Posts Tagged ‘iron palm’

Many of us western strength athletes are shocked when we discover that most of our precious exercises were in use hundreds of years ago in China.

Weight vests, kettle bells, wrist rollers, progressive resistance, all of these and much more are actually part of Kung Fu conditioning. So Kung Fu is a great adjunct to weight training and bodybuilding as practiced in the west.

In addition to the muscle building we have honed in the west the Chinese developed knowledge of electro physiology in the form of the meridians and points that western science did not discover.

They also developed methods for developing the bones and tendons to withstand the rigors of warfare.

Personally I am now 5 months into a daily Iron Palm regime, training to smash objects with my bare hands. I am being very careful to avoid arthritis and damage. Daily I apply Chinese Dit Da Jow liniment. Soon I will begin internal medicine to aid recovery also. I am adding Iron Arm conditioning for my fore arms and in a month will also begin Iron Shirt Chi Kung to condition my entire body.

On top of this I do my regular weights and jump rope cardio. So it makes for a busy schedule.

I had a serious attack at Iron Palm many years ago when I was in the army and doing a bit of kick boxing and stuff.

The years passed and I let the training slip only doing it sporadically. Back then I did manage to break a marble slab, these days I am just getting back into it so am not trying to break anything.

I feel its an excellent adjunct to grip and forearm training as most iron palm proponents do not possess great grip strength and most people with great forearm power are not iron palm.

There are lots of great sources of information online for iron palm these days. I prefer to train on concrete but just bought a bag and filled it with a 4 meter chain.

Concrete feels better – its solid and it vibrates. However the bag is better for the back of the hands.

I have also found a multitude of dit da jow formulas and suppliers. 10 years back all this was harder to come by.

So my present crush on the gripper is 250 lbs. In 3 months that may be 270 lbs. By then with daily practice I should have iron palm also. Then Its just a matter of continuation.

The dude at www.ironpalm.com can crack a coconut with the back of his hand. This for me I feel would take 2-3 years to accomplish if I combine it with a grip & forearm program also (and an inhuman dedication). Coconut breaking is quite an accomplishment.

His series of videos is available for about $20 us each. There are many Iron Palm courses now.

William Cheung & Brian Gray also offer programs as does Thomas Keen.

Popular Iron Palm Book

Heres a simple program:

Get some dit da jow off the net or from a Chinese Herbal Shop.

Find a waist high concrete wall or flat steel surface and simply slap the surface for several minutes with the liniment on your hands. Don’t slap hard just as hard as possible with no pain or discomfort.
Do the heel of the palm, knife edge and back hand also.

Do this for several minutes on each strike 3X per day using the liniment also.

Its actually quite relaxing to stand there slapping away although my neighbors think I am crazy.

I don’t train my knuckles & in the army they told us not to strike with them. You can however do fingertip pushup’s and everything involved in grip training. Backhand strikes will condition the knuckle also.

Another thing thats popular is hot and cold water dips for the hands. I have not tried stabbing my hands into a bucket of rice but Lee Hayward recommends this as part of his grip training so I may try that soon.

After a few months you will be able to break stuff. Its quite simple.