You’d be surprised how well a woman can learn to punch while walking on a treadmill; women can improve their punch without boxing classes.
Do you “punch like a girl”? Then get on a treadmill to learn how to throw a much better, non-girly punch.
You will need to feel comfortable walking briskly on the machine without holding on. That is the first rule.
Holding onto the treadmill locks up your arms and upper body, forcing over-rotation of your hips at faster speeds, making you vulnerable to repetitive stress injury in your hips.
Remove your hands from the rails, front bar or console at a slower speed to get used to this, because to learn how to throw a good punch, you will need to be walking at a minimum of three mph, and ultimately 4.2 mph.
How Treadmill Walking Can Help Women Throw a Good Punch
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Instead of merely swinging your arms as you would naturally do, you will be pumping them in an exaggerated way with a closed fist: boom boom boom boom boom in synch with each step.
You will have an imaginary target straight in front of you at about chest level (could be lower, could be higher).
Each arm pump culminates in a fist that strikes this target.
So if you’re walking four mph, the “boom boom boom” will occur rapidly, mimicking punching at a heavy bag.
Why not just use a heavy bag? Well, perhaps you don’t have access to one. Or perhaps hitting it hurts your knuckles and skin and you don’t have gloves yet. Perhaps the treadmill is in your home and thus you have daily access to it any time.
I’m not saying abandon the heavy bag. In fact, heavy bag work is great, and the treadmill can be used as an adjunct to that.
Different Punching Techniques While Walking on Treadmill
• Uppercut. The arm pump has your palms facing the ceiling (hands in fists) while the arm is chambered to your sides before each pump, and you pump out the arm, palm still facing ceiling to the end of the strike.
• The uppercut can be done straight ahead or cross style, in which the latter has the arm crossing at an angle as it strikes outward.
• Cross. Your palms (hands in fists) are facing the side of your body while chambered (thumb facing ceiling, pinky facing floor), and as you thrust out your arm, your hand is still in this position at the strike.
• Another way to do the cross is to have your palms rotate downward as you thrust out the arm, so that at the end when you make the imaginary strike, your palm is facing the floor.
Faster walking speeds (don’t jog) will force your arms to move more explosively.
Depending on your fitness level, three mph will tax the shoulders fairly quickly.
Your goal is to be walking at four to 4.2 mph and throwing out those punches.
This fast walking speed will develop burst power in your shoulders and core (yes, the core is used for throwing a good punch).
For how long should you do these punching drills while walking on a treadmill?
Thirty seconds on, one minute or so off, for a total of six to eight rounds. Just once a week will net a training effect.
