How does one build up pain tolerance?

[Drunken Foo]

How can i build up my pain tolerance for the whole body?

Watch this

[Ish]

hurt your self then gradually it wouldn't hurt as much. Bit of a stupid idea tho

[HuangKaiVun]

Building up one's pain tolerance may be stupid to YOU, but it's TRAINING to those of us that practice kung fu.

It all depends on your style, Drunken Foo.

In my style, we practice breath control and "pai da" (body slapped while one does the solo set).

[Ish]

i didn't say Building up one's pain tolerance was stupid. i just think that putting yourself through pain to do it isn't that good an idea. For me anyway

[HuangKaiVun]

no pain, no gain.

[Drunken Foo]

I never said that i wanted to hurt myself.

Does anyone else have ways of building up pain tolerance?

Watch this

[Aramus]

Exercise in general will build up your pain tolerance. As you exercise you build up endorphins (sp), these little nicities will help you cope with pain. Test: Don't run, slam your hand down on something (nothing breakable)...feel pain? Go running and do the same thing, feel the same amount of pain? There was an experiment done with a more controlled setting, the results were, the runners had a higher tolerance to pain. Women have a higher pain tolerance...course this doesn't help (lower threshhold...but higher tolerance or was it vice versa).

Use a punching bag to strengthen that which you use to hit (hands, knuckles, feet, elbows, knees...I heard that knife strikes to a punching bag can cause arthritis in the long run but I can't confirm that). Just some ideas...

[nospam]

pain tolerance for the whole body?

Pain is a state of mind. How developed are you?

Can you suppress scratching an itch?

Can you quit smoking?

Can you hold back your road rage or do you curse the guy up and down while tailgating?

Can you believe in yourself?

All of the above are effects of discipline. The root cause of any achievement. Although we might think of pain as being physical, it falls within the realm of the mind. That is where you will increase your pain tolerance.

nospam.

[straight blast]

Try to "compartmentalise" the pain. By that I mean try & put it in a small box in your mind & wall it away. It takes more mental focus (IMHO) than physical conditioning. Though that's real important too.
The 1st time I went shin to shin (two roundkicks colliding) in Muay Thai was with an instructor. The pain was intense, but I was able to mentally 'put it down'. I still fell over though 'cos my right shin turned to rubber!!! But I didn't cry like a baby. Give it a try! Try to summon the focus you get during meditation.

"Through strength, learn gentleness. Through gentleness, strength will prevail"

[Slayer]

I don't train to tolerate pain, I train to not get hit, then I wont feel any pain. But after this massive headake I had, I have now a high tolerance for pain. I think someone on the forum or a forum on this web page would say. " Pain is natures way of telling you that you are hurt." I am not sure if those were is excat works though.

Slayer

"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
- Mark Twain

[davies]

Develop and control your Chi power

-Kane

[Syre]

So here's what I'm wondering.

Some really dedicated MA practitioners work on things like pain tolerance level training and iron body training, which are very painful and would seem to really only be of use if you do lots of fighting.

So do you guys who do this stuff plan to do lots of fighting, or why do you do it?

Is the fighting you're planning on doing in tournaments or do you just get into lots of street fights?

If it's street fights, aren't your assailants likely to have knives or guns some of the time? And then what do you do? And why are you getting into so many street fights anyway? Are you picking the fights?

In ancient times I can see where this kind of training would be very useful, since there were brigands everywhere and the most you'd have to face would be an edge weapon. But now, I am wondering what the point of such training is.

Anyone care to comment?

[Repulsive Monkey]

What a short sighted and may I say pointless quest to follow. For one the bodies defence system needs to exhibit pain as a natural defence mechanism to let you know somethings wrong. Secondly why dip yourself into a world where this need is primary where it would better to avoid any pain inducing situations full stop.

[Johnny Hot Shot]

You can develop resistance to pain. Unfortunately it takes a little bit of pain during training to numb the sences to pain. Conditioning, Conditioning, Conditioning.

"Life's a great Adventure, Mate"
Jacko Jackson

[Nexus]

At the height (extreme) of pleasure and pain, they are both the same thing. Pain and pleasure are both just sensations that exist in the mind.

- Nexus

[CD Lee]

I don't think so...use your common sense man. That sounds so good, but it applies very weakly to real situations.

When you feel physical pain, it is usually becuase something in your body is getting DAMAGED. Something is smashing, burning, piercing to some degree your cell walls.

Lets try it:
I'll get a massage, you go stick your finger in a vice and turn the handle until unbearable. It is only the same thing if you are on drugs, a mosocist, or your hormones are out of whack.

Or better yet, lets observe nature:

I'll rub a Pit Bull's belly and scratch his back.

You get a crescent wrench, and clamp onto his nose real hard.

Then you and I can compare pleasure and pain

[Nexus]

You missed the entire point. Try understanding it for yourself, as I will not debate it with you as you have set the conversation up to be.

- Nexus

[Drunken Foo]

What kind of pain did you think I was talking about? I didn't mean put my hand in a vise or smash my face with a hammer or whatever. I am in the competative part of martial arts. Anyway thank you to those who could help I found ways to train like Shaolin monks do.

Watch this

[Kristoffer]

pain is just weakness leaving the body

live with it

~K~
"maybe not in combat..... but think of the chicks man, the chicks!"

[SevenStar]

Wow...I dunno what to say about this thread - the replies anyway. Do all of you really belive that pain tolerance is stupid and unnecessary?

Syre,
the point is to be prepared, and also to build will power. Not every fight will involve a gun or knife - I would actually say the most common is multiple unarmed attackers. In such situations, would you rather be trained to take pain, and be able to deal with it long enough to allow you to escape, or would you rather fall, succumb to the pain and end up in the hospital?

Also, many people like to compete. if you are fighting full contact, pain tolerance can be an asset.

"For one the bodies defence system needs to exhibit pain as a natural defence mechanism to let you know somethings wrong."

You aren't making yourself completely impervious to pain, that is impossible, and yes, that would be stupid.

"I don't train to tolerate pain, I train to not get hit, then I wont feel any pain."


In the real world, you must accept the fact that you may get hit. Ideally, you will end the fight without getting touch, but how realistic is that?


Back to the thread topic, as aramus said, exercise builds pain tolerance. You may also want to look into arm boxing. The point of it is to build tendon strength, but you build pain tolerance as a byproduct of the training. strike the heavy bag. If you have a competent sifu that can show you iron palm and iron shirt, try that also.

Straight blast had a good answer also.

"Just because I joke around sometimes doesn't mean I'm serious about kung-fu.
" - nightair