How to harden your wrists and finger

“	Originally Posted By: GuiLongUmar This sounds like a great way to wreck the cartilage in your wrist and ruin your hands for life.	”

I'm glad someone besides me said it

It is a fantastic way to ruin the wrist and cause arthritis

“	Originally Posted By: Mei Hua I'm glad someone besides me said it It is a fantastic way to ruin the wrist and cause arthritis	”

I'll have to second them on that. Sounds unsafe and dangerous with probable long term permanent damage.

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"When you see a good move wait - look for a better one."
- Emanuel Lasker

“	Originally Posted By: Mei Hua I'm glad someone besides me said it It is a fantastic way to ruin the wrist and cause arthritis	”

Im glas somone agrees I thought I was going to have to get into one of those meathead arguments about hitting hard, breaking stuff etc.

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One hit, see blood.

It's not enough to just not get hit

What better for hitting hard than a wrist that can't bend and is wrecked permanently by stupid training methods?

with perfect technique you can use the back of the wrist press up stuff to strengthen the wrist but I wouldn't recomend it without exact instruction from some one who knows what they are doing. Also, it's not something you start with but something you build up to... with isometrics. Even simple exercises gripping your hands together and then trying to pull them apart warm up and strengthen the wrists and fingers. Combine them with breathing and you've got a fast warm up that prepares the fingers and wrists for stretching and flexing.

I discovered a new toy that works the wrist and fingers in interesting ways: NSD Powerball Gyroscope for sports and fitness, carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, tendonitis, wrist pain and grip strength judging by the recommendation (competitive yachting and rowing people) it does the job.

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Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me

Now that looks great

Definitely something to put on the "must have" list

“	Originally Posted By: GuiLongUmar This sounds like a great way to wreck the cartilage in your wrist and ruin your hands for life. look, wrist strikes and finger jabs are not meant to be delivered to hard areas. learn good proper technique, understand anatomy and you wont have to try to make parts of your body physically harder. strike with a soft hand and get a better result.	”

I did these for years and years and never had any trouble with my wrists. These were some exersices that GM Ng would have us do for snake style and as well for toughening our tiger claws.

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Mark R.

A few points.

Just because one person is lucky and doesn't get injured practicing certain exercises does not mean every one will be lucky.

Overuse damage, particularly to the joints, can take years to show up and only become apparant later in life or after stopping training.

There is a very significant difference between gradually building up to certain exercises with correct technique under accurate instruction and just going out and smacking your hand into a sack of gravel.

Jow, correctly and frequently applied, would be an essential component of any iron hand training.

Even if apparantly effective these exercises are risky and, crucially, unecessary. There are far safer and more widly applicable ways to strengthen the wrists and hands if they are weak and there is no need for techniques that depend on exceptional wrist and finger strength.

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Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me

“	Originally Posted By: john100 A few points. Overuse damage, particularly to the joints, can take years to show up and only become apparant later in life or after stopping training. There is a very significant difference between gradually building up to certain exercises with correct technique under accurate instruction and just going out and smacking your hand into a sack of gravel. Jow, correctly and frequently applied, would be an essential component of any iron hand training. Even if apparantly effective these exercises are risky and, crucially, unecessary. There are far safer and more widly applicable ways to strengthen the wrists and hands if they are weak and there is no need for techniques that depend on exceptional wrist and finger strength.	”

Well as to the unerlined part of your statement I have had NO joint damage and I was 16 years old when I started doing these exercises and I'm now i'm 34 yrs old. I did these under the supevision of a great Sifu. As for the bold type part of your statement that is the most ludacris staement I've ever heard. You say there is no techniques that requires wrist strength and/or finger strength? Are you kidding me? You better go do some research on different kung fu styles buddy such as Chin Na (finger strength for siezing and control i.e., seperating the muscle/tendon), eagle claw (finger strength for grabbing and siezing), snake (wrist and finger strength for striking), and tiger claw.

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Mark R.

That is like the famous master who will go unnamed that mentioned his Qi moves his muscles now rather then the muscles themselves.......

Ughh...................

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Be well, train hard and heal quickly.

“	You say there is no techniques that requires wrist strength and/or finger strength?	”

No, along with others I said there was no need for techniques which require exceptional wrist/finger strength.

There are some key words in there you might want to pay a little bit of attention to.

I'm well aware of techniques that involve striking with the wrist for example but would not count them among the highest percentage techniques I've trained and they do not require exceptional wrist strength. As for chin na, I've spent a fair bit of time training it and it and many striking techniques do not require exceptional finger strength. I am not the only person on this thread who would not recomend finger strikes to hard areas of the body as the most effective option.

When I started training kung fu I had damaged my right hand significantly rock climbing. I am an expert on damaging the wrist and hands. I could lift my body weight from a single finger hold though. I have trained both hard and soft styles since including traditional snake and crane and my finger and wrist strength decreased through the training with no negative impact on my sparring or drills.

At the same time, through yoga, hard chi kung, and sword drills, I find I have strengthened the functional muscles actually used in sparring and every day life to the point where people practicing esoteric and potentially dangerous strengthening techniques have less functional strength or endurance than I do and my hands are nearer healthy than they have been in all the years since I stopped climbing obsessively.

If you want to recomend practices you learned gradually under expert supervision (and trained for how long? you neglect to say if you still practice these techniques) at least a decade before you have any idea of their long term implications to complete beginners who are training without supervision then go ahead but do not be surprised if others think it only sensible and responsible to add some warnings.

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Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me

John100 - man u r classic, you know every thing in the book and thank u very much for your advice.

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"A black belt is nothing more than a bel t that goes around your waist. Being a black belt is a state of mind and attitude"