I run a couple of times a week 3-4 miles and I cycle now and then as well, so I feel my lung capacity is quite good, but when I start hand striking BoB at a reasonable rate I seem to tire very quickly and struggle to do much more than 2 minutes.

I can see I'm training my legs/lungs and need to focus more on arms/lungs, does anybody have some training tips on different exercises to improve on my 2 mins, other than more bag work?

What is it that tires first ,your lungs or arms? Maybe if its your arms you need some strength training? I have noticed I can go for much longer since I added a simple weights routine into my training.Also sounds like you could possibly do with adding some interval training into your routine- you can do that with your running and cycling, so you get used to pushing yourself then recovering ok.
Im no fitness expert,Im sure some guys will have far better advice!

Im no fitness expert,Im sure some guys will have far better advice!

Su Lin, I'm sure you are in much better condition than I am at the moment!

Mad Dog - I understand what you mean about this type of action being exhausting. One thing you might want to look at is technique. I notice that a lot of men tend to tense up their shoulders and arms when they are punching, thus using up far more energy.

After watching the really experienced guys, they are much more relaxed in their shoulders and arms when they are punching, and deliver much more power as a result. I took this on board when I was sparring/training and it works. You are faster and use less energy!

Hope this is relevant.

We sometimes do a warm up where you do jab, cross, jab, cross, etc with no break or footwork. You do 15 seconds normal pace, then 10 seconds as fast as you can, then repeat five times with no gaps.

You can spice the drill up by getting someone to randomly shout the sprint stages of the punches. Also if you get people to randomly do sprawls it makes it harder. You can also set the time involved to suit your needs so you can do whatever round length suits your needs.

I found this sort of interval training has helped me and it focuses me on using my body to punch rather than just my arms, which get tired quickly. The anaerobic exercise is also probably going to be different to the mainly aerobic exercise that you are getting from running or cycling.

As a finisher at the end of our fitness class before we spar, we often do a drill where you do 100 straight punches on focus mitts, run halfway across the hall do 6 standing long jumps back and forth, then 100 hook punches, then 4 standing long jumps then 100 uppercuts and 2 standing long jumps with 20 of each punch to finish.

I think it's just a case of using your imagination. Also sparring and grappling will help with functional fitness.

You might also want to look at how you breathe when you punch. Most arts encourage you to exhale when you punch, however, you are punching fast and in long combinations are you actually breathing enough or are you just making a lot of noise? Rightly or wrongly, and someone more qualified may have an opinion, I try and relax my breathing if I'm doing combinations of lots of punches.

I'm no expert either, but hopefully this helps.

Steve

I have this issue with chain punching. As Lesley mentioned i find that i'm too tense in my shoulders which reduces the speed and tires my shoulder muscles out quickly. A pain in the ass when you're doing 500 punches.

I just bought a wall bag so i'm hoping to get some practice in at home and try to relax. Its difficult but i'm getting there