Quote:
Originally posted by Jake:
Hi everyone,
Some of you probably remember me--I used to post here pretty regularly.
And as some of you know, I'm a Marine. We have a really good mixed martial arts program, and one component of our sessions is usually "body hardening" drills. We basically take turns hitting each other in the forearms, abdomen, etc. on the theory that doing so will "kill the nerves" and make us less prone to pain/damage. Is there any validity to this, or are we just a bunch of dumb grunts hitting each other? [img]smile.gif[/img]
Thanks in advance,
Jake
|
(Found this post online and have come on.)
I have been doing various "Iron body" training for sometime: you can find this kind of training in Japanese, Chinese, Thailand, Korean and other martial arts.
First, about pain: most cells when destroyed come back. Nerve cells, however, do not.
I don't know the best process for this. I do know it took me several months to desensitize my shins for muay thai style kicks which utilize the shins. Ordinarily, as we all know, the shins are very jam packed with nerve cells.
I primarily simply did this by kicking and using the bag.
So, effectively, you can do it just from having buddies hit each other. However, you want to be careful you do not cause too much injury.
This principle of controlled injury is the same kind of principle found in weightlifting. Do too much, you tear a muscle. Likewise, in bone hardening and such you can rip tendons, break bones (which may grow back poorly, such as in some boxer's breaks), and so forth.
I have also studied this and used these techniques for my hands. This is useful for gaining mass and hardness for your hands. I currently use a small sledgehammer. I carefully bring it to the point to where I can not do it again, sure to not mess up the tendons, let it heal, then do it again in about four days.
When I did not do it well enough, I repeat it the next day until it is sore enough -- too sore to go further with.
The martial arts way to do iron body is with poles and controlled hitting. There are also makiwara hammers and such. This kind of thing is better then getting people to hit you because there is no internal damage and wider coverage area.
When you bruise a central area, you grow and strengthen there, but you don't grow and strengthen elsewhere -- yet you can't do anymore training because of that one spot. I had this problem with my shins and fists, with just relying on bag work. (I ended up turning to the hammer because of this, on my shins and hands.)
Currently, I concentrate on two components: speed and conditioning. For speed training I use in the air techniques, shadow boxing style, etc, and bag work, primarily. Sheer repetition.
A lot of people do not like these techniques. They don't do them. Others damage themselves attempting them because they did not use moderation and common sense.
For instance, in building up the fists, you can concentrate on the underlying structural system or callouses. Damage to the tendons is immediately possible. Microfractures are what you want: major fractures can bend the bones in such a way that when they heal, they heal back bent and therefore poorly.
All of this stuff sounds nasty. People only see the fists, and only if they know what you are looking for.
Good proponents of extreme conditioning and the one strike method: Mas Oyama and Pan "Iron Fist" Qingfu.
However, as odd as this whole practice seems it is actually extremely common across all of the martial arts. Often it does not come over to the US, that is one of the things left out.
It is potentially dangerous, but you can use a computer, you have enough common sense to know how to avoid the danger.
Conditioning is very basic in most striking arts.
As far as board breaking goes or anything: this is useful to help guage speed. It has nothing to do with "boards not hitting back". It is a cheap way to measure speed strength.
Personally, I would much rather have a system to measure speed which does not rely on boards, however I have not found a good, cheap system for this. (One book I read recommends candles.)
Linear Mode
