resistance or pump iron?

[aku aku]

Aku, you've got alot of knowledge. I'd love to chat with you more on training topics through PMs.

Thanks. It's been an area of interest for a while.

Personally, I would rather be underestimated by the way I look and be able to fight explosively all day and all night than look mean, be strong but not for long...lol

Knockout power is more of a function of explosive training, timing and technique than it is size. Size is important too, but its not the only thing.

I suppose you could argue from a self-defense perspective that the more intimidating you look the less likely people will mess with you. Some of the hardest hitters I've known weren't that big but the hardest hitter I've trained with was pretty built.

[scors77]

I was thinking of just working out a major muscle group that involves striking. Like shoulders, triceps, biceps, forearms. I don't know which one of those involves striking the most. What about working out all of those? I sure don't want an imbalance though like you said.

Thanks for all the info though, I'll be starting that workout routine soon.

[aku aku]

I was thinking of just working out a major muscle group that involves striking. Like shoulders, triceps, biceps, forearms. I don't know which one of those involves striking the most. What about working out all of those? I sure don't want an imbalance though like you said.

Striking uses the entire body. It uses the muscles you mentioned above plus the midsection, legs, back, etc. During a good punching workout my legs and midsection would get as sore as any other muscle. If you strengthen your whole body you will strengthen your punching muscles.

Charles Staley also wrote about the importance of the antagonistic muscles. It's been a while since I've read this but basically your body knows how strong the different muscles are relative to each other and, in an effort to avoid inury, will prevent your arm from extending faster than it can be retracted. To punch faster, work the antagonistic muscles so your arm can extend faster without injuring itself.

Thanks for all the info though, I'll be starting that workout routine soon.

Let us know how it goes.

[scors77]

in an effort to avoid inury, will prevent your arm from extending faster than it can be retracted. To punch faster, work the antagonistic muscles so your arm can extend faster without injuring itself.

I don't get this part, sorry for the dumb question. But antagonistic means opposite right? So you're saying work the opposite muscles so your arm can extend faster without injuring itself. And which muscles would those be ?

[aku aku]

I don't get this part, sorry for the dumb question. But antagonistic means opposite right? So you're saying work the opposite muscles so your arm can extend faster without injuring itself. And which muscles would those be ?

You are correct. The muscles that extend your arm would be the bench press and military press muscles, the antagonists would be the rowing and pullup muscles. The advice I've been given is to do at least as much pulling as you do pushing. If you do 5 sets of bench press, you should do 5 sets of rows. This will help prevent shoulder problems due to muscle imbalances.

[Tom Yum]

One of my favorite reads (and I'm sure aku aku has heard of this) is the book, Power: A scientific Approach by Frederick Hatfield. He goes by Dr. Squat, since he has a PhD in sports medicine if not nearly enough info to have on and was a top-ranked power lifter.

The book was written in the early 90's and is probably available at your local half-price book store.

Dr. Squat talks about the effects of different kinds of resistance and cardio training regiments, how different athletes benefit from them and then talks alot about the benefits of weight training.

[aku aku]

One of my favorite reads (and I'm sure aku aku has heard of this) is the book, Power: A scientific Approach by Frederick Hatfield. He goes by Dr. Squat, since he has a PhD in sports medicine if not nearly enough info to have on and was a top-ranked power lifter.

Don't forget that he was the first person to squat over 1000 pounds in competition.

I have that book, also "Hardcore Bodybuilding: A Scientific Approach", another good read. Years ago I was actually studying for the ISSA's fitness trainer certification. It was never official though because I got lazy and didn't get cpr certified. Dr. Squat's stuff is good but I found myself needing a spreadsheet to figure it all out.

I like Pavel's stuff too. His talent seems to be to collect good information from a variety of sources and present it in a way that's easy to understand and to use. I could probably give a whole list of names I've been inspired by.

Scott Sonnon is another guy worth listening to. His material is kind of un-conventinal though so you kind of need to buy his products where he explains it in detail.