[cjsedthat]

do u guys no how to get strong wit out the gym? also do u no how to punch harder, for my boxing clazz also in tae kwon do i want a better form in kicking is there secrets in kicking and punching and form in tae kwon do

[F r 0 s t t]

^^Run, do push ups and pull ups, if you have weights use those.. If you wanna work on punching and kicking, there aren't many secrets lol.. It's all up to how much you wanna get better.. When you have free time, try working on your form^^

[Johnny Y]

After perfecting your form, punching and kicking harder is all about repetition. Boxers get their fast, heavy hands from hundreds of thousands of punches on heavy bags, speed bags, double end bags, mitts, etc. In TKD, you get lightning fast kicks from kicking free form, kicking kick shields, focus pads, etc. thousands of times. To get strong without weights you should acquaint yourself with pushups with someone/something on your back, pullups with something hanging off your legs, situps with some form of resistance, pistols(one legged squats), and overhead presses with something heavy like a heavybag or a duffel bag filled with sand. Getting stronger is all about increased resistance, if you don't increase the weight/resistance, you're just training muscular endurance - which is important too by the way. Just keep training with heavier and heavier disadvantages. Oh, one thing I highly suggest is going through planche progressions. Do a search on google for them. When you master the planche pushup, your upper body/core will be beastly.

[Slug]

Body on body contact such as wrestling helps you become stronger without actually lifting weights. Of course pushups and pullups help a lot. As for punching harder, as the guy above me said, repetition helps. Also for stronger punches and kicks, you have to have the right stance and move with your hips. I learned how to use my hips on my kicks and kick 2 times harder now. As for my punch, with the proper technique, I have a knock out blow that's ready to be fired at will. I've been boxing for 5 years now and recently started kicking boxing and a little wrestling.

[dudnaito]

Yeah, there are different types of strength: 1) gym strength: increases explosiveness, power in push and pull movements, primarily cosmetic and health-orientated, 2) striking: kickboxing, muay thai, karate, tkd, 3) wrestling, judo.

To be honest, with only a rudimentary knowledge of brazilian jiu-jitsu, i could probably submit you though. You might want to look into it. You need a good mixture of all these arts to be "strong."

[Slug]

BJJ is very useful. I've almost put my little brother to sleep a few times with a quite a few armbars as well. However, you really don't need a lot of strength to practice BJJ. I would say wrestling builds a lot more strength than BJJ.

[Johnny Y]

^^ lol @ putting your brother to sleep with an armbar. Yeah, BJJ doesn't require strength - you actually learn much better if you can't use your strength as a crutch. I cheat a lot by powering out of submissions from blue belts when I should be learning how to smoothly counter/sweep them into better positions. The black belts take advantage of my overuse of power and just take their time (sometimes over 30 minutes of gruelling grappling!) until I'm too tired to fight them off anymore.

I completely ignored the part of the original poster's question about secrets to kicking and punching form. Slug hit the nail on the head. If you think about muscles involved with punching, the muscles in your arm itself are probably the tiniest muscles involved. Your power in both punching and kicking comes from proper explosive hip movement and leg drive. A punch should be launched with the momentum from you driving the foot on the same side of your punching arm straight into the ground, twisting it towards your body, then almost simultaneously launching your punch with your trapezius/shoulder muscles first, arm muscles next, then a quick snap of the wrist to finish it off. Your punch should have just enough follow-through (imagine punching through the target, not just at it) where you feel like you're doing some serious damage, but not so much that you're just pushing it around. For instance, if you punch a heavy bag that's over 100 lbs and it starts flying out of control, you're pushing a bit too much. To ensure the proper amount of snap, or pop, to your punch, you also have to return your fist back to starting position as quickly as you can. This will also help you with defense. Sounds complex huh? This is why when you join most boxing gyms, they won't even let you hit the bags for a week or so until they're sure you won't learn bad punching habits.

Kicking is actually the same. Roundhouse kicks generate tremendous power, and it's the preferred kick of Muay Thai. However, with practice, you'll be able to utilize sidekicks and front kicks with similar power when you properly utilize your hips and good leg drive.

For the original thread poster - have you figured out a strength training routine yet? I'd like to hear about your progress - the martial arts discussion here is so sparse.

[Slug]

Meant to say I almost put him to sleep, and I also put some armbars on him, which is probably my favorite BJJ technique.