Laying on the ground and throwing the ball up – Push the ball up with both your hands as hard as you can. I recommend using wall balls (the big medicine balls), between 8-20 lbs, depending on your strength.
- Staying on your feet and throwing it against a wall – The reason why against a wall is because by doing this, you don’t have to go after the ball every time you throw it.
To do this exercise you need to say in a fighting stance (power leg and power hand at the rear). Use your lead hand to support the ball before you throw it with your rear hand. Then you can switch stances and do the same with your weak hand – we want to train both hands. You can use your legs (later we will talk about how exactly) to increase the power. You can use medicine balls or wall ball for this drill, it doesn’t really matter.
The benefits of medicine ball throw are that when doing it, (unlike when doing weighted shadowboxing), you can use 100% of your power. Which is really important when doing exercises for punching harder.
Reps: Do rounds – 3 minutes each or aim at a given number, for example, 50. And throw the ball until you reach it.
Sets: Depending on your workout, physical conditioning, and progress (if you are a beginner start with 5-6 sets max).
Rest: No more than 1-1:30 minutes.
- I always pick around a 1 minute for resting and around 3 minutes for exercising because of the boxing rules, where the fighters are allowed to rest 1 minute between the rounds. And the rounds are 3 minutes each. So you by doing the same thing when you train, you will be prepared better for a boxing match. And, of course, if you practice sports where the rounds are, for example, 5 minutes (such as MMA) your sets should be 5 minutes.
6) Burpees
A great whole body exercise that will increase your explosiveness and make your punches harder. I like it because to do it you don’t need any equipment or a sparring partner and it’s really effective.
(The Burpees are simply push-ups with jumps).
To to the exercise you just need to do one push-up then to get on your feet and jump as high as you can with your hands up. If you’ve never seen that exercise before and my explanation wasn’t clear enough, watch this short video:
You can use this exercise also as a warm-up before other intense exercises such as sparring, heavy bag or pad work.
Sets/Reps: Do 4 sets of 20 reps with minimal rest between them at the beginning of your workout. That way you will increase your explosive and punching power fast.
7) Push-ups
I am not talking about the normal push-ups – they are for building strength, not explosiveness. I mean the explosive push-ups or the “Plyometric push-ups”.
The difference between them and the normal push-ups is that when doing them, you are trying to lift your upper body off the ground as you end the push-up. That drill can be really effective when it comes to explosive power.
There are many variations of the exercise – clapping push-ups, superman push-ups, and others. Or you can just lift your upper body off the ground, without doing anything fancy (this is also a Plyo push up).
If you aren’t strong enough yet to do this exercise, you can try doing it from your knees or to try inclined push-ups (step on the floor and put your hands on your bed, for example).
Sets/Reps/Rest: First, pick one variation of the Plyo push-ups which you can do. This is an intense exercise which I recommend doing in your strength-workout days. Do 4-5 sets of 20 reps with 1 (max 2) minutes rest between the sets.
8) Sledgehamme
The force you create while punching is a rotation force (because of the rotation of your whole body). And there isn’t a better exercise to improve your rotation strength better than hitting a tire with a sledgehammer.
Some of you may find this exercise stupid, for others, it may look really cool. But one is for sure – it can really make you hit harder. It also develops endurance in your back, shoulder, and arms, which is really important in a fight.
That’s why some elite fighters, such as Fedor Emelianenko (an MMA fighter considered to be the greatest heavyweight) did this exercise in his prime all the time.
If you don’t have a big tire or a sledgehammer, or if there aren’t such things in the gyms around you, you can use a fitness sledgehammer with rubber head like this one on Amazon. The best thing is that you don’t need a tire to use it. You just need a room where you can hit the floor with this 15 lbs hammer without irritating anyone.
Sets/Reps/Rest: This exercise is harder than what most people think. The sledgehammer is heavy which can make you gas out quickly. So what I recommend is doing 20 seconds work with around 10 sec rest. You can start with 5 sets and increase them over the time.
9) Shadowboxing underwater
Have you ever wondered why some boxers do this odd exercise?
