how can i toughen up the skin on my knuckles e.g conditioning for martial arts?
i was thinking of using surgical spirit on my knuckles and shins but what do you think
You must toughen up your knuckles 'gradually'.
Begin with pounding your fists into buckets of rice, then slowly work your way up to sand, then slowly up to a bucket of gravel, then slowly up to bricks and metal. This is done over a period of a few years.
In my first dojo (1968) we had automobile tires chained to the walls, buckets of rice, etc. for fingers jabs, and heavy bags full of various material, including sand and gravel to toughen feet, knees, and shins. (And lots of towels to wipe the spats of blood off the floor or tatami).
If you can't find a place to buy a makiwara, build one yourself. I've built two makiwaras in my life-time for my punching.
http://www.ctr.usf.edu/shotokan/makiwara.html
Half the fun of the martial arts is building your own stuff.
Build and use a wooden training 'wing chung' dummy.
http://www.wingchundummys.com/
As Bruce Lee stated in the 1968 Black Belt Magazine Yearbook: The advantage of the wooden dummy is its ability to absorb punishment.
Once you get your knuckles, fingers, wrists, forearms, and shins sufficently toughened, you can really go to town banging on this wooden dummy.
April 2nd, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Why would you do that?
Kicking the heavy bag will toughen your shins up over time naturally, no need to do anything crazy to them.
As for your knuckles, you should be wearing bag gloves or boxing gloves as well as hand wraps whenever you are punching anything, so your knuckles shouldn't be getting messed up.
This protects your wrist/hand from injury and allows you to punch harder in practice so that when you are punching for real you will punch harder.
Protect your hands, don't worry about your shins.
References :
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:19 am
If you have a trainer ask him or her. If you don't have one any trainer would gladly answer your question.
References :
April 3rd, 2009 at 12:51 am
The Cruel Tutalage of Pai Mei
I practice my punches from one inch while my hands are wrapped against a three inch thick hard wood plank. Always wrap your hands to prevent injury
References :
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:36 am
You have to learn your personal limit, and train correctly. Just stick to the old and reliable, hitting stuff. Don't push yourself so hard that you rip or blister your skin, but just do strikes to a heavy bag or something. Also, make sure your strikes land solid, with as little slipping as possible.
References :
April 3rd, 2009 at 1:59 am
sounds crazy but start off like this get a bucket of sand make a fist place your fist gently on the surface of the sand with your thumbs facing away from your body push down while slowly turning your thumbs toward your body…do this every day for at least 20 mins everyday for a week,avoid lotion and skin softner….next after your week of using sand get a bucket of small grain rice mix with the sand repeat the same motions for another week just increase your time to 30-40 mins a day….after these two weeks if you do what im telling you you will have iron-fist
References :
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:17 am
Conditioning the hands is not necessary. I had a student come to me and ask to be taught the iron palm. I explained that it would do him no good. In order to be effective you must be able to fight well. Having conditioned hands will not make you a better fighter. Besides no matter how well conditioned your hands are if you can't fight effectively it won't matter.
NOTE: I was ignorant enough to fall into the hand conditioning idea when I was in my teens. Now at 54, I have arthritic problems developing because of that training. It simply is not worth it.
References :
MA training since 1967.
Teaching MA since 1973.
April 3rd, 2009 at 2:52 am
the simplest and safest way to do this is to practice doing knuckle pushups
start on carpet then progress to concrete
References :
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:18 am
You must toughen up your knuckles 'gradually'.
Begin with pounding your fists into buckets of rice, then slowly work your way up to sand, then slowly up to a bucket of gravel, then slowly up to bricks and metal. This is done over a period of a few years.
In my first dojo (1968) we had automobile tires chained to the walls, buckets of rice, etc. for fingers jabs, and heavy bags full of various material, including sand and gravel to toughen feet, knees, and shins. (And lots of towels to wipe the spats of blood off the floor or tatami).
If you can't find a place to buy a makiwara, build one yourself. I've built two makiwaras in my life-time for my punching.
http://www.ctr.usf.edu/shotokan/makiwara.html
Half the fun of the martial arts is building your own stuff.
Build and use a wooden training 'wing chung' dummy.
http://www.wingchundummys.com/
As Bruce Lee stated in the 1968 Black Belt Magazine Yearbook: The advantage of the wooden dummy is its ability to absorb punishment.
Once you get your knuckles, fingers, wrists, forearms, and shins sufficently toughened, you can really go to town banging on this wooden dummy.
References :
But take your time in developing your knuckles. Don't rush it. Take care of yourself. You'll be glad in the future that you did.
April 3rd, 2009 at 3:47 am
Knuckle push ups. Punching hard objects, softly at first, then harder as your knuckles toughen works for some people, but there will be consequences later in life.
References :
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:30 am
heavy bag without gloves maki wara board ect
References :