Knuckles

[TheDevilAside]

Strenghtening the bones of your knuckles by doing knuckle-push ups is fine, since it might prevent you from splitting them open if you ever punch someone in the jaw (which I wouldn't reccomend doing in the first place). But punching things until the skin is calloused is a bit extreme and really not worth the time. It's just skin, you're not going to notice the pain of the flesh on your knuckles if you're ever in a confrontation... or have to punch through things to save your life.. There are bodyparts more callouse-worthy than your knuckles, such as... the bottom of your feet and palms.

[Coco]

Yeah, I agree, you should do knuckle pushups but not hit sand and brake skin ( do you know how much bacteria sand has?! ) Punching a bag to the extreme isnt very effective for knicle strengthening either.

 

PS - To the gojuchad guy, you strengthen your CHINS?! Wtf?! no matter how strong your chin is one punch is all it takes buddy!

[Randy]

Ok guys thanks for the advice.

 

I just figure if im going to be doing pushup i may aswell do them on my knuckles to strengthen them up a bit, and make me look tougher

 

So do those of you that condition your knuckles/fists just do pushups on them or what? no one beats up a bag bare handed?

 

ps. Coco i never said i was gonna hit sand, just do pushups on it, and i think you will find that gojuchad actually toughens his shins, not his chins

[Hudson]

I train on a canvas bag bare-handed. In fact, my entire school does. While we are not looking to get in fights, we are prepared by knowing what it feels like to hit something other than a pillow. I personally don't have any problems with bare-knuckle bag training, but don't go hog wild, if you don't have proper form you may hurt yourself.

[TheDevilAside]

If you wear gloves or wraps, you can hit the bar harder without tearing the flesh off your knuckles. Go with handwraps or gloves, seriously.

[Fish]

Doesn't training on the first two knuckles also strengthen the wrist?

[Sasori_Te]

I would like to ad my 2 cents to this post. It doesn't sound like this black belt knew what he/ she was talking about. It's not calloused skin on the knuckles that you want with this type hand conditioning. You want the bones to become more dense, not the skin. The skin is too superficial and can be lost easily lost. Bone conditioning involved putting pressure on the bones that are not normal. You can do this by doing knuckle push-ups on a firm surface, not sand. You can also strike hard objects lightly at first and gradually harder as your conditioning starts to take effect. You can literally pound sand in a bucket, but you can also hit a sturdy heavy bag. I personally prefer a static makiwara for training.

 

You can make any bone more dense like this but you have to do it very carefully. Arthritis and deformity can result from improper training. Bone cancer is also supposed to be a side effect.

[Vito]

sasori said it perfectly. although, i dont know of any bone cancer cases....

[47MartialMan]

This falls into the same reasoning as shin conditioning and training to keep the hands up.

 

Why?

[Noob]

As for attacking the punching bag with bare knuckles..I did this for roughly 2 weeks to find my knuckles split and was in too much pain when punching to continue. I quickly stopped this, as I go on the bag for more of a strength and cardio workout.

 

Also, in a fight I wouldn't think punching someone in the face would be a great idea..it kills. I'm all for the open palming as mentioned earlier. You tend to be able to generate more force in an uppercut or a side palm strike anyway.