Forearm Conditioning

[StrangeBacon]

Hey guys, did a search on this however it turned up too many results and im a little pressed for time so i hope you can forgive me if its been mentioned before, but i would be interested to see peoples various methods of conditioning the forearms so as to be more profficient in blocking and knife defense among other things. Any ideas?

[AndySike]

What my conditioning coach said was to take a weight(dumbell) and pretty much do curls except with your wrist.

Start off with light light weight!

[isshinryu5toforever]

The only way to help your forearm take impact, is for it to get accustomed to impact. There is kotekitai, which is a fancy way to say hitting your forearm with a stick haha. It's a makiwara type practice, where you start lightly and get harder as your body gets more used to the impact. Not sure how this would help you with knife defense. Getting cut is getting cut. There's no way to make your forearm harder than steel. Well, you might make it able to take the impact from steel, but it wouldn't be impervious to being cut.

[StrangeBacon]

Thanks for the answers guys, in regard to the knife defense its more about the impact of the attackers body on the forearms while using tonfa and cross blocks, by using twisting motions with the forearms you can create a scissor like effect thats rather painful for both parties but very effective the idea being to cut down on the pain of being the defender

[sensei8]

The only way to help your forearm take impact, is for it to get accustomed to impact. There is kotekitai, which is a fancy way to say hitting your forearm with a stick haha. It's a makiwara type practice, where you start lightly and get harder as your body gets more used to the impact. Not sure how this would help you with knife defense. Getting cut is getting cut. There's no way to make your forearm harder than steel. Well, you might make it able to take the impact from steel, but it wouldn't be impervious to being cut.

Solid post!

[sensei8]

Bruce Lee had some awesome forearms. He knew that his forearms had to be developed in such a way that his forearms would compliment his totality.

Here is a summary of what a normal day of forearm workouts would look like for him:

Forearm Exercises

1) Underhand Wrist Curl [4 sets of 17]

2) Overhand Wrist Curl [4 sets of 12]

3) Leverage Bar Curl [4 sets of 15]

4) Bar Curl [4 sets of 15]

5) Reverse Curl [4 sets of 6]

6) Leverage Bar Twist [3 sets of 10]

On top of this exercise he would do a bunch of grip training. This was to build on all of those tiny muscles you have in your hand and around your wrist. He felt it was necessary to do those because the hands and wrists compliment the forearms.

In addition:

*500 fist push-ups

*2 Sets of 6 Reps Bench Press

*2 hours of punching drills

*Wrist Roller (Bruce Lees favorite where you roll up a weight attached to a pole with a string).

Enjoy your workouts!

[DWx]

I second needing the impact. It's called Wolff's Law. If you keep taking impact at the point you want to condition, gradually the bone will become denser. I don't know if Karate has a similar practice but we have what we call "knocking". With a partner you are basically blocking hard and making contact with their arms. Can either do it standing still or in a step-sparring way. On your own you're hitting forearm to forearm.

[Kuma]

You can see kote kitae with a partner demontrated in his video at about 0:04 and 0:17.

(I would recommend staying away from using baseball bats though...)

This is another version you also see in some karate styles:

[bushido_man96]

You can see kote kitae with a partner demontrated in his video at about 0:04 and 0:17.

(I would recommend staying away from using baseball bats though...)

This is another version you also see in some karate styles:

Looks like fun!

There are more subtle ways of building the body up to these methods, and it is important to start out nice and easy, because if you injure yourself, then you can't train.

[StrangeBacon]

Thanks again for the replys, the Bruce Lee workout looks pretty scary!

I'll definatly grab a partner and give the knocking a try developing as a pair is always better than on your own!

You can see kote kitae with a partner demontrated in his video at about 0:04 and 0:17.

(I would recommend staying away from using baseball bats though...)

This is another version you also see in some karate styles:

He's an absolute beast!!