Well, here is the answer: It increases the explosive power and the hand speed of the fighters, because of the resistance of the water which acts like a weight. It’s like using elastic bands when punching.
This exercise is very similar to the weighted punching but, unlike it, there isn’t a chance to injure yourself. That’s why I recommend it for people who have shoulder problems and feel pain when doing shadowboxing with weights.
How to do it:
- Get into the water – it should be up to your shoulders
- Get into your fighting stance
- Start throwing punching combinations – You won’t have any problems when throwing jabs or any lead hand punches, but when it comes to rear hand shots, it’s not so easy because you need to pivot your back foot (and you will probably bobbing to the surface). So you can try it with your back against some of the walls of the pool.
- Overhand punches – If you want to throw overhand punches (almost vertical punches), you can go under the water to do that.
Sets/Reps/Rest: This drill isn’t so intense and I recommend doing this it at the end of your workout. Do 3-5 rounds with 1-minute rests.
10) Avoid running “marathons”, Do this instead
By marathons, I don’t mean something like a 20-mile run. I mean this slow-pace long distance runs. You may watch some movies where the boxers start their day with such exercises, but they are not nearly as effective when it comes to boxing preparation.
That’s because they stimulate your slow-twitch muscle fibers (the ones that you need when doing endurance exercises). And if you want to punch harder you need to develop the other type of muscle fibers – the fast-twitch ones.
To do it, instead of slow-paced long distance running, you need to do intervals of sprints. That will increase your explosive power and also the muscle mass in your legs and your core.
How to do it:
- Start with jogging so you can warm up – no more than a mile
- Do 5 intervals of 500m, running at around 70-80% of your max speed. Rest 60-90 seconds between the intervals.
- Of course, you can do more if you feel that’s not enough for you
Part 3: Body conditioning
In this part of the guide, we will talk about conditioning the most important muscles for punching. Unlike for the explosive power exercises, for this drills, the movement is more controlled and more slowly and you, shouldn’t use any momentum.
Because here we want to increase the strength of specific muscles, not our overall explosiveness. That way the energy will transfer more efficiently through the body and we will be able to punch much harder.
Also, in this part of the guide, I will give you some tips on conditioning your knuckles and joints so you can hit harder without hurting them. Which is pretty important because, sometimes when we hit something hard (for example the heavy bag) we often generate more power than our joints (the wrists, elbows, shoulders) tolerate. And that can cause injuries. But there is something you can do to dramatically decrease the chance to injure yourself.
We will talk about it later, but first, let’s see which muscles we need to strengthen to punch harder and how do do it.
11) Do Axe chops
This exercise is similar to the sledgehammer – it helps you increase your rotation strength. The difference between both drills is that the motion here is much more controlled. Also, you are using only your back, shoulder, and arm muscles, instead of your whole body.
You can do axe chops using resistance bands or if you don’t have ones, using a cable machine in the local gym is just fine.
How to do it:
- Make sure you stay stable
- Stretch your hands and grab the resistance band
- Start pulling it back and forth, mimicking chopping down a tree with an axe.
- Upper body – your elbows and wrists should be static – the motions is only from the shoulders
- Lower body – use your hips, but don’t pivot your feet
- The movement needs to be quick but controlled
When doing this drill, make sure that you do it from both sides – left and right.
Sets/Reps/Rest: Do 3-4 sets with 12-15 reps each. The weight you use shouldn’t be too light nor too heavy. Rest no more than 90 seconds between the sets.
12) Dips
The dips are a great exercise for the upper body. They strengthen your chest, shoulder, and arm muscles. But when doing dips for explosive power, we are focusing mostly on our chest.
Because the chest muscles are really important when throwing punches (especially hooks and overhands). That’s because of the “elastic recoil” (that is when you whip your arms back when punching, using the elasticity of the muscles to increase the power of the blow).
By using this technique you may leave yourself open for counterpunches, but it really makes your punches harder. Boxers such as Gennady Golovkin and Sugar Ray Robinson use it all the time. (We will cover the techniques more thoroughly in the next part of the guide).
