Knuckled push-ups

[JAZA]

This must be an old question but I don't post too much in this part of the forum.
I'm doing knuckled push-ups since a time, but I've noticed I'm placing the charge principally on the cordial or central finger knuckle because first it get red and now it form a callus.
I've try to change to the inferior three knuckles but I dont feel a good aligment of the wrist in this case.

Any tips, any help??
Thanks

[Cheese Dog]

JAZA:
I've probably done many thousands of knuckle push-ups! Normally I try to have all of my weight on the first two knuckles with the fists in a 3/4 twist position (if I'm on carpet sometimes I'll add a little twist to build those calluses). A few months ago I decided to start doing push-ups on the smaller two knuckles for the conditioning and I found doing them in the same fist position as before caused some wrist strain. My teacher suggested keeping the fists vertical (palms facing each other) and that has solved that problem for me.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

who cares about a callus? be a man.

if your not a man .... be a scary woman.

[JAZA]

Thanks Cheese Dogs, I'll try your way.

GDA you must fell too macho with your hand full of calluses in your palm.:D

[Repulsive Monkey]

yeah thats true be a man and give way to arthritis in your late 40's. I've known any such benefit from doing knuckled push-ups. I used to do them before I realised how detrimental to my health there are. By deadening the knuckles you kill off the free flow of qi through most if not all of the Jing well points on the hand and thus create heat inducing conditions in the body with the inablilty to expell heat. This is not one of thhose half-arsed claims that go for everyone but it does seem to be too much of a knuckle bearing exercise to balance up the need to keep this area free flowing and soft. Jing well points omn the body are so important and by impairing them one runs the risk of heat related injuries.
This is of course nothing more but an opinion.
Feel free to slate by all means.

[JAZA]

Interesant point of view Repulsive Monkey.
In a internal art how do you conditioning the wrist and fist for punching?

[harry_the_monk]

Hi RM,

Intersting thought about the stopping of free flowing qi throughout the hands. I am doing massage and other therapies involving my hands now. Tui Na is the next thing I am interested in learning. I use a lot of the energy I build up from practising Taiji and Qigong in my massage. When I was doing pressups on my hands, I found it was building callouses on my palms.( I do love callouses as they harden the body, but people don't like being massaged by rough hands.)
I switched to my knuckles as the callouses there have proved also to be helpful for my external practise.

I am interested also to know how you perform your press ups now.

Peace.

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

"GDA you must fell too macho with your hand full of calluses in your palm"

i uhhhh .... yeah. i mean no. i use lotion.

[Scarletmantis]

I have performed knuckle push-ups in my internal practice for years. I've noticed no detrimental reduction in my so called "energy flow". On the other hand, I don't knock opponents down with my Chi either. Yoda and I are working on that. :D

Knuckle push-ups seem to me to be an excellent and safe conditioning exercise. There is far less danger of straining the wrist or tearing the knuckles open than most punching bag work and iron palm training.

Peace

[David Jamieson]

use the first two knuckles when doing push ups on your fists.

these bones are supported by the bone whereas the ring finger and pinky are not supported by the bone of the arm as well.

dit da jow and massage will breadown any stasis that occurs.

arthritis has been found to be a viral infection in many of it's forms. if your cartillage is wearing out before it's time, talk to a competent doctor and find out why.

correct alignment is key in both knuckle pushups and punches, the wrist alignment is the same. You shouldn't experience much discomfort at all if you graduate yourself.

start by using a towel and press up on the towel, unfold the towel over time until it no longer serves as a padding then eventually remove the towel entirely. Should only take a month or so.

If you have bone disease such as osteogenesis or just plain weak bones, don't bother at all with knuckle ups.

Now, you wanna do hard push ups, do tiger claw or dragon claw push ups with your fingers bridged. in other words don't let your fingers bend back like so many people do when they do finger pushups.

by the way, you will never gain muscle in your fingers because there never was and never will be muscle in your fingers :D just bone, fatty tissue and skin.

Alignment is the lesson.

cheers

[WinterPalm]

Hey Kung Lek, what's the difference between dragon and tiger pushups?

[JAZA]

Thanks Kung Lek, I didn't understand the bridge in tiger claw push ups. Do you refer to use a bandage ?.
I did finger push ups when was a child in karate, a lot of bending. Now I have a torsioned finger, but it doesn't affect my fu jow:D.

[David Jamieson]

wp- the hand form is the difference, the pushup is the same and is very similar to the yogic exercise known as "the cobra". This is without a doubt the most difficult "pushup" to do.

sifu will show you as part of the Neigong sequence of gongs.

Jaza- think of when you make the tiger claw handform how the fingers are bridged to form the claw. to do the pushup with this hand form as opposed to doing a finger pushup where the fingers bend backwards on themselves.

cheers

[JAZA]

Thanks I understand, I coulnd´t translate well the concept of bridge before.

[Cheese Dog]

IMHO, Knuckle pushups are much safer than any other method of knuckle conditioning. I started in TKD and shotokan, and we were encouraged to strike the makiwara (punching board) several times a week. Long term use of this was , I believe, far more likely to give you arthritis than knuckle pushups ever would. Also knuckle pushups strengthen your wrists more than regular pushups, so your fist is much less likely to buckle when you strike something. I don't believe that extenal calluses will slow chi flow in any way.
Scarletmantis: (Yoda voice) Much to learn, you have!!!