I took this article from this link, and it may prove insightful for many a CLF practitioner.
http://www.clfsd.com/articles.html#system
Body conditioning - The Iron Body Path:
Get the fists and shins of steel
From an early stage in your training you should start the body conditioning some time referred to us iron palm or iron shirt training. As you grow in muscular strength you must also ensure that you have conditioned your muscular - skeletal system to deliver and take strong blows. Seen many a student that have not paid attention to body conditioning and when they throw a punch in the street or school fracture and damage there hands/ shins etc....Here some tips to start you off with. There is no magic potions just a strick regime and attention to your body signs. Seek professional advice at all times prior to starting your training. If you have Rheumatiod arthritis history in your family then you need to explore other options to body conditioning.
1. Increase the circulation of your blood via a warm up that makes you start to pespire. Increased oxygen intake in the blood is the start
2. Respect your skin type and its potential to soften when you sweet and so easily tear when you strike or graze the bags. So take it easy when you start the training.
3. Wash you hands/arms/shins in the dit ta jow to enhance circulation and slightly drying the skin prior to the pounding. Remember that many Tit Da jows are different and many are just commercial rubbish and have little sustained treatment properties. Be ware that you need herbs that can be absorbed into the fascia and have stimulant properties that work on the muscular skeletal system with a localised effect and no potential systemic reactions. What I mean by this is I saw a student once start the training with a video course and tit da jow and he presented in the clinic with clear syptoms of infection of both hands. Any way spent a week in the hospital with blood poisioning. Consult a professional licenced herbalists at all times or konw where the stuff is coming from.
4. For hand work train with the power grips for a warm up or a wrist weight to build strength of the wrists as the pouding will jarr the smaller bones of the hand . Start with pounding of the area on a firm but loose bag of beans/rice/punching bag/ bamboo sticks. Avoid heavy pounding until you have built up the muscular skelatal strength of the area. It is suggested that you use both fixed and free moving bags to avoid early injury to the not so denses fibres of the muscles and tendons. Use the tit da jow very generously to assist in the localised effects of the tit da jow. Work about 10 mins per area. Avoid lacerations to the skin at all times. You will feel a swelling or balloning of the hand /foot or body part. This is the bodies reaction to trauma and protects itself by increasing the density of the soft tissue at the localised area. Stop and soak the parts in the jow for 5 mins. Finish with a exercise to stimulate blood flow to the area you worked on.
5. Continue to perform strenghtening of the ligaments(joins bone to bone) and tendons muscle to bone). Hand grips, wrist wheel, body pole rolls, sinue exercises......... calf raises duck walking.... At the same time move up to firmer but still flexible material in the bags such as sand/ loose small sized blue gravel/ mixture of husks and gravel or beans. No need to take great leeps as everyone reacts at diffferent pace to the training. Continue to use both static and dynamic bags to hit. Keep the generous use of the tit da jow on the parts. Remeber to clean your hands with an alcohol based solution twenty minutes after training to remove the residue and avoid it entering your eyes or other sensitive areas. As well as disinfect any lacerations that may have occurred because you did not listen and you pounded to hard!!!!!! Blood poisioning will finish your limbs people!!!!!
6. If you do not feel an obvious increase in the size and strength of the area do not proceed to pounding the hard metal fillings or kicking those wooden poles...etc.... You are simply not ready. There is no rush you can stay at the previuos level for years. When ready move to the harder but still flexible materials. Once callous has form on the surface of the Facia then you can start to pound the harder static stuff but remember that as you grow older the bones become less dense and prone to fracture. Ensure that your training incorporates good ligament strenghthening to avoid the sprains and strains that we all experience. Any good physio will tell you the exercises you need if ou have weak joint syndrome. Using Tit da jow should remain a practice after most trainings that involve heavy bag work or wooden dummy work. This is where Tit da jows differ. Those that are good will continue to envoke reactions of the muscular skeletal system that enhance blood flow and the bodies natural healing process. The others just smell and have little or no affect. If you experience prolonged pain or sweeling after each training it may be due to a useless Tit Da jow.
The dynamic wooden dummies of Choy Lee Fut enable the student to train the regime of body conditioning at the same time of enhancing your fighting skills. There are but a few kung fu styles that incorporate this type of trainining. We have 18 great body conditioning dummies. This sites talks about the wooden dummy training of Choy Lee Fut in its Article section under the Master class heading.
Hope this helps out some of you.
Ma Wai Lung
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