Recommendations for beginner arm toughening?

[roahboah]

Hi!

I was wondering if anyone would like to share methods they use for forearm toughening (i.e., getting used to the impact of crossing arms). I'm obviously getting a good bit during formal instruction via drills with other students, but I was looking for methods I could do on my own when training at home.
Thanks for any info!
regards,
Roah

[Chief Fox]

A wooden dummy is great for this.

[roahboah]

A good point, and I should have mentioned that I don't have the resources or room to get a dummy right now. I guess I was looking for a good interim method until I can either get a dummy or get access to one with regularity. Sorry I didn't mention that one before!
regards,
Roah

[couch]

Fingertip push ups!!!

:)

[Fajing]

What about a sand bag. Do you have a sand bag/wall bag for punching, striking, ect?
This will help toughen your arms. Practice beating on the bags. Fun sao, elbow, forearm strikes, ect..... ;)

[stonecrusher69]

hitting or rubbing your forarms together will do the job..

[YongChun]

In Hung style and Choy Lee Fut, two practitioners perform an arm smashing/hitting exercise which develops arms that feel to the other person like steel bars. The intensity can be built up gradually.

What we did in Hung style was to face each other in a square low horse stance. Then with the right arm both hit low inside, then both hit high (like two Tan sau's almost), then both hit low outside (like two Gan sau). Then do the same with the left arms. Then with the right arm, both hit low. Then with the left arm both hit each other's arm low (on the inside). Then both hit high (inside Gan sau). Then both grab each other, do a cross step or twist stance (walking along the side of a square) and then uncross the legs so that partners have switched positions and the exercise repeats.

When you do the striked you can twist the horse stance into a foreward stance in order to get the entire body into the hit. If you do this for a year or two then even ten years later (without any further practice) you will have quite hardened arms. we used Dit Da Jow or Zheng Gui Shui to rub on the arms if there was a lot of bruising.

After that if someone does a high round kick or round punch or frong kick, these kind of trained arms can smash into the kicks and cause a lot of damage if the hitter is not trained in this way. However against the Thai kicks this straight clash may result in broken arms if done at the wrong angle and without some kind of footwork to minimize the force received somewhat.

I have two permanent dents in the lower part of my leg from someone doing a double high Gan sau into my high roundhouse kick about 20 years ago. My legs were not conditioned but the guys arms were.

You can also do this without a partner against any kind of pole sticking out of the ground like a telephone pole, a signpost, parking meter, etc. You can also use your own two arms to do the conditioning.

I think it is best to take the graual approach where your body slowly gets used to the shocks and then each generation of new cells becomes stronger.

Medically, it's hard to say if doing that stuff is healthy or not. Practically it's hard to say if it is really necessary for Wing Chun unless you plan on going into full contact competition.

Find a good Hung style guy who can give you a good smashing run for your money.

Maybe some people on the Southern Arts forum have more enlightenment on all this.

All the Wing Chun people I have come across didn't do the abve but instead got conditioning from the Wooden Dummy training.

Ray

[Fa Kuen]

Rolling forarms on a stick, For upper forarm roll a weighted bar toss in air then catch. A 4" pvc filled with coins good if no bamboo Ha. Or just look around the house I like to hit the wood post holding my fence.

[snakebyte8]

If you are just a beginner your time at home might be better spent allowing the bruises on your arms (from class) to heal. Practice your forms till your blue in the face at home. Your arms will toughen up in class, just keep going enough. Don't forget the jow.

[mantis108]

Hi YongChun and All,

Good post. The 3 stars strikes exercise as you described it is common to most southern styles. Forearm striking exercises actually are crucial part of Kung Fu training to both northern (ie Mantis) and southern arts. Depending on the system, there are more to it than just striking the forearms. In some traditions, the bodily weapons such as the head, shoulder, elbows, ribs, hip, etc. can all be trained with these. Also takedown techniques can be trained in this manner as well. Some systems will have special Qigong exercise such as Ba Duan Jin (8 pieces of brocade - a special one), etc. before doing the training. Dit Da Jow (herbal formula) would be used before and/or after the training again according to the believe system that the style belongs to. Some special formula will include rusted iron and vinegar for toughening the skin. If you do not worry about scratches that much, than a regular store bought bottle would do the work nicely.

Anyway, this aspect of training can be very simple or elaborate depending on the style. Proper training in impact training can increase bone density and encourage endurance and/or reciliency in punishment recovery.

Warm regards

Mantis108

[jetli68]

the way got my arms tougher as tring in wingchun and when at home had no dummy or real equitment to train with as such i used my arms to do it this works and you might laugh but it does work .what i did and still do some times is hitting my forearms against each other i a cross over way so you hit the undernieth left arm cross onto you right arm then you right arm across onto your left arm after a few times your arms will go red and hurt abit but after a while it will take longer to start to hurt . and this tec help me in winchun on the wooden dummy plus made my blocking much better .try it it worked for me

start off soft at frst then get a bit harder

[stuartm]

A wooden dummy is great for this.

No its not, its great for position, structure, footwork, flow and transition, application and many other things .....but it is not there to toughen arms.

Your arms will toughen naturally through intense application when you reach intermediate and higher levels. Your focus should be on other things my friend......

Peace, Stu :)

[CFT]

We do a simple two-man blocking drill where we face each other in the YJKYM stance and perform tan-gan-tan, right arm to right arm then left arm to left arm. Tan conditions the inside of the forearms and gan the outside. Sounds very much like Ray's Hung Gar drills.

We also have some pivoting stance blocking drills. 1) Scissor block (high-low gan sau) alternating sides conditions the outside of the forearms. 2) Scissor block then quan sau (high gan sau/low bong sau) on same side, then drill the other side. Direction change only on the scissor block. Apart from the conditioning it also helps train the pivot, and highlights whether you bob up and down or your shoulders roll when you turn.

[roahboah]

Wow!
Thanks for the great replies and advice, everybody!
It's much appreciated.
Best regards from a grateful beginner,
roah

[5Animals1Path]

The Pushup-Punch Routine.

Do 10 pushups. Then a series of a strike or block.

Change the kind of pushups, change the strike.

Repeat for one hour.




We do this every first of the month class. Fun fun.

[CFT]

The Pushup-Punch Routine.

Do 10 pushups. Then a series of a strike or block.
Change the kind of pushups, change the strike.
Repeat for one hour.

We do this every first of the month class. Fun fun.And how does this toughen the arms?

[Lindley]

Play the Huen Sao technique -->

1) Through a punch straight out
2) Open the fist and rotate the hand so the palm faces up
3) Keeping the elbow locked straight, with the palm facing up, bring the wrist back as far as possible and stop
4) Rotate the wrist into the center
5) Upon completion of the rotation extend each finger starting with the pinky so they slowly roll into a fist

The key is to do it slowly and deliberatly.


Good luck with your kung fu...

[CHAZ]

Here's some of those Hung Gar exercises YongChun was going on about, and a few others.

http://www.fuhok.com/Hung%20Gar%20Training/lingung.htm

Chaz

[Liddel]

If you throw punches at older students and they use actions like Pak Sao / Pie Sao / Tan Sao (anything blocking the inside 'soft' part of the arm) with a good amount of inch power to block said punches, your arm will become very sore and tight quickly.... do this over and over and your arms will toughen up while giving others much needed practice.

You may also catch an idea about the use of inch power outside of punching ?
Over time youll notice less and less bruising...
You may need some Dit Da Jow though :)
Good Luck