Contrary to popular belief, a good strength and conditioning regime will increase the power of your punch substantially. You aren't necessarily born with punching power, and proper training can bring out striking prowess in anyone. The reason most people don't have heavy hands is because they don't know how to strike or are afraid of over-committing to their strikes. As such, it's relatively easy to increase the power of your punch over time. The purpose of this article is to give you some guidance and show you what and what not to do.

First, I'd like to say that punching power does not correlate to knock out power. Being able to drop a fighter is more a factor of how accurate your strikes are and not so much how powerful they are. Look at Nick Diaz--he doesn't hit particularly hard, but he gets several TKO victories because his punches are pin-point accurate, dazing his opponent and allowing him to finish them. Fedor Emelianenko is a hard puncher whose strikes are not as accurate; he often aims for the nose or the side of the face, two areas that are not known to produce knockouts. Striking your opponent around the chin or ear are the two best ways to score a knockout. So while it's definitely possible to increase the power of your punch, as I'll detail below, you might not increase the ease with which you knock out your opponent (as this has more to do with accuracy.)

Technique is the most important aspect of a powerful punch. A powerful strike requires full rotation of the body, starting from the feet, through the hips, torso, and then into the hand. The longer the rotation is, the more powerful the punch will be. The downside to this is that long punches are very easy to avoid; a huge looping right hook will hold a ton of power, but it won't ever hit your opponent. Because of this, many fighters throw from their hips, which is something I recommend you do. A quick movement of the hips, combined with the extension of the arm will generate massive power in a relatively short strike. Planting your feet will further increase the power of your punch, although it also reduces your mobility. Being light-footed has its advantages in MMA, since it allows you to sprawl a lot easier (although it's more difficult to push a wrestler off) and cut angles.

Technique, as I mentioned, is the most important part of developing a strong punch; that said, strength and conditioning is almost as important. Since you'll be throwing most of your strikes from the hips, you should work your core muscles. The glutes are the most powerful "punching" muscle, but I also recommend working the hamstrings, obliques, spinal erectors, abdominals, and quads--in that order. Striking drills with resistance bands are good, but traditional weight lifting and exercise will also increase your punching power. Some good exercises to include in your workout are the squat, deadlift, crunches, good mornings, hang cleans, and power straights. These will build up all of the muscles in your core, turning you into a powerful punching machine.

As a final note, I want to mention that punching is only one aspect of MMA. Your kicks, knees, and elbows are other elements of striking that you'll want to work on. Furthermore, grappling requires an even higher level of strength and conditioning than punching. This is why you'll find that many wrestlers actually hit harder than a lot of fighters with a striking base, as they have much more powerful cores.