In order to use the elastic recoil effectively, you need to work on your chest muscles. And the dips are a great way to do that.
Sets/Reps/Rest: Depending on your physical conditioning, you can do between 5-15 reps per set. Do 5 sets and try to rest no more than 2 minutes between them.
13) Try these isometric exercises
Isometric exercise means simply holding a particular position for a given period of time. It can be a push-up, a squad, pull up or whatever position, depending on the exercise.
When it comes to punching power, the drills are quite different. But the ones I give you here can really increase the power of your punches fast:
Isometric wall punch
A like this exercise because it strengthens your shoulders (which increases your power) but also conditions the knuckles and the wrist.
To do it, place your fist on the wall while staying in your standard boxing stance. Then you start pushing. Your arm should be fully extended and you should bend your knees a little bit. Keep your wrist straight. The pressure needs to be on your middle knuckle (you can use a towel if your knuckles hurt too much). Also, try to exhale while doing the exercise.
Sets/Reps/Rest: Do 5-10 sets, 10 seconds each. Rest no more than 30-40 seconds.
Block stance on a wall
This isometric exercise is great for conditioning the forearms but also for strengthening the delts.
How to do it:
- Stay in a normal boxing stance
- Get your hands up, like when blocking punches – Your palms need to be turned towards your face
- Press your forearms against each other and then press them into the wall as hardest you can
Sets/Reps/Rest: This exercise may look easy but it certainly not. If you do it for the first time, around 5-6 sets (10-15 seconds each), will be completely enough. Rest around 10 seconds between the sets.
14) Strengthen your back muscles
The power of the punch comes not only from the legs like everybody is saying but also from the rotation of the spine. The strong back muscles will support your spine better and will make it rotate faster. And the faster rotation means more energy generated, which means harder punches.
Pull-ups
There are many really good back exercises (deadlift, row, etc) but, the best one is the pull-ups. It really strengthens your back, especially the upper back muscles. That’s why pull-ups are one of the used exercises from the combat sports athletes.
Sets/Reps/Rest: Here’s one cool tip for pull-ups: First, you need to find out how many are the max pull-ups you can do. Once you’ve done it, you need to start your exercises with 80% of your max reps. For example, if your maximum is 10, start the first set with 8. Then you reduce by 1 the reps for each following set. Here’s how it should look:
First set – 8 reps
Second set – 7 reps
Third set – 6 reps
And so on…
You need to do 5-6 reps. If the first set is 4, your last 2-3 sets need to be with 1 repetition sets.
And if you can’t yet do pull-ups, you can use elastic bands or you can also do the pulldown exercise on a machine (the motion is very similar to the pull-ups).
15) Strengthen your core
The abs muscles are much more powerful than the arm ones. So if you use them when punching, you will increase your power dramatically. We will talk about how to do it, later – in the next part. But now, let’s see how you can strengthen these muscles.
Knee raise
You can do this exercise in a hanging position (on a bar) or in a supporting position (on a dip stand). It’s really cool exercise because it really engages your abs muscles.
When doing knee raises, the movement needs to be slow and controlled. And your arms should be fully extended.
Sets/Reps/Rest: With this exercise, we are aiming at many reps (15-20). You can do 4-6 sets depending on your conditioning, with 90-120 seconds rest between them.
16) Strengthen your neck
Your neck muscles are really important in boxing and in the other combat sports because they can deaden the force of the punches in the head.
But some of the neck muscles are also used when punching. I know that because sometimes I feel muscle soreness in my neck after an intense boxing workout. What that means is, that you can increase the power of your shots if you train your neck muscles. Here is how you can do it:
Neck bridges
The best exercise for neck conditioning is the neck bridges. To do it, you just simply need to lay on your back and raise up on your neck. Then you need to hold this position between 30-90 seconds. You can also start rolling on your neck, but I recommend doing this when your neck gets stronger. Start with 3-4 sets and put a towel beneath your head (or do the exercise on a rubber matt).
