My Thoughts On Iron Palm and Hand Conditioning

 Body hardening exercises and techniques have existed for centuries in various forms and can be found in many arts. Karate practitioners strike makiwara boards countless times over their life in order to harden their knuckles in hopes of delivering a more powerful one kill punch. Muay Thai fighters are known to strike their shins with bamboo rods and kick bags of varying densities in order to strengthen their shins and numb them to the pain of bone on bone clashes that occur during fights. We've all heard of Kung Fu masters (like the one in th video above!) who have masterd the technique of Iron Palm enabling them to actually shatter bricks with their bare hands! But aside from breaking boards and bricks during impressive street performance, does this sort of bone and body conditioning have a place in self defese and modern martial arts?

First off, we'll need to take a look at how this bone conditioning actually works.

 When your bones are struck regularly, over months and years, against a mildly hard surface, the bones actually suffer what are called micro fractures in what looks like tiny "beams" or "webbing" that make up the density of the bone. These micro fractures heal and actually grow back thicker and stronger than before. Thus, the bone is now stronger and more resistant to injury and fracture.

 A common myth when it comes to bone conditioning is that by striking an area of the body repeatedly on hard objects that it kills the nerves and prevents that area of the body from feeling pain. This is simply not true! This would be serious nerve damage, and that's something you don't want!
What does happen is after having stuck an area of the body enough times, over time, the nerves in that area stop sending a strong pain signal to the brain. Your body actually becomes accustomed to
the impact on that area of the body and no longer views it as a threat and treats it as something
normal. So your body is now capable of accepting more punishment to that specific area!

 So how is this useful in modern martial arts or self defese?

 One of the most common problems in modern combat sports or self defense is fracturing the hand! We see fighters break their hands all the time, and most people who get into a street fight or physical altercation end up breaking their hand on someone's skull! Without fully functional hands it becomes a little difficult to fully defend yourself or fight! With correct, well practiced and slowly progressed bone conditioning workouts it's my belief that the risk of breaking your hands/shins during a fight or self defense situation becomes drastically lowered. Your bones become stronger and more resistant to pain/injury allowing you to deliver full force stikes with a much smaller risk of breaking or damaging your bones.

 I personally think that bone conditioning and body hardening workouts and techniques can provide you with an extra edge in competition and self defense. Who wouldn't want the ability to strike at full force with a reduced chance of injury to your own body? Who wouldn't want to be able to reduce the amount of pain you feel from delivering or absorbing strikes? Now would I suggest you go out and just start striking hard objects in an attempt to condition your bones? Hell no! You should research methods, evaluate the pro's and con's and see if its something you believe in and if it's right for you.

  There are many books, videos and teachers out there to help you build your knowledge on the subject of bone conditioning, I suggest you search for them, research them, try it out and see how you can fit it into your own practice. But then again, that's just my opinion!


-Tim