How do I toughen my knuckles?

[David Jamieson]

Probably easiest to begin by doing pushups on your knuckles. this will toughen the skin and flatten the cartilage slightly but will not damage your hands.

when beginning, distribute your weight into your first (index) and second (middle finger) knuckles. over time, distribute your weight across the whole flat, but focus into the index and middle fingers.

striking a -canvas- heavy bag works too and will add the benefit of increasing your wrist strength and will also develop your punching power. To get the knuckles toughened, strike straight in and don't glance your strikes.

Glancing is what will open the skin or cause surface callous.

when you do knuckle push ups steady, after about six months or so of regular work (sometimes less) you will notice a real difference in the thickness of the skin and it will be deeper than just the surface. It will also be less painful when you strike the surfaces that are now causing you pain.

peace

[Kristoffer]

That's nasty I mostly hit my concrete walls when in anger..

Take care

[fightfan]

Boxerchick, just take your rings off and let your knuckles drag on the ground naturally!
Just kidding sweety, I agree with Kung Lek on this one 100%. Just keep in mind that a girl with nasty azz knuckles is a real turn off to most guys.

[KungFuGuy!]

That's true. I'm sure you've all seen that episode of seinfeld where that girl had man hands. She was beautiful, sure, but her hands were those of a man! Gross.

[fightfan]

That one was funny as he11, KFG!
lol

[Jeff Liboiron]

remember when she ripped up the lobster? that was classic

but getting back on topic, this girl i know boxes, and her hands look just fine.

[TenTigers]

Okay, to quote my master the immortal, Popeye the Sailor,
"That's all I can stands 'an I can't stands no more!" What the heck are you trying to toughen your knuckels for? What do you have to hit that this miniscule layer of callous will make a difference? To hit soft tissue, you use a hard object, to hit hard objects, use soft tissue is an old Kung-Fu adage. Do you need callous to hit someone in the solar plexus? When you nail someone in the jaw and make his head spin, is that callous going to make a difference? When you hit his teeth, callous will tear just as easy, trust me, my hands are scarred enough to know. Makiwara, and knuckle pushups were never developed to callous your knuckles, they were designed to develop proper alignment, strengthen the structure of your wrist and hand, strengthen tendon and ligament, and increase bone desity, callouses are a byproduct of the training, nothing more. Or, g'head, don't listen to me, and go out and make your hand into a foot.

[respectmankind]

Let me hit you, then let you hit yourself, and we will see. Nahhh, it helps with the pain abit, and yes it does help with the intensity of teh punch.

[YiLiQuan1]

There are tons of methods of Iron Palm/Fist. My teacher has provided info to senior students for at least 6 variations of so-called "external" methods, and we use as our primary training method one "internal" method.

Ultimately, if you look at the exercises, they are mostly the same. The difference is in the nature of the materials struck, the method of healing, and the extent of the use of qigong.

I have spent the last 3 years just walking down the hallway at work or at home (concrete walls - military construction material of choice!) smacking whatever wall was nearest. I started out at first just tapping about 10 - 15 times. When that got easier, I kept the same number of repetitions, but increased the power just a tad. Now, I can smack the wall nearly full power about 3 - 5 times without damage. Haven't done qigong or used medicine at all, and I have been just fine.

If you look at CMA vs. OMA/JMA or KMA, you will see that the only ones that spend any significant time worrying about medicine and qigong are the CMA folks. Ultimately it is like anything else - moderation and common sense. Don't sand your skin down, don't punch til you bleed, or anything else that demonstrates obvious structural damage. Even if you do a butt load of qigong, you are STILL smacking stuff that is way harder than your hand. It is how you go about the smacking that makes the process different.

Just my 2 yen. (and I don't have big scarred knuckles, either, though I do get dry skin on the points of contact... I recommend a good thick lotion, maybe even Vaseline, to moisturize the skin if that happens...)

[Asia]

I have spent the last 3 years just walking down the hallway at work or at home (concrete walls - military construction material of choice!) smacking whatever wall was nearest. I started out at first just tapping about 10 - 15 times. When that got easier, I kept the same number of repetitions, but increased the power just a tad. Now, I can smack the wall nearly full power about 3 - 5 times without damage. Haven't done qigong or used medicine at all, and I have been just fine.