17) Condition your hands
No matter how much power you can generate when punching if your hands aren’t conditioned to handle it, you won’t be able to hit hard. Because your wrists may bend, and the energy won’t transfer effectively into the target. Or you can injure your knuckles if they aren’t trained properly.
So here are my top 3 exercises for hand conditioning:
- Knuckle push-ups – This type of push-ups will really help you condition your knuckles. When doing it, make sure all the knuckles stand on the ground (not only the index and the middle ones).
- Finger push-ups – The finger push-up will strengthen all your hand muscles. But it may be too hard to do, especially if you do it for the first time. If that’s your case, you can just try staying in a push-up position (without actually doing the push up) until your hands get stronger enough so you can do the movement. The Klitschko brothers loved this push ups and did them all the time.
- Heavy bag work with small gloves – Hitting the heavy bag with small gloves (12 oz, or even smaller) will make your hands extremely durable. I recommend doing it at least one day of a week (if of course, you train in a gym).
18) Go swim when you have free time
When swimming, you are using muscles that you just can’t use in your daily life. Swimming can also improve your endurance or your explosive power, depending on the way you do it. That’s why boxers such as Floyd Mayweather are swimming every week when they are preparing themselves for a boxing match.
Of course, it’s not necessary to do it on a weekly basis, but, if you want to be in a good shape, it’s good to go to the local pool when you’ve got some free time.
What I recommend is if you want to swim, to do it after your strength workout, so your muscles can relax.
Part 4: Technique tips
The technique is the most important factor when it comes to punching power. That’s why sometimes even a lighter person can hit harder than a heavier one if their technique is better.
The most of the tips are placed in this part of the article, but we will try to go through the steps really quickly.
Also, notice that here we are focusing only on the power hand punching techniques (the most powerful blow that you can possibly throw). So the tips aren’t applicable if you want to throw quick but less powerful punches (such as the jab).
So, let’s get started!
Stance:
When we want to throw powerful shots, we need a really good balance. Also, we to start the punch from our FEET, not from the ARMS. That way we will build bigger momentum and will make the blow much more powerful.
After you read the next few tips, you will know how to do it.
19) Plant your Feet
Some boxers like to stay on their toes and bounce around. And that can be effective if you want to win a boxing match on points. But if you want to knock someone out, you need to be flat-footed – to stay stable. In boxing, this is called “to plant your feet into the ground”.
And also because the punch starts from the feet, your shots will be much more powerful, by doing this.
20) Stay in a wide stance
As I already mentioned in the previous tip, the stability, the good balance makes the shots more powerful. And an easy way to improve your balance is to stay in a little bit wider stance then usually. A common mistake is to place your feet below your shoulders. Avoid doing that, keep the wide stance and you will punch much harder.
21) Bend your knees a little bit
That way will be even more stable. As you throw the punch you will need to extend them so you can add more power to the shot. We will talk about that later.
22) Stay at the right distance
If you are too close or too far away from the target you won’t be able to hit with full power. So stay around, roughly 80% of your full arm extension, away from to the target/the opponent. There your punches are most powerful.
23) Stay at a good angle
For the different punches, there are different angles where they are most effective. For example when throwing a cross, stay around 1ft right from the target (and 1ft to the left, if you are a southpaw). That way you will be able to rotate your body more which will make your punch harder.
On the other hand, when throwing power hand hooks or overhands, your hand needs to be closer to the target. Otherwise, you may need to overextend yourself and lose balance.
24) Lean forward a little big
That way, you will be able to generate more power quickly, compared to when your back is straight. Also, your balance will be better.
25) Relax your upper body
Don’t flex your muscles when punching. Rexal your shoulders, your back, and your arms. That will make the energy flow more efficiently through your body. But of course, don’t forget to keep your hands up, while doing so.
Punching:
After we know how to stay properly, is time to actually throw the shot. Here is how to do it:
- Make sure you follow the tips step-by-step when punching. Their order is important.
26) Pivot your back foot and lift the heel a little bit
Pivot your back foot in the direction of the punch. This is where the punch starts and where you are starting building its momentum. Make sure your lead foot doesn’t leave the ground.
