Holding bricks when you punch

- Get 2 bricks of 7 lb each.
- Hold it in both hands.
- Repeat jab and cross combo for 30 times.
- Rest for 30 seconds.
- Repeat jab and cross combo for 30 times again.
- Rest for 30 seconds.
- Repeat uppercut and hook combo for 30 times.
- Rest for 30 seconds.
- Repeat uppercut and hook combo for 30 times again.
- Repeat this training 3 times a week.

What's your opinion about this training?

 

Tendonitis?

 

Don't do it.

Forget about risk of injury for a moment and consider the load itself. Optimal resistance occurs in the direction opposite to which the limb is travelling. When you hold any weight in your hand (dumbbell or brick) while you punch, the direction of resistance is downward. You simply aren't training the movement right. You need to make resistance push against your fist in the horizontal plane (not vertical). Punching a heavy bag or while holding resistance bands attached to the wall behind you will do this.

 

I think "You need to make resistance push against your fist in the horizontal plane (not vertical)", while mostly right, is slightly off track too.
Try and hold a high guard for 12 rounds and there most certainly is downward pressure (as well as the outward pressure created when you punch).
Especially wearing 12-14oz gloves.
Holding weights while shadow boxing can help with maintaining that guard IMHO.
Uppercuts also need donward pressure which held weights can replicate (unlike straight or hook punches).

I still wouldn't do this drill though.

 

NO!!! 2 lbs max! Robert Garcia who is an excellent trainer said he doesn't let his fighters use more than 2 lb weights at a time. It's to hard on the shoulders and if you snap the punches out you can injure you biceps, elbows... multiple injuries actually.

 

I agree that punching while holding bricks is silly, but your physics are slightly off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_laws_of_motion#Newton.27s_third_law

The mass of the held weight will resist you moving it in any direction, but gravity tends to confuse puny human minds on the matter.

 

That wasn't what I was saying.

Of course gravity plays a part, and the heavier the weight the greater the part it plays.

But feeling most of the resistance in one direction does not mean that there is no resistance in any other direction.

I wasn't saying that functionally, and for all practical intents and purposes, he's incorrect. I was just saying that his reasoning was inaccurate. Gravity is something that we all have an instinctual understanding of, which works for practical purposes, but often leads to confusion when thinking of physics in a wider context (eg. what happens to your right cross when you're on the International Space Station?).

 

Hence why I said optimal resistance. Of course there will be resistance in different directions. But we're discussing the effectiveness of an exercise here. Punching while holding weights is great if you want to get better at punching while holding weights. That's why ankle weights are good for developing the strength to hold one's leg up in the air (but not for increasing kicking power). Holding weights while punching does not train the correct muscles nor develop correct motor skill acquisition for improving punches. Want power? Hit the heavy bag and punch with resistance bands. Want endurance? Punch longer.

 

So you did!

Missed that, due to confirmation bias because it's something I see quite often

I'll take my pedant hat off now, it's not working right

 

I had to Google 'pedant hat'

 

LOL!

:happy:

 

Are you jabbing at the bricks or using them as a weight to balance?

 

The following drill is called "李奎磨斧 (Li Kui Mo Fu) - Li Kui sharpens the axe" which is one of the "13 太保(Tai Bo)" training that was invented during the ancient time.

- To hold on bricks,
- stay in a bow-arrow stance,
- push (exhale) and pull (inhale) that bricks.

It looks so much like jab and cross. I don't believe the ancient Chinese used this train method to develop punching power but to develop "body structure".

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_0SZ6pDkYM"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_0SZ6pDkYM[/ame]

 

Bricks are poor man's stone locks.

Stone lock training is probably the closest thing to what's being discussed, and no it's not for punching. Think ancient Chinese kettlebell...you find these exercises all over CMA, particularly the "external" styles. There are static (ie "hold this position") and dynamic exercises, like this one:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_tyGxyaZfc"]Equipment Work - Shuai Jiao - Stone Lock (3) - YouTube[/ame]

PASmith mentioned guard....that is something I do use bricks/locks for. Try holding up a guard with weights for 1 minute. When 1 minute is no problem, try for 2m. This is a great way to build endurance, but should be done in a metered fashion.

I can speak from experience, overdoing it with weights on your arms can easily lead to inflamed tendons. Slowly building up the endurance is very important, and the same reason Hung ga stylists don't go from 1 ring to 10 rings overnight. Same principle, slow and steady wins the race and minimizes trauma from overtraining. The worst possible thing for your connective tissue are hard, fast movements with weights that your body is not conditioned for...say hello to "tennis" and "golf" elbow etc.

From a whole body perspective, the addition of bricks, stone locks, or weighted rings during (careful) movement gives the same type/vectors of resistance as moving through water, and strengthens the musculature and supporting tissue in the same ways. So fast punching with weights makes no sense...if anything, slow careful movements make far more sense.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCCg5XXKayQ"]Equipment Work - Shuai Jiao - Stone Lock (1) - YouTube[/ame]
Here they punch with bricks i would do it but dont over do it

 

Yeah...done something similar to this....we used loose weights

Cool excercise

 

I did something similar for the first couple of years of my karate training where I slapped on a 4.4lb weight on each arm and drilled 20 - 40 reps of every technique in the syllabus up to brown belt level. But rather than three times a week I did it pretty much 6 - 7 days a week.

So yeah...I'm not a fan of it from experience. It messed up my techniques and movements and caused me a couple of minor injuries in the end. But I put that down more to terrible use and over use than anything else.

This however, I like a lot. This I would be tempted to do.

Thank you for posting this

 

Brick - develop finger (because you have to hold it with your fingers), wrist, and arm strength,
stone lock - develop wrist (because the weight is toward the end), and arm strength,
dumbbells - develop arm strength,

IMO, brick > stone lock > dumbbells

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Ovz0H-H3s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9Ovz0H-H3s[/ame]