Body Conditioning Research

[Lost Oath]

Just had a discussion with a friend if mine regarding to body conditioning.

He's Biology major and claims a full research on body conditioning and
strengthening has never been done.

Up until now I though that when the bone is damaged during body
conditioning, small microscopic fractures are created in the bone and they
are filled with some sort of material which is harder then the bone but less
flexible. Also your nerves in that area are destroyed so you feel less pain
and your bone gets stronger.

So this friend of mine gazed at me smiling letting me finish making laugh of
myself and in the following 15 minutes gave me a full university lecture of
why this magical "material" that's harder then the bone does not exists and
the reason we stop feeling the pain is simply because we get used to it –
pure psychology, it's all in the head. That's it.

After that we kicked the ass of each other. It was mucho fun.

The question asked is - how the hack body conditioning works? Is there a
research (google didn't find what i was looking for)? Your thoughts...

Peace,
Romi

[fiercest tiger]

Good question

[Kristoffer]

well, I've heard that the claims that conditioning destroys nervs are false too.

[Liokault]

Does it matter?

I used to condition my shins with a metal bar....hurt like hell to start with. After a few weeks, it still hurt at the start of conditioning but the pain tailed off fast. Pretty quick I could take shin on shin hits with out thinking about it (while the other guy went and sat down :D ). But does it matter which mechanism does this? Isnt it just important that it works?

As for the micro fractures, I thaught that this was only true for cartalage, such as knuckles.

[Royal Dragon]

God, like the difference between internal, and external, the answer is so simple that I shouldn't have to point it out.

BUT....here it is:

The Body feels PAIN when it gets broken, or ALMOST broken.

So, if ur as soft wuss who's never trained, ovbiously it don't take much to get you close enough to breakage, to feel pain.

Now, If you've been specifically doing exercises like any kind of Iron Body thing, your skin, muscles and bones respond by getting *MONSTER* strong, so it takes ALOT before you feel any pain at all, because they have that much more to go before they near the point of dammage.


No matter how conditined you get though, when you get close to the breaking point, or actualy dammage some part of you or another, IT HURTS!!! Especially when the protection of the Adrenilin rush wears off.

Any more simple questions I can answere?

[Lost Oath]

You're a genius Royal Dragon. Here are some more simple questions:
The Body feels PAIN when it gets broken, or ALMOST broken.

So, if ur as soft wuss who's never trained, ovbiously it don't take much to get you close enough to breakage, to feel pain.How does the body feel the pain?

Now, If you've been specifically doing exercises like any kind of Iron Body thing, your skin, muscles and bones respond by getting *MONSTER* strong...How does the skin, muscles and bones get *MONSTER* strong? Try answering from a scientific POV.
No matter how conditined you get though, when you get close to the breaking point, or actualy dammage some part of you or another, IT HURTS!!!Does it take more pressure to break a part that has been undergoing conditioning or is it the same amount of pressure and only difference is that it takes longer until you feel the pain. If the part IS stronger - how come?

Last question Royal Dragon and also the one intrigues me the most. Bring some scientific study to prove the points said above.

[Royal Dragon]

How does the body feel the pain?

Reply]
It's got sumt'n to do with nerves yelling "OUCH" really loud to the brain DUUUUHHH!!


>>How does the skin, muscles and bones get *MONSTER* strong? Try answering from a scientific POV.

Reply]
It's a progressive resistance thing. Like weight training, if you start hitting lightly, then slowly progress to hitting harder, and harder the body strengthens and builds a resistance to the impact. That's how guys can break concrete with thier bare hands, but not break thier hands, when mear mortals will end up in a cast if they tried.

>>Does it take more pressure to break a part that has been undergoing conditioning or is it the same amount of pressure and only difference is that it takes longer until you feel the pain.

Reply]
It takes more pressure to break the part in the first place. Pain is felt in the same purportion to breakage as before. However, theortically, one can build a mental resistance to pain as well, and tighten the threashold up a bit I'm sure.

>>If the part IS stronger - how come?

Reply]
I can't explain scientifically, but from my humble experiance, Bones get denser, muscles become more "Bouncy", and skin probably develops a resistance to dammage similar to thickening up, or maybe it just develops a higher tensile strength. I can't answer the mechaincs in detail as I don't have the education to do so, but I do know how my body responded when I was into that stuff. I have also crossed hands a bit with Iron Body buffs, and I can say they are hard as ****, and have heavy hands. It's not a mental thing.

>>Last question Royal Dragon and also the one intrigues me the most. Bring some scientific study to prove the points said above.

Reply]
I can't, I'm going off simple common sense. But look at it this way, every OTHER progressive exercise makes the body stronger along the lines of it's discapline. Weights give you more lifting power, stretching more flexibility, and cardio gives more endurance. Hitting/striking or what I like to call "Impact" exercises give a resistance to impacts.

It's all about progressively loading the body to improve it's functional capacities, in this case resisting impact.

If you load, or stress the body repetedly, it adapts.

[IronFist]

There is Wolff's Law (I think) which states that a bone to which continual stress is applied will become more dense, or something like that. I think this is why gymnasts have the most dense heels out of everyone, or something.

I don't know.

I doubt that feeling less pain over time is psychological, tho. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can prove that it's not by the following example:

Joe Schmoe has been training in Thai Boxing since he was 6 years old. He developed "tough" shins and could block and kick with his shins without feeling much pain. He quit Thai boxing at age 20. At ago 40, he got into a fight and someone threw a kick at him. He instinctively blocked with his shin and felt intense pain.

Now, psychologically speaking, he wasn't expecting to feel pain, because the last time he blocked with his shin 20 years ago it didn't hurt. This is why he blocked without thinking (instinctively). But, it did hurt him because physically his body wasn't used to such trauma. If everything went according to plan psychologically it still wouldn't have hurt.

So, it's not all in the head.

[Royal Dragon]

Agreed.

Also, like all forms of exercise, as soon as you stop, you begin to lose it. If you stop doing lots of cardio, you soon begin to lose the ability to run marathons as you once did. If you stop Iron Body conditioning, you do soften back up.

Although, I have to admit, even though I have stopped, and I have softened up, I'm still not as soft as I was before I started it. With a small warmup, more to get my mechanics right, I can still break a patio tile with no effort. Two is also still possible, but I do feel it now, where as it was just like claping my hands when I did lots of Iron hand.