Knuckle Conditioning

[Dan]

Coming from a Go-Ju school where hand conditioning is a big part of training. I might be able to give some tips.

Driving: Take a phone book place it on your lap or passenger seat (rt hand) focusing on pentrating more so than quick hits.
-25 back knuckles (always hitting w/ the middle and index
knuckles, same w/ dropping sunfist)
-25 palms
-25 backhands
-25 dropping sunfists (vertical puches)

traditionaly there's always the piece of wood wrapped with cord.
or a board with a well folded towel as a punching surface.
Then building up to my instructors level bare cinder blocks, plywood, etc...

[Guest]

And cultivate lifelong friendships, so that your friends will write letters for you and feed you your dinner when your hands become useless........

[Builderofmuscle]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand a thing. Why would you need to train your knuckles. Isn't that bone? It's not muscle.

[Guest]

You can develop callouses over the skin, which should protect the hand in the short term. However, this process can cause major to the hand in the long term, so seems a bit silly to me......

[terry]

If you condition a non-joint area such as the shin then you don't have to worry as much. You may have to worry about blood clots if you are kicking through baseball bats or 2x4s or that kind of stuff. (It's kind of fun to do once or twice though) But if you're conditioning a joint you need to learn three words: early onset arthritis.

[Dan]

Reply to knuckle conditioning

Bri Thai is correct in the aspect that longterm knuckle conditioning is not very healthy. My instructor told me it should not be continued past the age of 50.
But you have to remember back in the days when karate was a poor mans art to created protect a mans family from hordes or whoever were coming to attack and take property. The original karate guy had to take the quickest and most direct route for self-defense. For pretty much why the thai boxers kicked trees and rubbed soda bottles up and down their legs (to condition the bones) is the same reason why karate guys used the makiwara so much. Even today some people feel that it's the best way to get that "one-punch-one-kill" effect. Original karate guys trained to punch through armor, not deal with todays boxers and BJJ players. Of course today I havn't heard of any recent encounters of any ronin or heavily armoured attackers taking victims around town. Like I tell people,understand that what you believe works and what other people believe works.
I'm more than happy to discuss conditioning tips and topics with anyone.

[terry]

Dan, the guys in Thailand just kick whatever they can. Some of the poorer camps can only afford one heavy bag for the top fighters. Thus, the junior guys have to kick tires or other stuff. One camp put broken tiles in a big canvas bag and wrapped that around a pole for people to kick.

Actually, the earliest applications of the Muay Thai kick were probably to dislodge bladed weapons from the bodies of opponents on the battlefield. This was, um, long before soda bottles were widely available. Bannana trees were kicked because they are soft. They took the bark from the bannana tree to use for early Thai pads. In any case, the sport came later.

T

[Builderofmuscle]

that really does not answer my question

[ryanhall]

builder,
bone conditioning makes the targeted area less susceptible to pain by killing the nerves. it also hardens the bone through constant contact with something solid. some people have hands like bricks, some have hands meant for sewing. i guess "conditioning" can help make the latter more like the former. however, it helps arthritus a lot more than it helps your hands. even shin conditioning can have some bad long term effects. i usually shy away from this kind of thing for that reason. your hands will become tougher than how they started just by hitting a heavy bag on a consistent basis. you don't need to cripple your most useful appendages by age 30 in order to pack some power.


ryan

[Builderofmuscle]

thanx. I thought I was missing out on something usefull. Because I had never heard of that stuff. Maybe that's why that skinny guy was able to break those boards. He has hardly any bodyfat, and he's mostly bone. When I block his pucnhing, it really hurds my forearms.