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[JohnS]

Is there any sensible way to condition the fists for striking that wont leave me with ruined hands?Does anyone have any experience with this?I have never seen Karate men practicing on hard round things similar to the human skull.I did a quick online search and I came across a lot of people wanting to sell me DitDowJa and then tell you to whale away on makiwaras.I practice open hand shots and I try to be accurate when I hit the bag w/boxing blows but Murphys Law is always a factor.

[whitewolf]

JohnS-some thoughts on the hands-
if you start conditioning them by hitting boards wrapped in some material  eventually you will just damage the hands in some fashion-i recommend that you start using hand weights to strengthen the wrists and hands. Start hitting the bag with at least hand gloves on. Start training to hit with closed fist hitting with bottom of fist-forearms-or strike with bottom of palm to bag. I have met martial artists over the years that when you look at theeir hands they apear like they are almost crippled.
 Some  may say if you do the training correctly hitting the knuckles will  be ok-
ask them again when they are 50. Pro boxers wrap their hands- do the same.
I personally advacate skipping the time needed to beat a board  break bricks and
concentrate on learning a martial art (what ever you like)-the benifits will be great over the long run- thats just my opinion- R?S WW

[Kentbob]

JohnS,
I do pushups on my knuckles, that seems to help a little with wrist strength.  If you can do pushups on kettlebells, or renegade rows on kettlebells, that will help more.  Climbing exercises build tremendous crush strength, which builds overall wrist strength. 

As to conditioning the knuckles without damaging the hands, my dad knew this guy who would simply smack a city phone book so many times every day, both with the back of his hand and the front.  A friend of mine who does kung-fu used a bag filled with mung beans and did backfists against it.  Again, I do a lot of pushups on my knuckles, which I think helps.  Part of what you're doing when you condition the hands in this manner is also building pain tolerance, however, as you've already stated, you don't want to go so hard you ruin your hands.  Other things that you can think about are setting up an Army surplus duffel bag filled with clothes or other soft material as a heavy bag, and hitting that regularly.  For the inside of the hand, lifting weights and doing lots of pullups builds tremendous callouses on striking surfaces inside the hand.

I'm not certain that you can build up the wrist enough so that it doesn't turn if you hit a person wrong, but I suppose nearly anything is possible.

Kent

[Jamie Flory]

One thing I do for hand conditioning is work a "stress ball".  Any small squishy ball will work, blue racket balls well.  I squeeze it with the whole hand, then between finger tips and thumb.  Sometimes just between index finger and thumb' or first 2 fingers and thumb.  These are all physical therapy exercises i was given after a hand injury once.  The idea is to strengthing the muscles and other tissues in the hand.  Im not a medical type, and not sure how much effect it has on the amount of damage your hand might take, but i figure the "stronger is stronger". Period.

[Hock]

Strongman Mike Gillette points out that few if any exercises cover the finders opening and extending outward, but rather most include the inward gripping strength.
One exercise Gillette does is shove his hand in a can or box of sand and open and close the hand.

Not everyone is built for punching. Hit something hard with something soft (palm) and hit something soft with something hard.

A good instructor should recognize who in the class should or should emphasize punching in their favorite list. This comes back to the "Mixed Persons" category.

Hitting things that don't give can be an eventual problem.

Hock

[JohnS]

THANKS For all the info.

[Professor]

lotion is for the hands.   



done the conditioning route.