27) Turn your hips
Now you need to transfer and increase the energy generated by your feet up into your upper body. You can do this by turning the hips in the direction of the punch.
28) Use both legs when punching
Most of the beginners are shifting the weight on one of their legs while punching. That’s not a good practice because by doing so, you can lose your balance if you miss the target. And it also decreases the punching power, because you are using only one of your legs.
So in order to punch really hard, try to use your both legs.
To do that, while the rear leg quadriceps is pushing (expanding), your lead leg hamstring needs to pull (to contact). That way you will almost double the power that is generated compared to when using only one leg.
29) Rotate your upper body
After the energy is transferred into your upper body, you need to rotate your shoulders and chest into the direction of the punch.
30) Release the punch after the whole rotation
The arm should be the last part of your body that you move when punching. You need to release the punch in the right moment, so you can use the momentum you’ve built with your whole body. Otherwise, the shot will be thrown just from your shoulders and arms (which is called “arm punch”) and its impact won’t be great.
Everything happens for a split second, but the difference in power between an arm punch and a proper punch is huge.
31) Move the shoulder forward
That way you increase the reach of your shot and also it’s power.
32) Make sure that your fist is closed all the time
Some people close their first at the last possible moment before it hits the target. But that’s not that effective when you want to punch hard. Because when your fist is closed the mass is concentrated in a less space which increases the speed of the punch.
33) Turn your hand over at the end of the punch
That will create a whip motion which adds some extra power into the blow.
34) Hit with the first two knuckles
The index knuckle and the middle finger knuckle are the hardest ones. So make sure you hit the target with them.
35) Exhale with the punch
The proper breathing will make your punches sharper. So make sure you are inhaling before the punch hand exhaling after you throw it.
Inhale slowly, don’t make it obvious for your opponent. And exhale quickly, after you throw the shot (not before that, because that will also telegraph the shot).
36) Tight your core muscles as the punch hit the target
By doing that you will use the strongest muscles in your body, which can dramatically increase your power. You can see that if you watch Bruce Lee’s 1-inch punch – at first he is relaxed, but then he tightens his muscles, which makes the legendary punch so powerful.
37) Sit down on your punches
In boxing, to sit down on your punches means to drop your weight into the blow. That can really increase its power and make it much more impactful. You can do that, by bending the knees a little bit and loosen the hips just before the punch hits the target.
38) Don’t let your opponent see the punch
As I already mentioned, don’t make it obvious for the other fighter that you are going to throw a punch. Because by doing so, he may see it and block it, or dodge it.
So here are my top tips on what to do to not telegraphing the shots:
- Don’t bounce around in a predictable rhythm. You opponent may figure it out which will help him predict your next move.
- Don’t load the punch – throw it sharply
- Use the jab – throw a light jab just before the power punch. That way you will mask it and there is a good chance to catch your opponent off guard.
Part 5: Mental tips
It’s interesting that the visualization can also impact the power of your punches. Here’s how that can happen:
39) Hit with a bad intention
When we watch fighters such as Mike Tyson we notice how they are committing with every punch. Such fighters aren’t trying to win on points, they try to knock their opponents out with every shot they throw. Tyson and his trainer Cus D’amato call this “punching with a bad intention”.
“Iron” Mike even stated that he was imagined how his punches are breaking his opponent’s skulls. It sounds creepy but that’s probably one of the factors which made his shots so devastating.
40) Imagine punching 7 inches behind the target
As I already mentioned – the distance is really important. And an easy trick that will help you to do measure the distance properly is to imagine punching behind the target. You can try it next time on the heavy bag and you will notice how your punches are much harder.
41) Aim with your elbow
A cool exercise is to imagine hitting the target with your elbow. That will help to execute the technique properly which will increase your punching power.
Final thoughts
Obviously, you can’t do all the tips I gave you here. There are too many exercises and you can’t do all of them. So what I recommend is to pick the exercises which you like the most and which you can start today!
And I hope, that with this guide, I helped you to increase your punching power even slightly.