Does punching the heavy bag work you forearms?

Liquid Snake said:
it can work the bones in your forearm.

Yes.

Stress on your bones can and does force them to become stronger and more dense. This is especially true for high impact activities like punching.
 
Chris Kimmerly said:
Those are obliques and you dont get them from hitting the bag. You get them from having a ripped midsection.

those are 100% not obliques. they are serratus anteriors.

if you want to work your serratus anteriors, try doing some stiuff armed push ups. in other words, lock your arms in a push up position, and just move up and down at the shoulder joint.

popping the shoulder is a big part of snapping your punch. guys who have somewhat non-threatening standup also often have very strong, tight, and bound-up shoulders, such as wrestlers like couture or ortiz. the kind of shoulder strength and integrity needed in wrestling is actually somewhat antithetical to striking since in wrestling there is a lot of emphasis on isometric holding with the upper body. you have to protract your shoulder girdle hard to snap a punch correctly, and that required both shoulder strength but also fluidity of the shoulder girdle and flexibility.

here is an example. notice how floyd's shoulder drifts forward during the punch.

fmce9.gif


bench press is probably not a good exercise to increase punching power, because in the bench press, you tend to retract your shoulder blades (draw themback and together tightly) in order to shorten the range of the lift and decrease the load on your rotator cuff muscles. this often leads to a shortening and inflexibility in the supraspinatus, a rotator cuff muscle. this leads to a lack of shoulder mobility. if you bench heavy without drawing your shoulder blades back, you stand a good chance of developing a chronic shoulder injury.

try some stiff/armed pushups or lie on your back and move your shoulders forward and back with dumbells.

of course, the prominence/definition of a muscle has little to do with its strength or performance. if you get lean enough, anyone's serratus anteriors will show.
 
bloodjinn said:
they are called obliques as far as i know



You're obliques are directly under your armpit? You need to go to the hospital. NOW.
 
After i'm done hitting the heavy bag, my wings and deltoids are pretty sore the next day.
 
punching a heavy bag works the deltoids(shoulders), triceps, pecs(to a MUCH lesser extent), obliques(also to a much lesser extent) and the serratus anterior(to a great extent). Most of the power here is going to come from the serratus anterior and the anterior head of the delt.
 
carp3d33z said:
those are 100% not obliques. they are serratus anteriors.

if you want to work your serratus anteriors, try doing some stiuff armed push ups. in other words, lock your arms in a push up position, and just move up and down at the shoulder joint.

popping the shoulder is a big part of snapping your punch. guys who have somewhat non-threatening standup also often have very strong, tight, and bound-up shoulders, such as wrestlers like couture or ortiz. the kind of shoulder strength and integrity needed in wrestling is actually somewhat antithetical to striking since in wrestling there is a lot of emphasis on isometric holding with the upper body. you have to protract your shoulder girdle hard to snap a punch correctly, and that required both shoulder strength but also fluidity of the shoulder girdle and flexibility.

here is an example. notice how floyd's shoulder drifts forward during the punch.

fmce9.gif


bench press is probably not a good exercise to increase punching power, because in the bench press, you tend to retract your shoulder blades (draw themback and together tightly) in order to shorten the range of the lift and decrease the load on your rotator cuff muscles. this often leads to a shortening and inflexibility in the supraspinatus, a rotator cuff muscle. this leads to a lack of shoulder mobility. if you bench heavy without drawing your shoulder blades back, you stand a good chance of developing a chronic shoulder injury.

try some stiff/armed pushups or lie on your back and move your shoulders forward and back with dumbells.

of course, the prominence/definition of a muscle has little to do with its strength or performance. if you get lean enough, anyone's serratus anteriors will show.


Is it possible to bench heavy but stretch your shoulders afterwards to keep the flexibility?

what about clapping push ups with emphasis on shoulder popping?
 
00 Buck said:
Is it possible to bench heavy but stretch your shoulders afterwards to keep the flexibility?

what about clapping push ups with emphasis on shoulder popping?

benching heavy without very strong retraction of the shoulder blades will result in a huge risk of rotator cuff injury.

clapping pushups are a good idea.
 
eljabo said:
NO. forearms can only be thoroughly worked with wrist movement. wrist curls, rev wrist curls, wrist rolls, and rev grip cambered bar curls. those exerscises combined with handgrips/strength balls will suffice. heavy bag wont do anything for your forearms.
I disagree. Punching the heavybag requires you to make a tight fist. That act in itself is a form of ISOMETRIC exercise that does hit the forearms bigtime. you dont need movement to hit a muscle group. that is the whole idea behind isometrics.
 
MTGuy said:
You're obliques are directly under your armpit? You need to go to the hospital. NOW.
lol! are his abs directly under his trachea too?
 
The forearms are quite tired after intense heavy bag sessions. If you just try to punch without flexing your forearms, you will notice two things- your fist is not clenched and second- your fist can twist badly on impact.
 
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