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“Burning in the Jab”: 3 Solo Tests by Mark Hatmaker

 


[This is simply ONE aspect of increasing punching power, we will not be discussing caulking steps, shifts, head over foot loads, “charging the punch”, lumberjacking and the myriad other factors that comprise the Old School Method, for that prime beef see our Program Street Dentist KO Combos. Here, we offer just a bit of free milk from that Grade A cow.]

Let’s talk increasing our punching power.

Better yet, let’s refine that statement, let’s talk increasing our punching power via Old School Boxing and Physical Culturist Principles.

Solo Experiments

I will offer three versions of the initial test to allow for what level of gear you may have around.

If you take me up on this self-experiment, you’ll need…

·        Yourself and weight plates or anything that provides comparable elevation.

Or…

·        Dumbbells

Or, if you are lucky enough to have access

·        Barbell and Swiss Bar.

Experiment 1

·        Hit a plank on your push-up blocks.

·        Fingertips pointing forward.

·        Now step your hands off of the blocks and plank with your hands on the floor between the blocks.

·        Descend to the floor and then burst from the floor and “leap” your hands to the elevated blocks.

·        If you did that with no problem, increase the elevation and repeat.

·        You can continue to do so if you like raising the elevation each time until you tap out.

Now,

·        Go back to your initial box elevation set-up.

·        Plank on the floor between your blocks with fingertips facing out.

·        Begin hitting the same “leap” to the blocks test and increase elevation accordingly.

These hand positions give us a nice correlation of force production comparing a horizontal fist and a vertical fist.

Experiment 2

·        Grab your dumbbells and hit a bench press position—standard grip==palms towards feet, knuckles towards head.

·        Descend the barbells to full stretch inner bell touching outside of the pec major.

·        Burst the press to the top position then descend for a slow count of 10.

·        Hit 8 reps in this style.

·        If you hit all 8 without the cheat, add 5#s and continue until the market fails.

Now,

·        Rest for 3-minutres and repeat the bench press experiment with hands in neutral grip position, that is, palms facing.

·        Again, hit full stretch, burst to top, slow 10 count cadence to the bottom.

·        Use the same walk-up protocol.

Again, these hand positions give us a nice correlation of force production comparing a horizontal fist and a vertical fist.

Experiment 3

Most of us have a barbell around but a few have a Swiss Bar that allows for maximum neutral bench-press loads, but if you do have a Swiss Bar and a barbell, follow the protocol of Experiment 2 with far heavier loads.

Again, these hand positions between the standard barbell grip and the Swiss bar grip give us a nice correlation of force production comparing a horizontal fist and a vertical fist.

Likely Results

Experiment 1

You can push-up leap far higher with the fingertips towards the head position.

Experiments 2 & 3

You can move far more poundage from the standard grip position than you can from the neutral grip.

Why Is This the Likely Answer?

Biomechanics.

To keep it from getting too far into the weeds, the standard grip allows for greater force production and muscular recruitment.

Biomechanically the standard grip [horizontal fist] position allows for a more powerful and efficient transfer of the lines of force through chest, triceps, and anterior shoulders.

In this position the muscles synergistically interlock and bolster as each are recruited efficiently along the bursting out position.

The standard bench/push-up position calls for more muscle activation.

This is key as we want maximum muscle recruitment when we intend on hitting HARD.

“But Mark, when I do the vertical fist push-up burst, neutral grip dumbbell or Swiss bar bench press I am more fatigued and feel that I am working harder. Isn’t hard work proof of greater force outlay?”

Not exactly.

You will indeed perceive the vertical fist position to be harder in the exercise realm as it is recruiting less muscle mass along the trajectory of the punch.

The majority of the work is kicked to the triceps, a less robust muscle mass in the neutral grip/vertical fist position, and this leads to quicker failure on higher weights and lesser jumps on our “push-up” leaps.

This is ideal for fine tuning the aesthetics of our physique, we cover just such off-loads in our Unleaded Conditioning material but…

If our goal is to hit H-A-R-D we transfer the attention from aesthetics to biomechanics.

Again, this horizontal vs. vertical fist orientation is but one factor in increasing punching power.

In fact, even the horizontal fist is not quite that, but the featured tests begin seating the idea behind this single aspect of the method.

Again, this is simply ONE aspect of increasing punching power, we have not discussed caulking steps, shifts, lumberjacking, head over foot loads, “charging the punch” the Mexican Sphere, and the myriad other factors that comprise the Old School Method, for that prime beef see our Program Street Dentist KO Combos. Here, we offer just a bit of free milk from that Grade A cow.

For a mini-video on aspects of Burning in the Jab see here.

Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life

The Black Box Store

The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast

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