Becoming stronger without gaining weight?

Meraki

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Hey all,

I'm a green tag tkd student and ideally I want to compete in the 52kg and under category as the women tend to be a bit shorter than myself and this would give me more reach with my legs.

My question is whether it is possible to gain strength in my punches (and kicks too) without increasing too much weight/muscle? Or could I even lose weight? I'm not au fait with the biomechanics of it all, but my slight build is not one meant for withstanding a lot of damage and I'm someone who essentially has keep a distance, then pounce, and then get out straight away.

Whilst I can punch and kick OK when sparring, they do not have much impact at all and I want to learn to "spark" my opponent. Not in such a way to severely hurt but I want enough power behind it that its quick and powerful enough for them to feel it and back-off. I've got the agility but not the power. Right now, my kicks are great on the spot but neither punches or kicks have much power during sparring. (My stats are: fem, 54kg and 5'5").

Does increasing strength help much? Will losing weight compromise strength too much? Or is it technique and learning the proper execution that matters most?

Thanks.
 

Danny T

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The average person is strong enough though gaining more strength (to a point) is helpful however, it is Proper technique executed with proper timing that is more important.
 

jobo

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Hey all,

I'm a green tag tkd student and ideally I want to compete in the 52kg and under category as the women tend to be a bit shorter than myself and this would give me more reach with my legs.

My question is whether it is possible to gain strength in my punches (and kicks too) without increasing too much weight/muscle? Or could I even lose weight? I'm not au fait with the biomechanics of it all, but my slight build is not one meant for withstanding a lot of damage and I'm someone who essentially has keep a distance, then pounce, and then get out straight away.

Whilst I can punch and kick OK when sparring, they do not have much impact at all and I want to learn to "spark" my opponent. Not in such a way to severely hurt but I want enough power behind it that its quick and powerful enough for them to feel it and back-off. I've got the agility but not the power. Right now, my kicks are great on the spot but neither punches or kicks have much power during sparring. (My stats are: fem, 54kg and 5'5").

Does increasing strength help much? Will losing weight compromise strength too much? Or is it technique and learning the proper execution that matters most?

Thanks.
Yes very much so, putting on muscle in an appreciate level is difficult for most people, especially women, increasing strength, is fairly easy for most people, as they are commonly only able to use about 30/40% of the strength that there existing muscle is capable of producing.

That said, you need to consider if the lack of sting in your kicks is down to a lack of strength or a lack of technique, quite probably both, so work on both

You can always lose some weight( fat) unless your body fat % is zero, well 5% any way, cyclists go to some lengths to hamper muscle growth whilst increasing performance/ strength, but I seriously doubt it will ever become a prBlem e
e for you unless you have to shave twice a day
 
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Gerry Seymour

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Understand that a major factor in "strength" is actually neurological development. Muscle growth (adding significant muscle weight) comes mostly in large increases in strength. Most of the early gain is learning to use the muscles properly for the given exercise. Working specifically on your technique for power punches and power kicks (slightly different from speed punches and speed kicks) might have more benefit, as would work on general body coordination and strength, preferably with exercises that affect large parts of the body (burpees, push-ups, etc.).
 

mrt2

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Hey all,

I'm a green tag tkd student and ideally I want to compete in the 52kg and under category as the women tend to be a bit shorter than myself and this would give me more reach with my legs.

My question is whether it is possible to gain strength in my punches (and kicks too) without increasing too much weight/muscle? Or could I even lose weight? I'm not au fait with the biomechanics of it all, but my slight build is not one meant for withstanding a lot of damage and I'm someone who essentially has keep a distance, then pounce, and then get out straight away.

Whilst I can punch and kick OK when sparring, they do not have much impact at all and I want to learn to "spark" my opponent. Not in such a way to severely hurt but I want enough power behind it that its quick and powerful enough for them to feel it and back-off. I've got the agility but not the power. Right now, my kicks are great on the spot but neither punches or kicks have much power during sparring. (My stats are: fem, 54kg and 5'5").

Does increasing strength help much? Will losing weight compromise strength too much? Or is it technique and learning the proper execution that matters most?

Thanks.
Maybe spend more time hitting a heavy bag? At my school, we usually do 10 or 15 minutes of bag work per class, but if you are looking to strike with more power, maybe do an extra 20 minutes of bag work, 2 or 3 times per week on your own before or after class.
 
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Meraki

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Thanks a lot for your helpful responses.

When we do the drills with pads, I manage to kick my partner (who is usually a good few KGs heavier than myself) quite far back without much effort. The punching is alright but lacks any real oomph.

So I could do some upper body exercises such as push-ups, etc to increase upper body strength and practice punching/kicking techniques on a hard bag/dummy. If anyone knows of any particularly beneficial exercises to do either alone or with a bag that help with power and speed, please do pass them on. Many thanks!
 

mrt2

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Thanks a lot for your helpful responses.

When we do the drills with pads, I manage to kick my partner (who is usually a good few KGs heavier than myself) quite far back without much effort. The punching is alright but lacks any real oomph.