I'd be care with this!!! Once in a old, now condemed (should have been condemed then) motorpool I put on an imprompto karate demo. There was a corner of one of the buildings that was cracking and falling away. There was a chunk that I had been kicking for weeks trying to break it off. I had loosen it up quite a bit. During Command Maitanence guys were asking me how I did at a tournament I went to that weekend. I told them I took first in sparring because of my TEKKEN (Iron Fist) I went to the wall and punched it. The chunck of concrete fell of. They were shocked my 1SG went ape telling me how I was going to pay for "Destruction of Gov't Property" and if I had broken my hand he would charge me with the same thing. I smiled and said, "But TOP your the one who said I should show my Kung Fu is the best!" (A running joke in the company!)

[respectmankind]

I would pay money to see teh look on their face when that concreate flew off in one strike.

[curtis]

TenTigers. Bravo!
COME ON GUYS!!! If you destroy your knuckles, you're not be able to use your hands later in life. Your hands should be your major tools, if you not careful you will not be able to use simple items like pencils or pens, (okay look at it this why. You will have to at least sign your Social Security checks.) If you ask me, you are all hitting wrong!
If your skin comes off when punching a heavybag your driving through too much (either that or you cannot hit the side of a barn.)
the ART OF STRIKEING should be just that, an art (control) HIT with a concussion strike not a driving strike. Shock damages humans a lot more brute force .

Think of it this way the human body is made to absorb and displace force (or direct energy). What do you think happens when you bruise? The body is using its skin, (tissues and skeletal structure,) to dissipate the damage, the body's natural self-defense system will kill off some of it tissue (by displacing the energy over the area) to save its internal organs, this attempt to absorb and displace energy before it can damage its internal. Is what we call bruising.

Okay for those who would disagree with me, I have a military question, which type of explosive is more damaging to infantry, a fragmentation grenade or a concussion grenade? (And for those bone heads out there, who want only kinetic power, this question isfor you!)
If you are going against armor, what is the best munitions to use? The answer is (HESH) high explosive squash head. ( This system does not go through the plate-shock wave from the detonation is transmitted through it. The shock wave bounces around inside the armor destroying what is inside the armor. It will destroy modern armor, where a HEAT (high explosive antitank ) weapon would not.)

Shock is the KEY to damage internal organs, and to cause a knockout!
The purpose most people study the martial art is, to better themselves," to prepare for the worst, so that it may never happen."
To destroy your body, in the hope to better yourself seems to be an oxymoron.
C.A.G.


P.S. DitDotJow will toughen your skin form abrasions,But it will not keep you from hurting your self. PLEASE dont distroy your hands! C.A.G.

[EARTH DRAGON]

For all those that have given advice please re-read MY post or TEN tigers for those are the only correct methods for real conditioning that have been given thus far.

Please do not take the advice from people that have little of no understanding of correct methodogly of proper hand conditioning....
like sanding your knuckles, hitting stuff, using tiger balm and the various other crazy things that people have said.

I do iron palm and my hands are very smooth not the least bit rough no calluoses, no scars, no nothing. WHY becuse true strikes are done with chi not with the strength of the conditioned hand. That has little to do with a ture strike the sooner you realize this the sooner you will understand that by conditioning, scarring disfigurementing and damging your hands you wil not hit any harder.......... it is not the surface that you strike but the method in which you strike that makes the differnce.......

When I break concrete it is not a hard strike with a steel hand but rather allowing the chi to penetrate the block with little force. If you slap or punch concrete you are simply using force and force is the most basic and primitive way of doing anything.. have you not heard not to use force on force?????? do you know why?
Do you understand now?

[Leonidas]

I heard the same thing about tiger balm. I read that you could make a fairly good Dit Da with some Tiger balm, some Vicks some Petroleum jelly, and some alchohol (Vodka, Rum etc...). Of course there are other ingredients that it won't work without but those are the main ones...................i'm pretty sure it had Vicks in it..........

[EARTH DRAGON]

WHAT??????NO you cannot, dit dat jow is a reciepe that calls for over 20 herbs like lion coin, sasaphriila seed, mung root, liqourish, and many more herbs that can only be found in a chinese herbology pharmacy and some that are illegal for import in the US that I will not devoldge at this time.

However you cannot make jow out of vaseline, vicks and any other home remdies that you find under your kitchen sink. The mesurements of the recipe calls for exact milligrams mesurements of each herb and this can only be done by a chinese OMD or herbologist. So for those of you who have heard of home made jows availble to the public are from the same sources that have swamp land in florida that is real cheap.

The recipe of true jow are kept secret to the general public and would not be disclosed over the internet for all to have. like the bottles you find online or in magazines for they are watered down versions with many herbs missing due to the rare availiblity of some herbs and the closley kept reciepe that some masters have.
While their is jow around I can assure that it is not made from anything other than chinese herbs. Most certainly not from tiger balm...............