Wednesday, 8 January 2014

MMA Exercises for the kinetic chain

A punch is a full body movement using your kinetic chain, core and breath linking together to build a wave of energy up from the ground  in an explosive movement, for someone just learning the kinetic chain using heavy weights forces you to use good kinetic movement, because you get to the point at a certain weight where strength alone fails. And there’s another point where you have no choice put to use both kinetics and strength  or you just won’t lift it off the ground .while the press or the swing is a superb exercise for initial explosiveness, it doesn’t teach you a full flowing kinetic movement like a figure of 8.and it can teach you bad habits when you’re looking at punching with the full kinetic chain.
 let me explain, with an exercise like the pivot press and the power clean, once you’ve extended out and finished the movement you relax and it takes much less strength to bring the weight back down and rest it on the floor or your shoulder at which point the movement stops or the flow breaks, it’s like throwing one punch stopping getting back into position and then throwing the same punch again, the other type of kinetic chain exercise teaches you to flow with the kinetic chain, and gives you a better understanding of how to strike and move in combinations, like a jab, cross, hook or moving from a kick to a punch the smoother the chain, the less any power is lost in the movement, the stronger the next strike and so on, this is what makes a full kinetic movement so important.
I have two favourites for understanding the full kinetic flow with two short clips
One is the kettle bell swing, breathing exactly the same way as I punch and driving the hips in the direction I want the bell to go ,to create energy and explosiveness to swing the weight in a continuous flowing movement once I’m in motion at no point do I need to lift or push the weight or stop



and my other favourite is the hammer and tyre for the very same reasons once I’m in motion at no point do I lift the hammer after the first swing I use the energy built up using the first kinetic movement  .by the way you should always keep a straight back where possible(I inherited a curve)




so once you’re in motion your continually flowing in a kinetic flow the stronger the kinetic chain and the core, the lighter and easier the hammer is to continuously swinging because the movement is much more efficient and there’s no energy leaking from weaker positions. Now there is a point in both exercises that I get to relax for a split second after breathing out on release of the kinetic energy built, but I’m not stopping the movement and starting again, I have to continue a full flow so that the chain completes itself. So it’s not like resting a weight back on my shoulder or putting a weight down, I have to be in a good kinetic position to catch weight on the way back down smoothly to swing it back up .these two exercises will make you much more explosive when throwing combinations because you’re not just learning one movement again and again your learning a chain of flowing explosive movements. The other bad habit from the press and clean is straightening out the triceps to finish the punch, I explained this in my last clip 

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