Would punching stuff make your hands "harder" ?

[ChrisS95TA]

Well, I have never trained in any martial arts, I had a friend when I was younger who was a blackbelt....I do not remember what he practiced although I know he eventually trained with weapons as well.

Anyway his teacher always told him to punch hard things to make his hands harder, we used to mess around punching bricks (not breaking them, but my friend did), taking the bark off of trees and things like that. I still do it to this day and my right fist knuckles look like they are twice the size of my left fist knuckles. Would this have any benefit at all as far as making punches harder? I am pretty good at physics and I know putting all of the force into one point is better than spreading it across a larger area. Right now if I hit something with my right hand the outside knuckle generally hits and sometimes the knuckle next to it (I remember Bruce Lee saying once that you should hit with your two outside knuckles). Can anyone enlighten me on this subject? I pretty much amaze my friends by punching things almost at full force with no damage although I have hit things in the past and been in pain for a month or so afterwards while healing without treatment. Thanks for any input

 

[Gai Jin]

If you don't break one of the many small bones in your hand I suppose it could lead to the development of calluses which would make your skin harder.

 

[Frenious]

tip: start jabbing hard objects with your left hand as well, so u dont get one hand with big knuckles and the other with smaller ones.

 

[monkey roll]

i think it does, it's somrthing to do with damaging your bones, and they grow back stronger. I don't personally do it, so becareful.

 

[SuperSuperRambo]

Sounds like crap to me. I think first off, the small surface area thing makes sense when we're talking physics, but if you want to KO a guy, your full fist is the right size for landing one flush on a guy's chin. I think it's better to focus on that than hitting with your outside knuckles (more chance to miss in a real fight).

As for making your hands harder, I don't think harder hands are going to make you hit harder. MAYBE, they will help prevent breaking some of the small bones in your hand, like if you fracture them in practicing and they heal stronger, but I don't think that's worth it.

Instead of smashing your hands into bricks, which won't help you in a fight, try sparring with a training partner in a gym and ty to smash your hands into his face instead. You'll get better results. Bricks don't hit back.

 

[Adam Lorenz]

You may regret it while you grow older and your hand aches and loses function.

 

[Payam]

your hands will be able to take more punishment...
the skin will get harder, as a defence mechanism (to bleed less, protect better etc.) it's just simple biology.

 

[six30two]

Calcium deposits build up around the knuckles making them harder and larger.

 

[whilliam208]

i watched a documentary, probably about six months ago. It was about some Japanese clan, i forget what the hell they were. But anyways when they started training, they would punch a cement wall as hard as they could. So it would break all there knuckles. They had do punch the wall a certain way or it could cripple there hands.
Then they would let the hand heal, and there knuckles would be more flat. Once it was healed they would punch metal plates like a thousand times a day. After doing this for like 20 years they said, if they wanted to they could punch through human bodies.

 

[Jappex]

Sure, punching can make your hands "harder".

Can't recall the Black Belt-article about this guy who had things like iron balls as his knuckles, from crazy training.

In some traditional arts you train with sand and gradually progress towards stones. I don't know if it's sane, but one's hands got be quite ready to hit anything after that kind of training, and what it does to your "psyche" can only be guessed.

Some say that ki (chi) has something to do with this kind of hardening. It's about focusing your mind and enduring (or concentrating) the pain. Don't know if that has ny validity in it, but I've read many stories about this kind of idea. I put a link to a one conversation about this subject on another thread, but I'll put one more if someone wishes to pursue this (strange) thought:
http://www.createphpbb.com/phpbb/viewforum.php?f=10&mforum=wondersoftheboo

But it takes you only "thus far", so to speak. You can benefit some from this kind of hardening, but you need to have a plenty more in mma to be effective.

In a way you can probably say that it makes your punches harder, 'cause you dare to punch with full force, and your hand might tolerate more "damage". But as said, it doesn't take you too far alone, even though it might impress. Like one man I used to know, who hit iron bar with full force without changing impression, it surely seemed crazy to me, even though I've hardened my knuckles too.

 

[monkey roll]

Sounds like crap to me. I think first off, the small surface area thing makes sense when we're talking physics, but if you want to KO a guy, your full fist is the right size for landing one flush on a guy's chin. I think it's better to focus on that than hitting with your outside knuckles (more chance to miss in a real fight).

I've always believe in hitting the guy with (mostly) my index and middle knuckles. If you hit with the outside knuckles (pinkly and ring) i'm sure you break them.

 

[Flashfan]

It helps strengthen many muscles in your arm, but I dont know about the hand. Tell your friend that bare knuckle punching trees will lead to artheritis later in life

 

[Shyne]

it's just like your shins... you learn how to handle to pain, eventually you feel less...

 

[Crimson Tiger]

1) It does toughen your skin.

2) It allows you to strengthen your wrist which I think is most important part when you talk about
knuckle conditioning.

3) It does strengthen your bone I believe - your body sends calcium to a place where they need it.
If you keep your knuckle banging something, your body will go like oh shit I gotta send some
calcium to that place....

4) But it may hurt your hand...........

 

[SnakeEyes]

Can't recall the Black Belt-article about this guy who had things like iron balls as his knuckles, from crazy training...

Some say that ki (chi) has something to do with this kind of hardening. It's about focusing your mind and enduring (or concentrating) the pain. Don't know if that has ny validity in it, but I've read many stories .

The article was about a chinese cat named Pan Qin Fu, he's lives and runs a school in Toronto now, I believe. He was a pimp in Beijing, and when he was a teenager decided to start punching a metal slab of iron like 1000-5000 times a day. He developed bone and calcium protrusions on his knuckels, they're like little hooks and knobs, it looks fucking hardcore but I think it's kinda stupid. Anyways, i the article he said he used it to "one punch" competitors in the Pimping game. It was his crazy bone-knuckle pimp hand. I'm not even making this shit up. The guy is a freak.

Chi is bullshit.

 

[Wicked_1]

If it did make your hands harder, you probably wouldn't even be able to hold a pencil later in life. If it made your hands harder in any good way, you would think that pro boxers eveywhere would forgo the bag gloves.

 

[The Pain Train]

Is this neccesary?

 

[marine]

i guess his hookers respected his pimp hand

 

[Wild Dan Hibiki]

you'll probably get arthritis or osteoperosis in the knuckle bones if you do this... or something

 

[SmashiusClay]

the shaoling monks have a similar routine where they put a newspaper over a wall and punch it repeatedly, this does lead to greater bone density and prevents the hand being able to feel as much pain, in the same way the shin can be made to feel less pain. There was actually an article in a british martial arts magazine (combat) which had a kung fu guy going through a training regime for strengthening the hand using a telephone directory as a target to toughen the hand.