Does Lifting Weights effect handspeed?

[Stormin' Norman]

true **** punchy.

just look at guys like t. fields. ****ing freak...

[P4PKING_2008]

They will boost your handspeed.

[JayCoe]

What I was trying to get across Punch was how people get caught up in weightlifting and I do know people who have done that. A friend of mine did kick boxing, was slim, fast etc. and wanted to join the marines. He trained and trained, I assume, and he become muscular, then he became very muscular and now he's just a square of muscle. VERY strong, not so fit, not so quick. In fact, he failed his first marines try-out because he couldn't keep up etc. but could lift the most weights...He had become a lumbering giant, and in an way, unintentionally. It doesn't mean he didn't put in a huge amount of effort, he trained alot. All I can assume that happened was he got caught up in them, saw some muscle growth and then wanted more and more, wanted to lift more and more and so on until he was an ideal specimen of strength and muscle, but failed to do what it was he wanted. Do you get me now?

I think weights are quite a dangerous thing to get into unless you remain rational. Forget the whole "lumbering giant" thing for now but more commonly people seem to focus on things and actually **** up their bodies. You all must have seen them, I saw a kid who was slim but had these massive arms, looked like a ****ing moron. I've seen a guy with massive pectoral muscles, but was only mildly muscular generally. Stuff like that. People get caught up with weights and lose track of things. I think a good way to have that balance is to take it slowly and increase the weight slowly and not try and build massive muscles as quick as possible.

[Domain]

When i first started boxing 7 months ago, i had pretty good handspeed for a HW., i started lifting weights (moderately heavy) about 4 months ago, and have noticed now that i have gained some extra muscle i have slowed down a bit with my handspeed, is that because my body needs to get used to the extra muscle first, then my handspeed will slowly come back to how it was as my body slowly adapts to my new weight/muscle?

it depends what type and what kind becuase lifting weights can def tighten you up you want your punches to be more fluid.

I suggest dont do body building type stuff just do squats, dead lifts, pull ups, chin ups and push ups and dips.

Those will all make you strong but give you that functional strength without tightening you up.

[Machine Gunz]

Lifting weights will not slow your handspeed.

More or less.

If you are not stretching before and after you lift, you may lose some flexibility, which will affect your handspeed.

If you are only lifting in one direction -- doing, say, bench press but not hanging rows -- you will develop strength in only the concentric or eccentric direction. To throw a proper punch in boxing, you need both; you must be able to return the punch as fast as you throw it out. Balance your lifts.

The common mistake that many boxers make when lifting weights is not having a strength coach who understands kinetics and the sport of boxing. Big muscle is not necessary to hit hard; a good punch is like a good golf swing -- it takes every muscle in your body, working in perfect coordination. Boxing is more a sport of control and coordination than of raw power; boxing is closer to ballet than it is to football.

Muscle hypertrophy -- getting fratboy / musclehead big -- will slow you down in the ring after a time; it takes more oxygen to feed more muscle, so there is definitely a point of diminishing returns. Realistically, though, if you are continuing boxing training while you lift, there is very little chance that you will gain the kind of muscle that would make this an issue. Boxing training, if you're doing it well, is catabolic.

In my experience, the best lifts you can do to augment your boxing training are squats, deadlifts, and -- if you learn to do them properly -- full cleans. These lifts train your entire body to work in concert. A properly-performed squat works 75% of the muscles in your body, from the arches of your feet to your neck. A full clean, performed with strict form, uses close to 90%. Olympic lifts build balance, grace, stability, and explosive power. Get a good gym trainer, learn these lifts, and lay off the dumbbell curls, the leg sled, and the bench. You don't need them.

Thanks for the info,

[Machine Gunz]

Lifting weights will not slow your handspeed.

More or less.

If you are not stretching before and after you lift, you may lose some flexibility, which will affect your handspeed.

If you are only lifting in one direction -- doing, say, bench press but not hanging rows -- you will develop strength in only the concentric or eccentric direction. To throw a proper punch in boxing, you need both; you must be able to return the punch as fast as you throw it out. Balance your lifts.

The common mistake that many boxers make when lifting weights is not having a strength coach who understands kinetics and the sport of boxing. Big muscle is not necessary to hit hard; a good punch is like a good golf swing -- it takes every muscle in your body, working in perfect coordination. Boxing is more a sport of control and coordination than of raw power; boxing is closer to ballet than it is to football.

Muscle hypertrophy -- getting fratboy / musclehead big -- will slow you down in the ring after a time; it takes more oxygen to feed more muscle, so there is definitely a point of diminishing returns. Realistically, though, if you are continuing boxing training while you lift, there is very little chance that you will gain the kind of muscle that would make this an issue. Boxing training, if you're doing it well, is catabolic.

In my experience, the best lifts you can do to augment your boxing training are squats, deadlifts, and -- if you learn to do them properly -- full cleans. These lifts train your entire body to work in concert. A properly-performed squat works 75% of the muscles in your body, from the arches of your feet to your neck. A full clean, performed with strict form, uses close to 90%. Olympic lifts build balance, grace, stability, and explosive power. Get a good gym trainer, learn these lifts, and lay off the dumbbell curls, the leg sled, and the bench. You don't need them.

Thanks for the info,

[Rafael Benitez]

its fine, you will only be slow when your muscles are swelled.

Unless you body build its not an issue, I usually find that once I stop lifting weights for about 4-5 days I feel fine.

massive bulk will slow you down, but lifting weights is something almost all modern boxers do nowadays, as long as its done properly.

Roy Jones Jr lifted weights, he was one of the quickest boxers to have graced the ring.

