Training/conditioning your hands

hey ive been doing a martial art stlye called steel hand its similar to iron palm. Ive been doing it for 5months 3-4 days per week at home and once a week with my instructor. I started doing arm spins to build up chi and oxygen in my hands. When they get puffy & fat looking u start hitting a canvas bag filled with rice and switched to mung beans after a few months. U dont use any jow! I know in iron palm the next level is gravel than BB but u use jow. Check out www.yangmian.com what do u think about this type of conditioning without the use of jows?

Jow isn't magic...but it is supposed to help reduce the amount of recovery time needed for training. If your hands have not sustained any small injuries and does not need the extra blood flow stimulation, then I don't see the absence of Dit Da Jow being a big deal.

__________________
"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

“	Originally Posted By: WraithAlcon Jow isn't magic...but it is supposed to help reduce the amount of recovery time needed for training. If your hands have not sustained any small injuries and does not need the extra blood flow stimulation, then I don't see the absence of Dit Da Jow being a big deal.	”

Unless the conditioning is minimal, it *is* a big deal--you can get away with doing things like sam sing without using jow (although you should), but it does a lot more than just help reduce recovery time, and especially for conditioning/iron palm jows, there should not be a recovery time due to injury.

__________________
PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."

What else does the Jow help with outside of reducing recovery time?

__________________
"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

It depends on the type of jow, but many training/conditioning liniments include herbs that increase local circulation to help the body fight off any injury that might occur--that is to say, it is applied as any injury *prevention*, not as a "remedy". Other herbs seek to relax sinews, or exhibit a cooling nature to fight heat buildup or stagnation while conditioning is taking place, or to help strengthen bone and sinew, or to help the body regulate flow, or even to offer certain types of smells, etc etc etc.

Unless its explicity designed as an "injury jow" or "bruise jow" etc, then dealing with injury after the fact is a secondary concern.

And ultimately, this is a discussion of semantics as well, because there are very few jows out there, even training ones, that dont have herbs that are also used in basic bruise/injury liniments--there are probably things I posted above that you would claim "reduce recovery time". You could have said, "Allows for an enhanced training cycle" and I might have agreed...Nevertheless, its an important poitn I think that a good training jow has different goals and a different design in mind than bruise/injury jow...Its really not designed to heal injuries.

__________________
PlumDragon Herbs: Dit Da Jow and Iron Palm Liniments

"When a handshake passes the elbow, it becomes Judo."

I see where you're coming from now. Definitely a semantics thing though.

I was just curious because I am not very knowledgable on Chinese Medicine, and I have heard so much BS about Dit Da Jow and other herbal stuff that I have completely reverted to a Western Medicine mode of thinking. So I am sure in the translation from my Western terminology perspective to the Eastern terminology perspective...something is lost.

__________________
"You must eat bitter before you can taste sweet"- Iron & Silk
"I see no virtue where I smell no sweat"
"Arm yourself because no one else here will save you" - Chris Cornell

“	Originally Posted By: excessiveforce2541 hey ive been doing a martial art stlye called steel hand its similar to iron palm. Ive been doing it for 5months 3-4 days per week at home and once a week with my instructor. I started doing arm spins to build up chi and oxygen in my hands. When they get puffy & fat looking u start hitting a canvas bag filled with rice and switched to mung beans after a few months. U dont use any jow! I know in iron palm the next level is gravel than BB but u use jow. Check out Yang Mian™ System International - Martial Arts and Sports what do u think about this type of conditioning without the use of jows?	”

2 posts and all about this style

How about starting a thread solely about it to discuss the theories, principles and training methods so we can learn about it and discuss

Since I have never heard of yor style would love to read about it from an insider.

i have set up my own thread, its under "internal" than click "other" there should be a title called "steel hand training". i would be happy to answer any questions about my style and would like if anyone else has similar training question about hand conditioning.