No matter which art you study, Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Ninjitsu, or whatever, you must be able to perceive the idea behind any attack. I have written about this subject since I began writing in the martial arts magazines over thirty years ago. I find it bizarre that nobody else writes about it.

I originally described this idea by analogizing somebody driving down a street. Drive down that street enough time, and you start to know where the kids are playing, where the lights turn, and so on. In the martial arts, do the forms application enough times, and you know what it means when the opponent lifts his shoulder, turns his foot, and otherwise sets himself up.

I was working with a class once, and this fellow was watching, and he said, \”What if they threw a punch instead?\” I\’d handled the \’what if\’ character many times, and I told him to throw a punch at me. He half pivoted in my direction.

He sunk his weight, and I knew how he was going to turn, the angle of his punch, everything. And, I experienced a cartoon overlay of him punching me–I saw it happen in a separate reality before it happened. And then it didn\’t occur.

He gave up and didn\’t even try to punch me. Well, of course. I had perceived the thought behind his attack–I had defeated his thought, and that had pulled the plug on any physical manifestation of the idea.

Over the years I come across tales of other people doing this sort of thing. Top among the martial arts tales was the experience of Morihei Ueshiba, who perceived a bullet coming from a gun. He saw the idea before it happened, and so was able to handle that idea.

Why doesn\’t everybody experience this sort of thing? The answer is easy, because everybody is not a go for broke fanatic about the martial arts. Or, let me be rude, you are not a fanatic.

Are you willing to forgo school and a good paying job, endure hamburger instead of steak, spend all your time sweating in a small room with other like minded individuals? Are you willing to spend all your time and money on lessons, reading everything ever written on the martial arts, delving into the quirks and weaknesses of your individual personality? Are you willing to endure starting over again in art after martial art–karate, taekwondo, kenpo–then maybe you\’ll make it; maybe you\’ll actually gain the ability to see the thought before the action.

This post gives you three exercises you can do in your exercise routine which will make you stronger and permit you to transfer that power directly over to punching harder.

Sledgehammer Workout. Swinging sledgehammers for building muscle, strength, conditioning and striking power was a tremendous secret of the old time boxers. Men who could hit ACTUALLY hard. It\’s also symbiotic with the kettlebell swing. Working a total body explosive movement with heavy stress on the shoulders, wrists and abdominals. Teaching your body the correct explosive sequencing to hit harder while at the same time building its physical powers.

Isometric Strikes. There are plenty of techniques to do that, but I am going to share with you one way. I put a chain around a static object (low for kicking, high for hitting), and attach either a strap to put around my foot or a handle to snatch with my hand and then as closely as I probably can I simulate the precise trail a correctly thrown strike would take pulling against the chain. I ensure that my body as well as the limb that I\’m hitting with follows all the actions that a properly thrown strike would take. I work the isometric along multiple parts of the path of the strike beginning at the generation and going out along a link or two on the chain until I can the finish. Be sure to work both hands or legs. And you can hold for whatever time or reps you see fit, just work it until you\’re tired.

The Dennis Rogers Lever Wrist Curl. I am probably not supposed to let this cat out of the bag, but I\’m going to sneak around and share it with you. Dennis is as you know, likely one of the planet\’s foremost authorities on wrist strength. He has some absolutely unique exercises that you will be hearing about from him pretty shortly. I\’m going to share with you an exercise of one he taught me, because I believe it\’ll be one of the greatest hand and wrist strengtheners you\’ll ever do and because it is going to be a huge key towards reinforcing your hand and wrist movement to protect it and power it for fantastic punching.

Dennis does it with a short barbell, but I prefer to do it with a dumbbell solely for convenience sake. What you fundamentally do is overload one side of the bell by 3 to 10 pounds dependent on your strength and the length of the bell you use. You then perform a normal one arm wrist curl with it. Alternating between the overloaded side being on your thumb side or on the pinkie side. By doing this you are strengthening the wrist, but in essence performing a levering and wrist curl at the same time. The unbalanced load puts additional stress on the fingers as well making it a very complete hand strengthening movement. Extremely strong and plenty of bang for your buck.

Add these into your routine and you\’ll be able to double up your hitting power.