NaamKyun.com Discussion Forum

as far as weights are concerned-you don't want to do things such as punching with dumbells in your hands fast. This will damage joints tendons and ligaments. Light weights are ok, and when using heavier weights, do the technique slow.

Ok, on to explosiveness-powerlifting builds explosive power-research this.
So do sprints.

Shock power is done with the body and arm very relaxed, otherwise, the speed is not there. The strike is not a follow through, otherwise it becomes a push. It is a pulse, or a quick jolt, that shocks the body, and sends a tremor. If you hit someone and they move back, the body is dissapating the force of the strike. When you use shock power, the body absorbs the full impact internally.
The power comes from having correct structure, otherwise there is no penetration, as the shock is simply reabsorbed back into the body.

Third, you need to have the correct mindset. Calm, focused, with aggreessive intent to do damage. These seem contradictory, and that is the riddle.

One more thing-Kevin Thompson, who was an amazing point fighter, was small, and his nickname was "The Mongoose." He was very quick and explosive. Kinda "twitchy," in his movement if you get my meaning.
BTW- he did this from a pretty wide low stance.
People asked him how he developed his explosive speed, and he said."I do everything fast. I try to move fast, think fast. Everything."

I am in total agreement on developing explosive power through plyometrics and power lifting as laugarfei has mentioned.

Since plyometrics develop short burst (explosive) power, I'm extremely big on it. This training method which helps develop power through short repetitive motion has help me to develop great power in both punching and kicking.

As Ten Tigers have mentioned, relaxing through your punch is required in order to develop the speed prior to exploding through your target. I have found that plyometric training such as jumping rope has help to develop explosive footwork, which has helped me to explode towards my opponent when offensive and to avoid my opponent when defensive.

Power lifting moves such as cleans, helps develop overall explosive power since the majority of the muscles in the body are in use. But once again, it's the short initial burst of power in doing cleans that helps create the power which is very similar to plyometric training.

These methods of training are great, but should only be use to supplement the gung fu training, not to become the main focus of your training.

YMMV of course, here is my $.02:

I am a bit surprised to see little mention here of equipment training for Hung Gar specific development, other than a nod to it by Asmo, in favor of lifts? I am a fan of lifts, but time is a premium as well. Using pulleys with style specific movements, shaking poles, long weapons, developing structure with hanging bags, and relaxed movement/breathing sets to train this stuff I have seen great results in this area.

If doing lifts, one can cater them toward fast twitch muscle fiber development using the following method as a template (Courtesy of Art De Vany).

Fast Twitch Threshold Supersets
*1st set 15 reps with fairly light weight, lifting and lowering the weight slowly to prefatigue ST fibers.
*2nd set 8-10 reps with increased weight with a faster speed
*3rd set 4-6 reps at high but controlled speed.
*4th set, 2 negatives with the same weight, or explosive negative movements keeping good form until you can't do anymore (like jumping down from a bench or dropping into pushup position for example).

*Work major muscle groups.
**Slightly increase speed over the course of each set.
***Pause only long enough to change weights between each set (10-20 seconds)
****Move to next set to do something completely different
*****Empty stomach is best

Alactic Energy Pathway Training 1/5's
*Do one repetition, then put the weight down for 5 seconds
*4-8 minimum total repetitions in between 5-10 seconds of rest

*The muscle has ~3 seconds FT response this way before it starts producing lactic acid and the work is no good.
**Rest allows the muscle to recover enough to fire hard again.
***Never do to failure.

Power Walking
*35-100 lb of weight on back or farmers walk regularly

Overall Gameplan
*3 workouts per week, 1 upper body, 1 lower body, 1 overall body for grace and balance/athleticism.
*Sessions should be no more than 40 min tops.
***Workouts randomly timed during the week, no pattern

Every 3rd day or so, skip breakfast and dinner, to get the benefits of intermittent fasting.

Utilize the Power Law curve by doing very light workouts, or very heavy workouts, with a small amount of mid-range activity in the mix. (Sprinting hard, followed by walking, then sprinting again for example).

"I AM" interesting post, this is actually something im very interested in, im considering going to school for this not for a career but just for the knowledge maybe to make some students superhuman in the future if i decide to go that route

can you go into more detail about this routine? for instance what lifts are we talking about specifically? and even though the word is being thrown around loosely is there any plyometrics involved?

whoever mentioned sprints is correct aswell, i like sprints as a method but i feel like it limits the explosivity to the forward motion, aswell as alot of these techniques you mentioned they seem geared towards solely developing explosive power

like i said earlier im curious about developing overall explosivity in all directions and this is where it gets complicated because i dont have a good grasp of the physiological process and im still new to strength and conditioning ingeneral but im working on it