drtbear1967
Musclechemistry Board Certified Member
by Christian Thibaudeau -
Dumbbell shadow boxing is a stupid exercise. It does nothing good. First, you're doing a horizontal movement (punching forward) against a vertical resistance – the dumbbell only provides vertical resistance because of gravity. So the resistance doesn't even overload the action you want to strengthen. Second, it just teaches you to be slow. If a movement is overloaded and speed decreases by 10% or more, it’ll have a negative impact on the performance of the unloaded movement. (Explosive movements.) So, punching with dumbbells makes you a slower puncher. I'm not saying that slower speed exercises to increase strength aren't beneficial. But doing the SAME movement as the explosive exercise, but slower, will mess up your motor pattern and make you slower. Yes, some pro boxers still do it, but that just shows you what amazing athletes they are. They can do dumb things and still perform at the elite level. -
Weights That Make Athletes Slower
-
A friend of mine, a high level sprinter, hired this guy who fancied himself a track & field guru. He had my friend do most of his sprinting with weighted insoles in his shoes. Not heavy, just a few ounces. In a few months his 60 meter time slowed by 3/10ths of a second! And when filmed we could see a severe disruption of his running mechanics. Gaining strength with basic barbell lifts can improve your power/speed potential, but overloading the same movement you're trying to make faster will actually make it slower.
-
When I was getting my Masters degree I had people do a vertical jump, then do a set of 5 vertical jumps with a weight vest that was 20% of their bodyweight, then test their vertical again. I asked them, "Did you jump higher before or after the set with the vest?" They all said they jumped higher after. Well, they didn't. They all jumped lower after the set with the vest. They THOUGHT they jumped higher because of the difference in perceived speed. They felt so much faster when compared to the vest set that they thought they got faster. They did not.
Dumbbell shadow boxing is a stupid exercise. It does nothing good. First, you're doing a horizontal movement (punching forward) against a vertical resistance – the dumbbell only provides vertical resistance because of gravity. So the resistance doesn't even overload the action you want to strengthen. Second, it just teaches you to be slow. If a movement is overloaded and speed decreases by 10% or more, it’ll have a negative impact on the performance of the unloaded movement. (Explosive movements.) So, punching with dumbbells makes you a slower puncher. I'm not saying that slower speed exercises to increase strength aren't beneficial. But doing the SAME movement as the explosive exercise, but slower, will mess up your motor pattern and make you slower. Yes, some pro boxers still do it, but that just shows you what amazing athletes they are. They can do dumb things and still perform at the elite level. -
Weights That Make Athletes Slower
-
A friend of mine, a high level sprinter, hired this guy who fancied himself a track & field guru. He had my friend do most of his sprinting with weighted insoles in his shoes. Not heavy, just a few ounces. In a few months his 60 meter time slowed by 3/10ths of a second! And when filmed we could see a severe disruption of his running mechanics. Gaining strength with basic barbell lifts can improve your power/speed potential, but overloading the same movement you're trying to make faster will actually make it slower.
-
When I was getting my Masters degree I had people do a vertical jump, then do a set of 5 vertical jumps with a weight vest that was 20% of their bodyweight, then test their vertical again. I asked them, "Did you jump higher before or after the set with the vest?" They all said they jumped higher after. Well, they didn't. They all jumped lower after the set with the vest. They THOUGHT they jumped higher because of the difference in perceived speed. They felt so much faster when compared to the vest set that they thought they got faster. They did not.
Last edited:
