Weight Training for Explosiveness

Hi,
I’ve been doing 5 by 5 and Wendler 531 for the past year and have seen my strength and compound lifts all go up. I’ve went back to boxing and also K Maga the past few months and have found that lifting really heavy hasn’t transferred across to the boxing and K Maga. I lift three times a week and then box and do Krav on a Mon and Fri. In terms of a weights programme I want to increase power and endurance whilst keeping lean muscle. Any thoughts?

Jumps and throws. There’ll be a lot more behind your punches though, don’t sell that short.

OP,

There is some info in the “Getting Manhandled” thread a few below this one.

Jumps and throws are good and all, but technique is going to be what makes any strength “applicable” or “functional”. If you built up a base with 5/3/1 and want the “stronger” to turn into more destructive than train the techniques.

I am not trying to be snarky when I say that training weights 3X a week and only doing martial arts/combat sports 2X makes it way easier to be a lifter who boxes/“takes” a Krav class than a fighter/martial artist who also weight trains.

Several of our members really like 5/3/1 at about a 2X a week frequency with as much fight/technique training as possible, look at FightinIrish26’s log and Ranzo’s. Conditioning is also very, VERY important. You may want to look at a 2X a week 5/3/1 schedule and add at least one extra workout for boxing/Krav. Even if you are just doing bag work, shadow boxing, ect. on your own.

When you list boxing/Krav do you work both each day, or is it one and one?

Regards,

Robert A

do everything these guys do.

everything

most important is the detail they pay to their appearance
and the coordination of their gear and accessories
that is the key to their sucess

really for most people

sled pushes
1 arm db snatches
continuous broad jumps
and med ball tosses- and throws are probably more then enough

also jumping on and off boxes for weeks on end is a great way to
crush your ankles and make you slow

a little goes a long way with this.

^^

Respectfully, I think you really missed the boat on those videos…

A man’s explosiveness is CLEARLY proportional to the magnificence of his moustache. As clearly defined by Albert Einstein himself, the formula is quite simple. Explosiveness equals the width of the moustache, multiplied by its density, squared.

Therefore, we can conclude from the videos that the key to success is rooted in the power of the moustache…NOT in the exercise selection.

So, OP…the question really is…what is the status of your moustache, and to what lengths are you willing to grow it???

Don’t take my word for it. The videos prove this. It’s science.

Ask RobertA…he’ll back me up on this…

[quote]mapwhap wrote:

Don’t take my word for it. The videos prove this. It’s science.

Ask RobertA…he’ll back me up on this…[/quote]

I’m glad someone is familiar with the literature.

I will agree to disagree about a mustache.

the OP might be in the military or in an para military
organization where facial hair might be prohibited.
Like the NY Yankees or the Freemasons.

I would concetrate on making your skillwork efficient
and build on that - to be more explosive.

531 or any program that you can scale to two or three days is fine for a basis of strength

throw in some 1 arm db snatches and bear crawls- med ball tosses and slams
and you might be surprised

Not all techniques have the same potential to benefit from going a few sizes up.

Some might improve solely through making the CNS more explosive and efficient (eg Snatches)
Other exercises might provide carryover through strengthening certain muscle groups.

But it’s a two edged sword, really. Even with superlean, steroid-like gains- more muscle can slow you down simply because you’re bulkier or the the body has to rewire and relearn the correct pattern.
And power is hard to get by if you’re also building your endurance in all ranges (eg sprints, circuits, interval, LSD …).

So the holy grail of clean power-development for everything has not yet been found, sorry.

Let me add two more things that might help: rotational explosiveness is something that can’t really be trained with weights but is totally fundamental with most strikes. It is one reason why some massive dudes look “musclebound”.
Also, train the lats.

The body can do anything, but not everything. The better you learn to cycle your routines and programs towards your goal the better you will succeed.

So if you want a more powerful punch, then powerful punching needs to be your priority. Weights can help a lot but understand depending on nutrition they do more then one thing. They may just give you more weight, they make it easier for your body to throw multiple heavy handed punches without pulling muscles or tendons or they may just give you more cushion against forces. But it’s up to you to train what you have gained from weightlifting into something useful for punching.

I know this isn’t a specific exercise but all you said is more explosive, not more explosive punching, or kicks or leg power. Explosion can be in any part of the body and if you train your arms explosively doesn’t mean your legs will be. And while related don’t confuse explosive with power and or quickness, while related they are different.