Tendons, ligaments and Bone strengthening

[David Jamieson]

Originally Posted by Lee Chiang Po

Weaponizing your hands is no longer a necessity. Back when knives and fists were the technology of that day it would have required such things in order to be able to do his job. Usually fighting or some such. You will never need hands that can crush and kill from a blow to the head or body. However, what you do can be enhanced somewhat by strengthening yourself. No matter how much skill you might have, being strong with it will make you even better. A good exercise regimen, light weight lifting with lots of reps, maybe some bag work to help you develop proper alignment and strengthen the hand and most importantly the wrists. And of course you need a decent diet. You need that in any event to be healthy.
I have a total gym like Chuck Norris uses, a few dumb bells, and I eat well. When I was younger, I weaponized my hands and now I have great difficulty with them at times. On closer look one can easily see that they are deformed and have little dexterity left in them. I feel pain in them each and every day.

I think you did the process incorrectly. I've been practicing iron palm since about '95 or so on a regular basis. I regularly work with heavy bag, and ip bag on concrete.

I also play guitar and paint regularly. I have developed the hand to the point where it's serviceable and I do not suffer at all from this training.

Were you not gradual enough? Did you too hard too fast? If your hands are bothering you from conditioning them, then I am afraid you did not use any shaolin method and may be suffering because you didn't gradually and progressively work the skill?

You can still correct this though and re soften your hands again. heated soaks, pickle juice soaks, and ddj soaks overtime will bring your hands to much better state if you are suffering pain.

[Lee Chiang Po]

I smoked cigars, and would light them with wooden matches. I would strike them by rubbing them across my knuckles. Most likely I did go too hard and way too fast. I did striking exercises as well as wrist strengthening. I had uprights sort of like the rests for a weight bench that had a 2 inch wooden dowel across with a rope attached to the middle. I would wind up 200 pounds by gripping and and rolling the bar, all the way up to the top, then slowly unwind it back down to the floor. My hands and wrists were really strong and could withstand a very hard punch. I had crush power in the fingers as well.
I had a makawara and some cinder blocks that I pounded with my fists, hand edge, palm heel. I did this almost every day for near an hour. I guess it went on for about 6 years. Instead of jow I used good old Corn Huskers Lotion. As I age, my knuckles tend to grow crooked and have lost a great deal of dexterity. I can still hit really hard, but in my daily life I have to soak my hands in cold water so that I can use them normally. Otherwise they simply hurt and do not want to work in full range.

[IronFist]

I'm glad there hasn't been any "lift with your tendons" nonsense in this thread yet

[Faruq]

Isn't the iron palm, fist and body training also supposed to densen the fascia as well?

[Brule]

Originally Posted by IronFist

I'm glad there hasn't been any "lift with your tendons" nonsense in this thread yet

I lift with my legs.

[Dale Dugas]

Originally Posted by Faruq

Isn't the iron palm, fist and body training also supposed to densen the fascia as well?

It can but you want to strengthen the entire body as well as specific parts.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Its' pretty hard to train one thing in isolation, when doing weight training you are:
Making your bones denser, strengthening the muscles and tendons.
Any activity you do tends to work multiple things and since we never really do just one thing, we tend to cover it all, using weight lifting as an example, as we see above it strengthens all that but because we also stretch the area being worked, we hit the ligaments as well.

[Lucas]

lift with your tendons

[RenDaHai]

Originally Posted by sanjuro_ronin

Its' pretty hard to train one thing in isolation, when doing weight training you are:
Making your bones denser, strengthening the muscles and tendons.
Any activity you do tends to work multiple things and since we never really do just one thing, we tend to cover it all, using weight lifting as an example, as we see above it strengthens all that but because we also stretch the area being worked, we hit the ligaments as well.

Yeah, I suppose I was most interested to see if anyone had isolated tendon specific exercises... But I guess this can't really be a good idea since ligaments tendons and muscles and bone need to be balanced and if one lot is uneven it may put to much strain on the others.

[IronWeasel]

Originally Posted by Lee Chiang Po

cinder blocks that I pounded with my fists.

Originally Posted by Lee Chiang Po

Instead of jow I used good old Corn Huskers Lotion.

Well, there's the problem....

[pazman]

Having an aikido and judo background, I've always felt ukemi practice was good for strengthening my bones and keeping me loose and relaxed. My judo coach said that ukemi practice increased bone density, though I wouldn't mind seeing some medical studies into that.

Other than that, I like lifting.

[wenshu]

Originally Posted by RenDaHai

Yeah, I suppose I was most interested to see if anyone had isolated tendon specific exercises...

For the arms, especially the elbows, strict dead hang muscle ups and forward rolls to support on the rings. The transition between pull up to dip puts crazy strain on the tendons in the forearms. Anything on the rings is heavily dependent on tendon strength.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFdz0yjVLik

Russian dips are a good preparatory exercise for the muscle up transition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdMOTkBU-2U

[Blacktiger]

Training with the iron rings is great for this, and is an obvious one.

Ziranmen has a few bits and pieces, Qigong sets and exercises. Some of them look like strange yoga postures, really open things up. All part of the conditioning and martial Qigong of ZRM.

Although I guess you cant get 100% tendon specific - as its all attached!