Is conditioning bad for you in the long term?

[william]

I just wanted your thoughts:

I read about conditioning your fists by hitting something hard, floor, wall or whatever, slowly building up the power, so that you don't hurt yourself. And over time with careful practice developing hard strong fists.

However a friend of mine said that doing this can cause arthritis later on in life? does anyone know anymore about this? or have any ways of getting around this, or any safer fist conditioning exercises?

Any help would be much appreciated,

W

[IronFist]

I'm not sure. Different people say different things. Arthritis affects your joints, tho, and some people say shin conditioning will give you arthritis. But your shin is not a joint, so I don't think so.

You could damage yourself from fist conditioning, tho, if you do it wrong. Even if you don't damage yourself you might get enlarged knuckles or whatever.

[premier]

Generally the idea on all iron kungs is to slowly build up from soft materials to harder materials. So I don't think it's a good idea go hitting hard solid objects like wall right away. You should start with softer materials.

Hitting heavy bag is usually concidered as a great fist conditioning exercise. Start with bag gloves and after a few months try it without them. I don't think you necessarily even need to hit harder objects than a bag.

[Samurai Jack]

Sure, conditioning your knuckles could end up injuring you. So could weight training, or martial arts practice. For those who want the skill, the risk is worth it.

Dit da Jow can reduce the risk, as can intelligent training with a qualified teacher. Bear in mind that you could get artheritis even if you don't practice iron-fist, and you're going to die of something someday.

[Andy62]

I read an article some time ago about karate practitioners who do a lot of breaking. Over time it did considerable damage to their bones and joints and really devastated their fists. If I remember correctly in some cases they developed cancerous type growths on their knuckles.

[IronFist]

I don't think they were cancerous growths as much as they were probably calcium growths.

[Andy62]

You're probably right.

[Samurai Jack]

Originally posted by IronFist
... they were probably calcium growths.

Enlarging the knuckles with calcium deposits are one of the desired effects of iron-fist training.

Cancer...

[Andy62]

I would be careful with that as it could bring on long term problems.

[PangQuan]

I was once told something. Hard on soft, Soft on hard. In other words, do light conditioning to strengthen your hands, not alot though. Mainly, if you hit a hard spot, ie; head, use your palm strikes or tiger style, for instance. If you hit soft spots, ie; stomach, use your fist. Unless you plan on doing some red hand sand palm techniques dont push it too hard. If you life goal is to smash concrete with your fists then go all the way, but find a teacher. If not just build a little at a time slowly just so you dont break your hand hitting someone in the head. But still thats why Shaolin has so many open hand strikes. The head is deadly to hands. I use rope wraped two by fours with hand wraps. I will throw a few blows at harder objects (trees, bricks, wood) but not to many, you have to find your limit.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by PangQuan
I was once told something. Hard on soft, Soft on hard.

I heard that with regard to strikes, but not in the context of training, although I suppose it might apply there, too.

So yeah, like you said: if you're hitting someone in the head, you use a palm strike and not a fist. And if you're hitting someone in the stomach you use a fist and not a palm strike.

[Samurai Jack]

Ya'll a bunch a pu$$ies!