Iron Body (Kung Fu/Karate?)

[iamcurious]

Hi I am doing an expository speech for my class and I have decided to pick the topic on the Iron Body skill/technique. I am wondering if anyone has any kind of factual knowledge on this type of practice. Also anyone with experiences on this? Anyone know the history of this type of practice (Iron Body)? What are the kind of injuries/risks practitioners might face?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME AND HELP.

[JohnnyB]

Attendind a week of Kyokushin classes would give you a hands on approach to what you are seeking!

[MasterPain]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanchin read the part on shime. May help some. Also, keep in mind that before Funakoshi, Karate was sometimes written with kanji for Chinese hand.

[Wastelander]

Iron body training is, in general, a method of controlling your breathing and muscle tension in order to strengthen your body to withstand impact. Over time, this training will make your more accustomed to absorbing strikes both from a physical standpoint and a psychological standpoint. Sanchin and Tensho training are good examples of this in karate, and many Chinese martial arts utilize supplementary iron body training, although I do not know if they have forms dedicated to it in the same manner that karate does. If you can locate a Kyokushin, Goju-Ryu or Uechi-Ryu dojo in your area then you will be able to watch iron body training, from a karate standpoint, in person. It may be more difficult to locate a school teaching Chinese martial arts that includes iron body training, because many of them seem to be teaching more modern wushu-based arts.

Many followers of traditional Eastern medicine attribute the "iron shirt" ability to controlling the circulation of chi/qi/ki, but I am of the belief that the concept of energy circulation merely serves the purpose of providing the student something to visualize that assists in controlling their body. A case in point--the "unbendable arm" trick is done by "projecting energy through the arm and out through the fingertips like a water hose," and when you visualize such a concept it causes you to extend your arm outward in a way that tenses only the muscles for extension, leaving the rest of the arm relaxed. If you tell someone to resist having their arm bent, they will typically tense all of the muscles in their arm, effectively fighting against themselves and allowing the arm to be bent, but if they only tense the muscles for extension it becomes much more difficult to bend their arm, despite the appearance of a relaxed state.

[JusticeZero]

CMA uses a lot of "gongs", which are skills that are trained the heck out of. That's one of them. One of the major components is the way that stressing the bones encourages the gain of bone density; safest is low intensity stress that doesn't damage the bones done often, such as in joggers' leg bones. I think a similar process affects the skin and musculature to some extent. Thus, a person who gets beat on a lot in practice, without being broken in the process, will be physically more durable than someone who doesn't.

Furthermore, they will probably be mentally more prepared. Pain is actually a sensation that can carry a lot of information, and a person who is used to examining the sensation for content will seem much tougher than someone who reacts to it's mere presence.

Japanese MA tend to achieve this by training hard in general, Chinese martial arts generally use high repetitions of controlled light impact exercises.

[JusticeZero]

Boxers experience many of the same benefits, but tend not to develop their fists enough, because of the gloves, to be able to punch safely without gloves. Also, boxers don't get the benefit in places like their back or legs where they are rarely hit.

[evergrey]

Oh, and after you've been training with toughening/conditioning/iron body, you become much harder to bruise, as well!

Nothing demoralizes an opponent quite like no reaction, or even a little smile, when they hit you as hard as they know how.

[iamcurious]

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP WITH YOUR KIND WISDOM AND EXPERIENCES. I ended up getting an A+ for my project scoring 191/200 points If you would like to see what I wrote, let me know, I will sure to post it up. I also made a powerpoint presentation too because it was a speech and I had to present.

[MasterPain]

I would love to read it.

[Zaine]

I would love to read it.

Seconded