Want a Hard Punch? Do Lots of ‘Punch Ups!’

You Can Have a REAL Hard Punch!

Here is an exercise for having a Hard Punch. This is for anybody training in Karate, MMA, Kung Fu, or whatever. This is not for getting into that bikini, or posing in a mirror; this is so you can use a gnarly fist to knock over the fattest elephant you can find. Period.

hard punch

The True Power of Karate!


Many exercises, even in the martial arts, are rather generic in nature, tune the whole body, maybe isolate a muscle group at best, and they are not designed for a specific function.

This exercise I’m going to give you here is designed for a specific function, and to define that function, let me ask you something. When you karate punch somebody…where do you feel the impact?

You feel the impact when you hit the target, when you do some serious gut punching or head knocking.

So why is it necessary to do a full push up?

A push up is like a punch, you extend the arm and support weight, but why support weight all the way through the whole motion? That, as will become obvious later on, might actually slow your strike down!

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying you shouldn’t do a complete push up, I think you should do lots of them. They are good for you. But we are talking about the punch here, and we are talking about how to punch harder. We are talking about the end of the punch where the rubber grips the asphalt, the pedal his the metal, or, if you will, where the knuckles strike the ribs. Or jaw, or whatever.

So I want you to try doing your push up in the following manner.

Lay  belly down on the floor, keep your body like a plank, and push up to 6 inches from full arm extension, that is where your punching push, your ‘Punch Up,’ is going to begin.

Push up to full extension, lower 6 inches.

Push up to full extension, lower 6 inches.

Got it?

Now, you are supporting weight at the exact peak of the punch, the place where the arm has to endure sudden and explosive impact.

Want to jack it up a notch?

Push that last six inches so hard your body rises six inches off the ground. When your fists slam down you are going to receive a jarring effect that is very similar to a punch.

Now, a couple of things we want to be careful of.

It is best to do these push ups on your fists, and when you do so, it’s not a bad idea to wear gloves. You don’t want to bruise your knuckles so that you can’t strike somebody, you want to build them up and be able to use them.

Keep your body straight and rigid like a plank. You will find as you do these push ups, that your core starts to burn. The core is the belly wherein the energy center for the whole body sits. All power comes from that center, so make that core strong, and never let it sag.

And, a very important thing to note, do some of these six inch ‘Punch Ups,’ and isolate exactly which parts of your arms or body take the shock.

You will find that the shoulders are one of the most important items in the whole equation, but don’t neglect growing awareness in other body parts.

Okay, now comes the question…how many of these punch ups should you do?

Tons.

I want you to consider something. Does a fellow who is going to run a marathon focus on fifteen minute sprints? No. He runs and he runs and he runs.

Yes, a punch is very similar to a sprint, but to get the best sprint you are going to have to work those guns like a marathoner runs his legs.

Obviously, begin easy, and spread them out over the day. If you feel any pain at all in the shoulder joint…back off. We want to build the shoulder, not rip the rotator cuff or otherwise injure a working joint.

One thing to remember here is that we are trying to build bulk. Bulk can actually work against you, because the bigger your arms are the more mass you have to move, and it takes more time to move more mass.

No, what we are going for here is dense and solid. Feel a marathoners legs and you will feel a density that doesn’t yeild. You simply can’t insert your finger into his muscle. That’s kind of muscle you want to build, and specifically in your shoulder if you are going to have a hard punch.

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