So I could do some upper body exercises such as push-ups, etc to increase upper body strength and practice punching/kicking techniques on a hard bag/dummy. If anyone knows of any particularly beneficial exercises to do either alone or with a bag that help with power and speed, please do pass them on. Many thanks!

When doing drills with a partner, there is always the possibility of the overly cooperative training partner. Don't you already have sparring combinations you practice against a heavy bag? If you don't, just start doing basics. Jabs, punches, kicks. Than variations, like skipping or sliding kicks, jump kicks, etc...
 

Buka

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Welcome to MartialTalk, Meraki.

Overall body strength could help. You could take that heavy bag, carry it in your arms while power walking uphill, every other day for a couple months.

Bonus would be being known as that crazy lady carrying a heavy bag uphill.

Or you could just keep training and enjoying it. Hard work in the Arts builds strength, takes a little time, though. How long have you been training?
 

Gerry Seymour

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Thanks a lot for your helpful responses.

When we do the drills with pads, I manage to kick my partner (who is usually a good few KGs heavier than myself) quite far back without much effort. The punching is alright but lacks any real oomph.

So I could do some upper body exercises such as push-ups, etc to increase upper body strength and practice punching/kicking techniques on a hard bag/dummy. If anyone knows of any particularly beneficial exercises to do either alone or with a bag that help with power and speed, please do pass them on. Many thanks!
I'd be careful reading the amount of your partner's movement as kicking power. There are two distinct types of kick: a push kick and an impact kick. Both can be useful in sparring/competition, but when you talk about power the way you do, I believe you're looking for impact power. Impact power will rarely move someone back more than a step if they are holding a pad (and rarely even that) unless you kick hard enough for them to feel the "hit" through the pad. I can easily move much bigger pad holders back a couple of steps with a push kick, but am less likely to do so with an impact kick unless I bring a lot of power.

I make a point of this because you want to watch the heavy bag for evidence of power. It swinging wide from a single hit usually means you're pushing, rather than hitting. (Again, pushing can be useful, but it's not going to give the kind of reaction you mentioned earlier.) You want to see the bag deform (dent) around your strike, and you want to see some "shake" in the bag on power strikes (more likely with power kicks). Practicing against the bag for moderate power is a good way to develop your power - don't try to do max power too much, as that puts a lot of strain on your joints and support muscles.
 

jobo

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Thanks a lot for your helpful responses.

When we do the drills with pads, I manage to kick my partner (who is usually a good few KGs heavier than myself) quite far back without much effort. The punching is alright but lacks any real oomph.

So I could do some upper body exercises such as push-ups, etc to increase upper body strength and practice punching/kicking techniques on a hard bag/dummy. If anyone knows of any particularly beneficial exercises to do either alone or with a bag that help with power and speed, please do pass them on. Many thanks!
The normal run of body weight exercises will do you just fine, as a rule of thumb, do the concentric, ( the up) as fast as you can and the Eccentric ( down) as slowly as possible, doing fast up and slow downs is hard,
Particularly the slow downs, so don't get caught up in how many press ups you can do, one really slow s Decent is better than 10 ordinary ones were people just drop their weight, at building strength
 

drop bear

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Plyometrics and salad.


Just do either thirty seconds or a minute on each exersise for how ever long a competition round lasts.

Otherwise when you hit the pads. Kill them. Dont just coast through. You need to come out of each session exausted.
 
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drop bear

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This is our girl Bec. She fights at 55kg.

we do mostly bodyweight with some dumbell stuff or kettlebells
 

dvcochran

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Thanks a lot for your helpful responses.

When we do the drills with pads, I manage to kick my partner (who is usually a good few KGs heavier than myself) quite far back without much effort. The punching is alright but lacks any real oomph.

So I could do some upper body exercises such as push-ups, etc to increase upper body strength and practice punching/kicking techniques on a hard bag/dummy. If anyone knows of any particularly beneficial exercises to do either alone or with a bag that help with power and speed, please do pass them on. Many thanks!

How confident are you in sparring? I have seen some big, strong (muscled) people have very weak punches, (A) because of technique and (B) because they were "afraid" to punch. Work with your instructor and the bag or a solid target to get your technique honed. Are you segmenting your punch, only using the arm? If you learn to put even 1/3 your weight into the punch the gains will be tremendous.
 

punisher73

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Technique and its proper application (timing, distancing and all those things) along with proper cardio conditioning for the combat sport are the most important. But, having more lean muscle mass and strength along with knowing how to use it appropriately is an advantage. It's the main reason that there are weight classes in combat sports.

If you wanted to supplement strength training into your workouts. Low reps and high weights will build strength without adding a lot of size through hypertrophy. A stronger muscle will be a stronger muscle though, so its finding that magical point FOR YOU where you are happy with your results. But, if you are training naturally as a female there is no risk of "looking like a man", which is the most common worry that I hear in regards to women and weight training and thinking that they are going to balloon up with large muscles.
 

GreatSayiaman

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Another suggestion I can give you to help with your strength training without gaining weight would be if you do train in any 'Boxing" style art Shadow Boxing with light weights or gloves as well as Speed Jump Rope Exercises will give you that exercise to keep your strength but not gain that weight That is one of the tricks the Thai Fighters do.
 

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