Acoording to that Boxing Workouts book he did not lift weights while he was at 175. Well we all know what happened after he did start lifting them. It affects the speed of your reactions as we saw with Roy, as well as your ability to make weight healthily. Again, we saw that with Roy too. Billy Grahams brother died or steroid abuse and in honour of his bro, he makes fatty do lots of wieghts! We saw how far that got him and how elusive it made him!

People need to realise there are two types of speed in boxing as I have said before:

Speed of movement

Speed of Reaction

Weight training in some cases might increase the first, but always decreases the second! You can hit what you can see! (and what does not move out of the way). Practivcally speaking, heavy weights and excessive lifting will make people into bums.

[PunchDrunk]

What I was trying to get across Punch was how people get caught up in weightlifting and I do know people who have done that. A friend of mine did kick boxing, was slim, fast etc. and wanted to join the marines. He trained and trained, I assume, and he become muscular, then he became very muscular and now he's just a square of muscle. VERY strong, not so fit, not so quick. In fact, he failed his first marines try-out because he couldn't keep up etc. but could lift the most weights...He had become a lumbering giant, and in an way, unintentionally. It doesn't mean he didn't put in a huge amount of effort, he trained alot. All I can assume that happened was he got caught up in them, saw some muscle growth and then wanted more and more, wanted to lift more and more and so on until he was an ideal specimen of strength and muscle, but failed to do what it was he wanted. Do you get me now?

I think weights are quite a dangerous thing to get into unless you remain rational. Forget the whole "lumbering giant" thing for now but more commonly people seem to focus on things and actually **** up their bodies. You all must have seen them, I saw a kid who was slim but had these massive arms, looked like a ****ing moron. I've seen a guy with massive pectoral muscles, but was only mildly muscular generally. Stuff like that. People get caught up with weights and lose track of things. I think a good way to have that balance is to take it slowly and increase the weight slowly and not try and build massive muscles as quick as possible.

Good post! I agree that a lot of people get caught up in wanting to get really big (and then a minority of them do). The problem you're describing is, in my view, not so much the weights, but ignorance and in the end a flawed self image of what a person should look like to 'look tough.' Funny how those guys always focus on what they see in the mirror and neglect what they don't see. Incidentally, everyone else sees those parts. Either way, these didn't become jacked or whatever by accident, but by a lot of work, trying to acheve just that.
So, to sum up, I agree that ******, insecure people can get caught up in trying to get swole, buff and all that ****, but I maintain that a serious athlete should not worry about getting huge, if he's just trying to get stronger.

[BennyST]

Lifting weights will not slow your handspeed.

More or less.

If you are not stretching before and after you lift, you may lose some flexibility, which will affect your handspeed.

If you are only lifting in one direction -- doing, say, bench press but not hanging rows -- you will develop strength in only the concentric or eccentric direction. To throw a proper punch in boxing, you need both; you must be able to return the punch as fast as you throw it out. Balance your lifts.

The common mistake that many boxers make when lifting weights is not having a strength coach who understands kinetics and the sport of boxing. Big muscle is not necessary to hit hard; a good punch is like a good golf swing -- it takes every muscle in your body, working in perfect coordination. Boxing is more a sport of control and coordination than of raw power; boxing is closer to ballet than it is to football.

Muscle hypertrophy -- getting fratboy / musclehead big -- will slow you down in the ring after a time; it takes more oxygen to feed more muscle, so there is definitely a point of diminishing returns. Realistically, though, if you are continuing boxing training while you lift, there is very little chance that you will gain the kind of muscle that would make this an issue. Boxing training, if you're doing it well, is catabolic.

In my experience, the best lifts you can do to augment your boxing training are squats, deadlifts, and -- if you learn to do them properly -- full cleans. These lifts train your entire body to work in concert. A properly-performed squat works 75% of the muscles in your body, from the arches of your feet to your neck. A full clean, performed with strict form, uses close to 90%. Olympic lifts build balance, grace, stability, and explosive power. Get a good gym trainer, learn these lifts, and lay off the dumbbell curls, the leg sled, and the bench. You don't need them.

Excellent post FC.

You really need to know what you're doing or have someone who does telling you as stated above by Fraidy, otherwise yes, it could decrease not only your speed but also your stamina, muscle endurance and sharpness.

You need to be doing the correct exercises for what you're trying to achieve. You may very well be doing exercises that are making you stronger and bigger but are the opposite of what you need to do for boxing. Weights must e sport specific unless you're doing them as simple strength maintenance. Even then thoough you still need to take into consideration what you have to achieve for boxing. If you want to increase speed you will need to work on increase your explosive fast twitch muscle. You don't want to get bigger and add more general strength. It's not needed.

Already being pretty big, you should try to keep your muscle mass at a minimum to prevent any added energy to keep them firing. You want them to work at their most conservative, which means keeping any unnecessary bulk, etc out as they could be using energy that isn't needed for boxing.

Just make sure you have a good trainer who knows exactly what you need and to cater accordingly.

Roy Jones actually didn't do any weight training programs until much later in his career as he moved up in weight.

[BennyST]

Lean muscle would have to eventually improve your handspeed, faster muscle twitches in the arms?

p.s just say i had an amateur fight coming up in 2 months, would it be best to stop lifting weights around 2-3 weeks before the bout?

Yes, don't lift weights up to a fight. Lifting weights up to a fight will tire your muscles greatly as they need so much rest to recover and regenerate. Weight lifting should only be a cross training exercise or an off season program. It shouldn't be part of your actual boxing routine and fight prep routine leading up to a fight. Too draining on your muscles to be doing it close to fight time.