iron palm

[PM]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulXzfJq3Dd0[/youtube]

[Asmo]

I think I seen this video being discussed on some other forum before... Some raved, some casted deep criticism.

Respect for him to spent the amount of training he does. He also seems to got quite some impressive results there. But I think his hand also looks quite a bit deformed...

I'm not any expert at all, of course, but I've been following an iron palm method for about three years as well which I practiced about 5x a week. I've also broke regular red housing bricks (just one though, not a stack as impressive as this guy is breaking!). The program I followed did not have any effects like this at all to my hands however. The skin would get a bit thicker and sturdier and the hands would become "heavier" but that's it. I don't think anyone would be able to see from my hands that I followed such program (maybe just those doing the same).

AFAIK most programs stress that things should progress slowly and injuries, deformities and such should be avoided at all cost.

Again though, I'm no expert, and I'm sure more systems exist. Also at this point I have not practiced it for about 2,5 year either, this guys obviously spends an incredible amount of time training his method, all my respect for that. Doing my program 20 minutes a day was at times a real drag already ...

Love to hear what other (more experienced) members of the forum think of this.

[vaulander]

This guy may have gone a little too far...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVzUtJteogA

[ironpalm]

Those videos hurt just watching them. It did not look like he was practicing properly but it was only a news story...

If you practice properly, you will not deform your hand the way his hand is. It looks like his practice is totally external conditioning but I don't know as I did not understand the language. If anything, it is supposed to be your chi breaking the bricks, not so much your hand although it does need to be conditioned. Your hand should not be deformed if you are doing it right and using the real medicine. You should also be able to develop and send some chi to your hands to start practicing.

I had lunch with an iron palm master who is twice removed from Master Ku Yu Cheung and his hand is in no way deformed. When I touched his palm, it felt like steel. Very funny feeling when touching a person's hand.

If you practice the iron palm, do it right and seek out someone who really knows the proper techniques. When you're older and your hand is crippled from improper practice, you will not think it was worth it. Like everything else, there's a right way and wrong way.

[vaulander]

I got enough injuries from accidents (getting hit by a car while on a bike isn't too fun,) and rough play to really notice when the weather changes. I don't feel the enthusiasm for wrecking my hands on purpose.