My friend who does kung fu said that there are secret chinese
ways to toughen the knuckles.
Any of you kung fuers use any of those methods?
Just curious…it would be nice if I could toughen my hands more.
an old boxing trick is to soak your hands in brine
Hand conditioning can be damaging if done improperly so please becareful. I have seen arthritic, deformed and contusions in the fingers from this type of training.
But if you are careful and use the correct herbs you can succsefully strengthen and toughen the epdermis, tendons and musceles in the hands.
Striking the back of your hand in a bowl or wok of mung beans work the best for the beginning stages. Remember to exhale every time you strike.
You should not use force for the first couple of months but rather bring your hand up to shoulder level and let if drop naturally. This will give you the proper amount of time to allow the capilaries condition properly to prevent damage.
You should eventually work up to more dense substances. ie I went from water to beans to rice to sand to iron to stone slab. But I was iron palm training which is different.
You can also do knuckle pushups.
But remember alwas use dit dat jow beofre and after training, and always massage hands for a half an hour after conditioning.
Hit stuff 
I use to bleed all over the heavy bag and I got tired of it. Any callouses I made were torn off when I was hitting it. So I decided to toughen up my knuckles with sand paper. What I did was find some really fine grain sand paper and rub it on my knuckles until they bled just slightly and then I would stop when each knuckle was a little bit raw. I’d wait a day and then repeat the process. After a couple of weeks to a month I developed slight scar tissue which remains permanent. I haven’t rubbed any sand paper on my knuckles for a long time and I still have the scar tissue. It doesn’t look like some huge nasty scar (unfortunately cuz scars are neato) it is only noticeable if you touch it or look at it really closely.
Boxerchick, are you talking about your actual knuckles (the bone), or the skin on your knuckles
Hi Jeff,
The skin on my knuckles!
Just hit the heavy bag about 50 times without sap gloves at the end of each workout. Hit it lightly, no power. Make sure you massage your knuckles at the end.
That’s pretty much the Chinese method as well. The big difference is they have medicines to apply to the hand to keep it soft.
after each workout, soak your hands in pickleing salt for about 20 min, take them out, but don’t dry the tops of yor hands off, let the water air dry, and the salt will toughen your skin.
You could also use Tigerbalm, you can buy it in any MA store, or on the net.
Tiger blam??? what ? tiger balm is a topical ointment used to sooth sore muscles and achs and pains.
Boxer chik be careful what and who you ask on this forum. Some adivce should not be taken.
you cant sand your knuckles and do not use tiger balm , unless of coarse your hands hurt after heavy bag workouts.
I have been doing iron palm for 6 years so I suggest that you take heed to my advice but you be the judge.
uhmm, naah just hit stuff 
"uhmm, naah just hit stuff "
ROFL…Thats hilarious
I usually hit my hands on hard objects. Concrete (not at first), wood, metal, kids… all the same.
Internal vs external
There is a big difference between what we could term internal and external iron hand conditioning.
Internal will use qigung and various forms of static posture training as well as its external elements. This type of training is very similar to what Earth Dragon has offered and for me personaly i would say he gives some VERY good advice from a purely external view point, which is all we have as the internal elements are to hard to discribe in text.
External training including simply punching hard objects untill your hands basicaly addapt to the excercise is a two edged sword.
On one hand [great pun huh] your hand will definately become harder as your body will be forced to addapt to the stress your placing on it. This can lead to caluses and oversized knuckles. The real kicker here is that after many years of this training you wont even be able to close your hand let alone make a fist.
Extrernal palm is commen in cma for this reason, external iron fist is one of the best weapons of cma but it comes at a massive cost. Most would prefer to condition there palms or take the extra time to do the internal training and avoid the injurys.
So yeah you can just punch hard things to make your fist hard but if you want to do it the right way and still be able to use your hands in 20-30 years time then take ED’s advice and do it the right way.
The only real way to be safe and sure is to have a real qualified instructor. My Hung sifu used to do external iron fist, he doesnt like talking about it and has since stopped.
His hands are marked with the same white iron lumps that are common among some traditional hard style practioners. The main difference is he now understands where he went wrong and teaches his students the right ways.
Just to really confuse you…
Xing Yi proberly have some of the hardest hits of any style on the face of the earth, they dont do any fist external conditioning, try explaining that one:)
I’ve been carrying around small flat rocks in my pockets since I was 13, and whenever I get a chance I would take it out, hold it in one hand, and punch it (not too hard, but hard enough to feel slight pain). Do this a few hundred times a day (seems like a lot, but it’s not), and you’ll notice a difference after a month. I’m at the point now where I can punch solid brick walls at full force and be perfectly fine.
Probably easiest to begin by doing pushups on your knuckles. this will toughen the skin and flatten the cartilage slightly but will not damage your hands.
when beginning, distribute your weight into your first (index) and second (middle finger) knuckles. over time, distribute your weight across the whole flat, but focus into the index and middle fingers.
striking a -canvas- heavy bag works too and will add the benefit of increasing your wrist strength and will also develop your punching power. To get the knuckles toughened, strike straight in and don’t glance your strikes.
Glancing is what will open the skin or cause surface callous.
when you do knuckle push ups steady, after about six months or so of regular work (sometimes less) you will notice a real difference in the thickness of the skin and it will be deeper than just the surface. It will also be less painful when you strike the surfaces that are now causing you pain.
peace
That’s nasty I mostly hit my concrete walls when in anger..
Take care
Boxerchick, just take your rings off and let your knuckles drag on the ground naturally! 
Just kidding sweety, I agree with Kung Lek on this one 100%. Just keep in mind that a girl with nasty azz knuckles is a real turn off to most guys. :eek:
That’s true. I’m sure you’ve all seen that episode of seinfeld where that girl had man hands. She was beautiful, sure, but her hands were those of a man! Gross.
That one was funny as he11, KFG!
lol