How To Gain Phenomenal Striking Power and Outlandish Hand Strength

God bless you all!

We’re approaching a time of Thanksgiving and I’m very thankful for all of the blessings in my life and especially for those of you who subscribe to our newsletter. We really appreciate your support and your interest and excellent responses.

I thought we would announce a couple of quick things to start this newsletter and then get to the message for the day.

First: We’re going to slightly change the format of the newsletter. In the past we’ve averaged sending one very big newsletter every week. We’re going to change to a smaller, more to the point, yet still as informationally dense newsletter on a daily basis. This way you’ll actually get much more information. Instead of covering two topics per week, we’ll cover five or more and you’ll be able to get the info on that one thing with no other distractions. We’ll still cover spiritual, mental and physical topics, we’ll just choose one every day as we see fit. More great information in a slightly different format. We’re also working on a free gift that you’ll get just for signing up for our newsletter…. So tell your friends.

Second: There are four new articles up on our website. We’ve changed the way that the articles are formatted on the website so that when you click on an article you now get it in PDF instead of it being viewable in your web browser. It will immediately pop up in your screen as any other PDF does, so it doesn’t change anything about the way you read it, it just makes it easier for you to print out and easier for us to upload so we can bring you more articles faster.

The new articles are “So You Wanna Be A Fighter? – Part 1” and “So You Wanna Be A Fighter? – Part 2” by Mike Bruce. Pay attention to this guy he’s the real deal bringing you real training from some very tough people.

“How To Use Sand Bags For Explosive Speed & Power,” a new installment by Zack Even-Esh. Great training with the easiest to make odd object! As always, rough stuff from Zach of www.undergroundstrengthcoach.com

“21 Reasons I Train With Kettlebells.” A new article from me continuing in our series of why I train the way I do. You wanna know why the kettlebell works and why it’s hardcore? Read this article.

Get them all here: http://strongerman.com/articles.html


Now we’ll move on to the real meat and potato info for the day.

This is excerpted from our new manual, “Super Strength & Endurance for Martial Arts.” It’s pulled out to fit the format of this newsletter so it does appear differently in the book, however it’ll give you a glimpse into some of the outstanding material you’ll receive in this new manual plus it’s something I wanted to cover.

HERE ARE THE FIRST FIVE EXERCISES OF THE TOP TEN FOR BUILDING PHENOMENAL STRIKING POWER:

*Note – Much of building the ability to hit hard is being proficient at whatever martial style you practice. That being said, all styles rely on the same basic power generation to hit hard. Everything starts with the hips, relaxed movement for speed and powerful tension at the follow through for delivering the most devastating blow. This is true of boxing, or Kung Fu or karate styles or Muay Thai or even Russian Systema which uses a circular “power slap” kind of a blow. All power is transferred from the feet up through the legs, hips, back and abs. These are the exercises that will give you the most ability for the areas of your body in the most martially applicable way. It’s up to you to become technically proficient at whatever style of striking you use to make the most of it.

1. The one-arm dumbbell press. There are multiple styles of the one arm press done with a dumbbell from strict to explosive. All styles will help because they all overload the body in a way to unify it behind one limb which is a key in striking. Putting your whole body behind the striking arm. This will strengthen your upper body better than any other exercise as well as teaching unified movement of the upper back and coordinated movement of the core and legs.

2. Full Squats or Deadlifts. If you’re really going to learn to hit hard you have to be doing full body training. The kind that makes your body function as one piece and adds to the power of every muscle in the body, not just some isolated exercise. Maybe not everybody prefers squats like I do, but one or the other is a must for building an extension of the legs, hips and back to generate real power for striking.

3. The kettlebell swing. This exercise gives you not only explosive, extending power of the hips, legs and back, but endurance to boot which is a huge plus in any kind of striking style. Intent is everything in training. Something that’s big on the agenda for super martial artists like Steve Cotter. When you do the swing think no only of crisp, snappy, powerfully explosive movements, but of the same powerful body extension that you would use in throwing a strike. Breathe deep. Deep breathing adds to your internal energy as well as health.


4. The Sledgehammer Swing. Swinging sledgehammers for building muscle, strength, conditioning and striking power was a tremendous secret of the old time boxers. Guys who could hit REALLY hard. It’s also symbiotic with the kettlebell swing. Working a total body explosive movement with heavy emphasis on the shoulders, wrists and abdominals. Teaching your body the correct explosive sequencing to hit harder while at the same time building its physical powers.

5. Isometric Strikes. There are many ways to do this, but I’m going to share with you one way. I put a chain around an immovable object (low for kicking, high for punching), and attach either a strap to put around my foot or a handle to grab with my hand and then as closely as I possibly can I simulate the exact path a correctly thrown strike would take pulling against the chain. I make sure that my body as well as the limb that I’m striking with follows all the actions that a correctly thrown strike would take. I work the isometric along multiple parts of the path of the strike starting at the generation and going out along a link or two on the chain until I get to the finish. Be sure to work both hands or legs. And you can hold for whatever time or reps you see fit, just work it hard.

Working these five exercises into your routine will not only explode your conditioning, but will teach your body the right movements and type of ability to make you hit harder than ever before. You have to wait until tomorrow for the next five. But believe me it will be worth it because there are some secrets in there that combined in your total program will give you hands of stone and the power to back them up.