Weighted exercise

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Tyranith, Sep 29, 2005.

  1. Tyranith

    Tyranith New Member

    I've had a pair of weighted shadow-boxing gloves for a while, and I've been playing with the idea of adding weights to my ankles, torso, and wrists while I do bag-work, and cardio.
    I've seen mentioned before that this isn't a good idea for reasons I can't recall, what are your thoughts on this type of exercise?

    I have to say that the weighted gloves seem to have given my hands more speed, and improved my technique somewhat, too. So my experience with this is positive, but limited.
     
  2. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    You could end up with some real problems by working the heavybag if you had weights on e.g. ankle weights and weighted gloves.

    The chance of injury outweighs the benefit... if there is any. If you were doing cardio - which is not really a key component of a heavybag workout anyhow - you are stressing your joints unneccessarily by adding the weight to your limbs. The weight is not really going to add anything to a cardio workout. Most people have a fairly big imbalance between their chest and back anyhow - and an imbalance between the anterior (front) and posterior (back) deltoids... so if you start working the heavy bag with weighted gloves your likely to end up with rotator cuff damage of some sort.

    For boxing and combat type sport you want to be training specifically. I think it's called the specificity priniciple. Example - boxing and Muay Thai are roughly 70% percent anaerobic and 30% aerobic... so what you want to concentrate on is anaerobic workouts. That means HIIT.. or High Intesity Interval Training... wind sprints, jump rope sessions done at high intesity and in relation to a timed round... etc. etc. Running 5 miles a day or so is a great cardio workout for someone in an cardio endurance sport... but most combat sports aren't that.

    Instead of hitting a heavy bag workout with weighted limbs etc. you'd be far better off doing rotational torso exercises and resistance training like compound lifts mixed in with HIIT workouts.

    You should check out the venerable www.Rossboxing.com
    Even if boxing is not your dish... his routines and methods have benefits for all martial artists and are well researched and well thought out.
     
    Last edited: Sep 29, 2005
  3. Tyranith

    Tyranith New Member

    Thanks. I guess the short answer then is fighting-muscle-specific weight training, and intense heavy-bag work.

    Talking of which, what are the more important muscles in boxing and muay thai?

    I've seen Ross's website before and have been reading through the articles slowly for a while now - the guy definitely knows what he's talking about and has some great tips.

    What kind of injuries can result from doing the weighted-limb workouts, and how likely is it? Are there any useful benefits?
     
  4. Prophet

    Prophet ♥ H&F ♥

    Punching/kicking with weighted anything is useless and counterproductive. I second what slipthejab said. A good strength training + HIIT cardio program, plus MA specific drills is what you want to do.
     
  5. harhar

    harhar I hate semaphores

    Its easy to see that weighted limb workouts are useless when you think about the force of gravity.

    You punch forward. Gravity pulls you down. Wrong direction of force applied. Therefore you just screw up your punching technique. That is all.
     

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