effective hand strengthening?

[odiss]

There's a crazy teacher at my school, and a couple days ago he showed that he could punch a brick wall full force and his hand would be fine. I aksed how he conditioned his hands and apparently what he did was take a 365 day calender (where each individual day has a seperate page/piece of paper) and he nailed it to his wall. every day he would punch it ten times with each hand then rip a sheet off. So that he would gradually punch something that was closer to the hardness of a wall, and apparently by the end of the year he could punch a wall as hard as he could without hurting his hand at all.

Pretty much I'm just asking if anyones heard of somthing like this, and if hand strengthening is really even necessary except for maybe a street fight?

[Hardball]

Most traditional martial artist use sand, rice or a makawari board to strenthen their hands. Also doing pushups on your knuckles works good. Also squeezing a rubber ball or spring hand gripper. Don't go looking for a street fight to test your hands--join a martial arts club and do something productive like spar in gloves. Stay out of trouble and keep searching.

[Thai Bri]

There are plenty guys who did conditioning like this in their youth. When they reach their fifties they get their wives to tie their shoe laces for them.

[muaythaiguy15]

Word with Thai Bri. I used to do stuff like that, until I realized life isnt a cheezy martial arts movie. I strengthen my hand by doing gi pull ups, finger tip push ups (all fingers), and farmers walks.

[Hardball]

Ha Ha Ha, did ya'll see Kung Fu Hustle yet? Did you see the scene where the star of the pic punched the bad guy through the floor. I laughed all night.

[Hardball]

There are plenty guys who did conditioning like this in their youth. When they reach their fifties they get their wives to tie their shoe laces for them.

I don't worry about that. What you are saying is true; it's already starting for me but I'd rather have the Iron Fist. Besides you can get arthritis or bursitis from other activities. My mom spent her career as a Secreatary and has the condition you describe and her's is chronic and she never even studied martial arts. Life is a tradeoff. You're gonna get old no matter what--if you are always typing or keyboarding you stand just as good a chance of having F%$&ked up hands. I'm glad to be always armed with Iron Fist.

[Thai Bri]

You knob stick. What kind of iron fists do those guys have now? They have cotton wool fists.......

Some people get hit by cars. It doesn't mean that I may as well jump off a cliff......

[Hardball]

o.k., it's just a matter of personal preference.

[Tom Yum]

There's a crazy teacher at my school, and a couple days ago he showed that he could punch a brick wall full force and his hand would be fine. I aksed how he conditioned his hands and apparently what he did was take a 365 day calender (where each individual day has a seperate page/piece of paper) and he nailed it to his wall. every day he would punch it ten times with each hand then rip a sheet off. So that he would gradually punch something that was closer to the hardness of a wall, and apparently by the end of the year he could punch a wall as hard as he could without hurting his hand at all.

Pretty much I'm just asking if anyones heard of somthing like this, and if hand strengthening is really even necessary except for maybe a street fight?

Some easy, non destructive ways of strengthening your hands/forearms:

Knuckle Pushups
Finger Pushups
Racquetball Squeeze Contractions
Wrist rollup (Get a bar. Tie rope in a not around the center. Tie the other end around a 5 or 10lb weight) Roll it up and down.

Wood work (this is really an indirect benefit).

[jim_jude]

Do all that stuff that Tom Yum recommended, and maybe try some open hand stuff. Do some Iron Palm training. Condition the edge of the hand, the palm, and the palm heel to deliver some strikes.
After 2-3 months of Iron Palm conditioning, try slapping the f- out of a guy instead of punching him! I hit a guy, later I heard from a mutual friend that he though I hit him with a 2x4 or something! Of course, slapping a guy silly in public does a hell of alot more damage to his ego than punching him, let me tell you!

[Garland]

Of course, slapping a guy silly in public does a hell of alot more damage to his ego than punching him, let me tell you!

yeah...



I would've just pissed on his kicks.

[yoshinkan]

True, You got to be careful or you will regret later.

There are plenty guys who did conditioning like this in their youth. When they reach their fifties they get their wives to tie their shoe laces for them.

[Chi_dan_joe]

Iron Fist is very effective, but it's also not that good in martial arts. It's very dangerous in street fights; it can cause deaths very easy. I'd be careful how you train your hands also; you can have warped looking deformed knuckles.

Anyways, a good way to obtain it if your into serious martial arts is to do handstand push-ups on your knuckles; or you can always put wraps on your hands and pound a brick 1000 times with each hands. It will build nice callus and you won't feel impact as much. Also Chi energy is also effective it will help you develop chi-flow from tien-dan and you can channel it to your hands and it's also as good as iron fist.

[Jiu-fu fighter]

ummmmmmmm..... yeah i am not into destroying my hands now and being a cripple later in life

knuckle pushups, and stress balls are a safe alternative

can impact training of the side of the hand (used for knife hand strikes) damage it? I am guessing not as much as knuckle training

[deathstrike]

Check out this website.

http://www.ironmind.com/ironcms/export/IronMind/resources/griptrain1.html