Have you guys ever tried this??

[Lama Pai Sifu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-vdspthj1o

Picked it up today after not practicing it for several years. Felt a little rusty, but I'll get back to snuff in no time.

[monji112000]

I used to do something similar,but after watching I am going to start again. I do few
exercises that we have in Wing Chun for twisting with the long pole ( i use a bench press bar). I am interested in any other exercises you have , as always keep the clips coming. I heard from a nameless someone that Choy lay fut and Wing Chun were similar, and that Choy lay fut was probably one of the best fighting kung fu styles(despite the fact that he used to fight them).. but I didn't really put thought in it (you see allot of BS in America its hard to tell whats BS and whats real). Keep the clips coming.

[sihing]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-vdspthj1o

Picked it up today after not practicing it for several years. Felt a little rusty, but I'll get back to snuff in no time.

Good stuff, I learned something there, and it's exactly something that I need to work on. I got good forearm strength, but suck in the grip strength dept.

Thx:)

James

[David Jamieson]

someone's gonna bust their nose. :p

[Yum Cha]

someone's gonna bust their nose. :p

David, what are you some kind of wuss? Got a problem with Iron Face training? Maaattteee....I thought you were hard core!


Nice looking training hall Mike.

You seen those Russian/Middle Eastern exercises they do for the core muscles where they use something like a sledge and swing it around themselves?

[SifuAbel]

Nice one, mike.

What happened to the hair?!?!?!?!??!

[drleungjohn]

-All the old strong man stuff is coming back and the research is finding that it is JUST AS VALUABLE AS THE MODERN STUFF

[Shaolinlueb]

Mike

I actually know a guy who was in the circus for many years doing tight rope walking. and they set up the tents, and this was one of the tricks he showed me that he could still do. pick up the 25lb sledgehammer or whatever it was by the end and rotate it up and touch the nose and bring it back down.

me, i would drop it on my face, breaking my nose for a 6th time.

adam

[MasterKiller]

Affliction shirt = FAIL.

You might as well have been wearing TapOut.

[LoneTiger108]

Reminds me of the old 'Brucie' magic forearm drills!

Very good concept outlined here and practised quite a lot back in the day by most Wing Chun practitioners, except we used the long pole for the weight. This was replaced by Bruce with a small dumbell weighted at one end, similar to this hammer example.

All good stuff, and totally essential for anyone wishing to develop hand, wrist, forearm and elbow strength. Although some older practitioners will say it's all in your alignment and 'Hei' (Chi)...

[Lama Pai Sifu]

Affliction shirt = FAIL.

You might as well have been wearing TapOut.

Hey....Don't be a hater! I actually won that shirt in a raffel at a MA biz convention. It's sells for $44.99 (can you believe that sh1t?) Didn't actually like it at first, but it's growing on me. :) I hadn't even heard of it/the company before the summer.

[MasterKiller]

Hey....Don't be a hater! I actually won that shirt in a raffel at a MA biz convention. It's sells for $44.99 (can you believe that sh1t?) Didn't actually like it at first, but it's growing on me. :) I hadn't even heard of it/the company before the summer.

It's the MMA equivalent of wearing a $50, worn out, Dale Earnheart Jr shirt.

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

Whats wrong with Dale?

[Lama Pai Sifu]

It's the MMA equivalent of wearing a $50, worn out, Dale Earnheart Jr shirt.

Well, I can't say that I would ever spend that much on a t-shirt, I certainly would have never bought this one. I like it, maybe because it was FREE!

Anyway, MK, did u like the clip I posted?

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

-All the old strong man stuff is coming back and the research is finding that it is JUST AS VALUABLE AS THE MODERN STUFF

Reply]
What do you mean "AS" valuable? It's actually proving to be BETTER!

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-vdspthj1o

Picked it up today after not practicing it for several years. Felt a little rusty, but I'll get back to snuff in no time.

Sledge hammer work is way cool, great for wrist strenght AND flexability.
Old school okinawan conditioning has the Chishi which is a stone equivelent to the sledge hammer.

[Ben Gash]

I used to do similar stuff with a pickaxe handle (my brother was a hammer thrower, so he had them for swing training)

[MasterKiller]

Anyway, MK, did u like the clip I posted?

I don't do isolation drills with weights. You would get more benefit, imo, from using a heavier hammer and swinging it hard (like at a tire) to work your core.

I get plenty of specialized grip-strength training just from wrestling.

[Oso]

good drills but you could just chop some wood.

no one else going to say anything about 'tendon' strength???

[Lama Pai Sifu]

I don't do isolation drills with weights. You would get more benefit, imo, from using a heavier hammer and swinging it hard (like at a tire) to work your core.

I get plenty of specialized grip-strength training just from wrestling.

I've hit tires, junk cars and concrete. I agree that it is imporant training also. I don't believe you can get the strength I'm talking about in your grip, just from wrestling.

But I do think you need dynamic and active training and static training as well. It's a good balance IMO to have both. What percentage is up to you.

Thanks for your feedback. It is appreciated.

[Lama Pai Sifu]

good drills but you could just chop some wood.

no one else going to say anything about 'tendon' strength???

Right...but where I am going to get the wood? What am I going to do with it after? Who is going to help me clean it up....

Doesn't make much sense, especially because I might train it everyday for a few weeks and I don't live in the woods. I don't have access to 'some wood' too freqently.

And tendon strength is one of the things I'm demonstrating here.


