hand conditioning

[TsangBokyan]

i want to learn hung gar, and i used to do karate

i play the piano, and in karate they want you to break in the knuckles to make the hands stronger. im wondering if hung gar hand conditioning will damage the hand, and if breaking the knuckle is required?

thanks :]

[Chunyat]

Hi,

Hung Kuen doesn't require the knuckles to be broken.
We do have hardening, but it focusses more on the fore arm.

I know a guy that's both crazy about hung kuen and playing piano. He even says the hung kuen makes his sore mucles from his ict job go away, so it helps in him being able to play the piano better.

[PM]

hello,

of course, no need to break your knuckles at all.

Hung Kyun has a set of conditioning exercises for your fists (like internal exercises - holding your fists correctly for a certain time, standing on your knuckles, knuckle push ups, punching the sand bag, punchung the wall bag, hitting the pole... ), but there is a certain methodology in each exercise. you have to do it correctly and under the supervision of a good teacher and do not await iron fist overnight. it is a long road run.

i have to say same thing as Chunyat did - i have many students - musicians, some of them even proffesionals; one guy playing and teaching piano,other guy playing and teaching violin, and another one saxophone. none of them has any problems with knuckels/fingers.

anyway, be carefull what you do. damaging your health is not worth even the best gungfu in the world.

[Asmo]

Breaking bones to make them harder is not really the best way to go if you still want to use your hands properly in older age...

Although there are exceptions, usually the Chinese way of hardening your bones is the gradual part. It makes use of Wolf's Law. More information about the law here on .

One method I used myself is iron palm which involves slapping a bag with a medium that you slowly increase of several years: first mung beans, then gravel and finally iron shot. With massage and herbal ointment (dit da jow) I can assure you nothing as drastic takes place as breaking the bones.

I have trained this 3 years for 5 times a week and have no problems with my hands, or had any injuries aside from a bruise now and then (which is in fact an indication that I overdone training).

I followed the "shaolin iron palm" book & video from Wing Lam, maybe this helps you.

[Asmo]

Get to about 1:30min and you'll see how not to condition your hand if you want it to remain healthy and usable well into old age

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD7LH92TDuA[/youtube]

PS: If you saw the karate episode of "The Way of the Warrior" you'll see the karate master using dit da jow he gets from a Chinese master to prevent troubles like that.

But even then, he just applies it a bit, without any massage, greatly reducing the effects of the whole treatment.

IMO all signs the Chinese were very selective of what type of knowledge they passed on to the Japanese.

[PorkChop]

Okinawa was a chinese-tax-paying tributary prior to the 1870s and not part of Japan back then.
Anything older than 1870 probably wouldn't have the whole stigma of the Sino-Japanese rivalry.

[Qasim]

[TsangBokyan]

haha thanks all for the replies!

yes asmo i watched that on history channel too :]
i was like

why you go punch rock crazy!

[Asmo]

=D

I just found out the guy in this documentary is actually the same one that got dit da jow from that Chinese master.