I really recommend that you guys try this. Give it a shot for a minute before dismiss it or think that it is an inferior method. I think you'll find it a little harder than I make it look in the video....much harder.

Remember - 12lbs. sledge, not 8 or 10. AND try gripping it at the very END of the handle with NO support of your forearm. I think if you gave this a try you would think about it differently.

Not being pi$$y either. I couldn't do it the first time I tried it and I thought it was stupid. I'm just putting it out there to possibly inspire someone to check it out and give it a try.

[Oso]

i'm just saying that the average martial artist should maybe be more worried about tendon health than strenght per se. it's very hard to strengthen the tendon alone.someone jumping on that even w/ a short grip might find themselves injured. it IS hard to do, probably too hard for most people.

[sanjuro_ronin]

If there is one thing that should be trained in isolation, it is grip work.
Most old school judoka do quite a bit of it as do many old school karate men.
I woudl assume its the same case with "claw based " CMA also.

As in all things one must progress in a slow manner.

Leverage stuff like the sledge hammer is less about grip and more about wrist strength, again not a bad thing to develop.

As for tendon strength, as you strengthen the muscles and don't over due it, tendons will become stronger too.

[Mano Mano]

I don't do isolation drills with weights. You would get more benefit, imo, from using a heavier hammer and swinging it hard (like at a tire) to work your core.

I get plenty of specialized grip-strength training just from wrestling.
I've done the sledgehammer tire drill a few years ago, it looked easy when watching it after doing it my self I couldn’t move the next day due to the soreness of my muscles.

[golden arhat]

i did an excersies once that i learned fro ma book

it went like this
u take a big inhalation breath
u take the sledgehammer and swing it around your head ten times
and then around your body ten times (changing hands and without breathing)
then stop and breathe out
then breathe in and repeat
keeping it controlled at all times
u do that about ten times and not only does it exhaust your shoulders and arms and back

but your head starts to feel really reallly hot and solid like u could headbutt through a door if u wanted for no reason it seems wondering if that is a chi thing ? :confused:

anyway i think its a really good excersise because it trains ur panic reflexes because when u cant breathe ur body goes into panic mode and u can condition this out of yourself (good for self defence obv)

it is a great upper body core and back workout

and possibly chi gong qualitys


what do you guys think ?

[David Jamieson]

moving weight is good, holding your breath while doing so can be dangerous.

[Takuan]

I used to do those drills with an 8 foot staff, same principles as you discussed. :D The only reason I quit is because my staff broke :( But sweet video, I'm always glad to see a video of stuff I do out there, it makes me feel less crazy. :P

[B-Rad]

I'll be trying this out :)

[Eddie]

nice! Thanks for this. Im going to try this out tonight.

[Lama Pai Sifu]

Watch what I put up on here tonight!!!!!!!!!

[SevenStar]

Affliction shirt = FAIL.

You might as well have been wearing TapOut.

yeah, I hate those shirts... at my club (and this isn't a racial thing, just truth at my club) every even semi-built white guy who wants to be cool wears those d@amn shirts. One night I had to choke (not to unconsciousness) one of them and drag him out. When I got him outside, I said "nice shirt," and the other guys just busted out laughing (all of our bouncers train muay thai, bjj or a combination)

I was ridiculing a female co-worker on my day job, because she just bought like every Sinful shirt that is available. :(

[SevenStar]

back to the topic, I have a sledgehammer. I was pretty regular with it last spring, but have been slacking with it. I need to pick it up again.

[Eddie]

all i can say is RESPECT!
I have an 8lbs hammer here, and I couldnt even do the things you do with the 12 lbs hammer. Im thinking either you are super strong, or your hammer is one of those fake circus props ;)

thanks for sharing this with us. im going to keep playing with this hammer untill i get it.

any abb sets with the hammer?

[David Jamieson]

I think the people are crying out for you to wear purple silks. :confused:

Oh, and get a que eh. lol

[cjurakpt]

as regards the whole "strenghtening tendons" thing, this article pretty much says it all:

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/tendons.html

(btw, dorsiflexion means bringing the ankle up, such that the toes get closer to the shin; plantarflexion is what happens when the toes point)

in a nutshell, based on my understanding of it (which is essentially the content of article) I would suggest that the the sledge hammer exercise is not really increasing the functional strength of the tendon, because it is not targeting the elastic recoil properties thereof (remember, tendons are non-contractile - they produce force when they recoil after being stretched); what it appears to be doing during the slow lowering of the sledge hammer to the nose is increasing eccentric strength of the muscle belly fibers of various muscles around the wrist and elbow, because it is working on controlling the descent of the sledgehammer (eccentric contractions occur when the muscle lengthens slowly against resistance - like slowly lowering a weight after doing a biceps curl - some people call them "negatives")

so it's certainly a good exercise, but to target tendons specifically I think it would need to be modified into some sort of plyometric activity where you get the stretch / recoil effect, as opposed to the slow controlled movement which targets the muscle belly's eccentric contractile ability

read; ponder; come back with questions...

[Lama Pai Sifu]

all i can say is RESPECT!
I have an 8lbs hammer here, and I couldnt even do the things you do with the 12 lbs hammer. Im thinking either you are super strong, or your hammer is one of those fake circus props ;)

thanks for sharing this with us. im going to keep playing with this hammer untill i get it.

any abb sets with the hammer?

No. Just super strong Eddie.

:)