Hand conditioning

[shotokanwarrior]

Does anyone here condition their hands on something like the makiwara? If so do you get thoes really big knuckles

[alanseijas]

I don't do it on purpose by actually hitting the makiwara. My hands are conditioned naturally through time working out. Some people take it to very wild extremes. I train with Master A. J. Advincula, and one of his close friends is Byron Marriner. The first time I saw Byron's hands, I was in shock. he told me he hits the makiwara every day, and I believe him! I wouldn't want my hands to look like that no matter how strong his knuckles are. To top it off, he's a dentist!

 

Master Advincula has told me of his witnessing Master Shimabuku drive a nail with his hand. Now that's conditioning.

 

https://www.isshin1.com

[Sasori_Te]

I uses a makiwara for my hands and a heavy bag for my feet. Not so much to harden and callous them as to stay used to making contact with an object using a fair amount of power.

[tokeabowl]

Yes, I train on a makiwara. However, its only been like 6 months since I started to do that, so my knuckles are not getting big yet. You have to do it for like 2years to be able to notice a difference. The makiwara has done a great job conditioning my skin though. It got a lot more rough.

[Jussi Häkkinen]

Makiwara's idea is not to condition your knuckles but to prepare your wrist and bone alignment to the impact. Nowadays a good heavy bag does the trick beautifully.

 

If you use a makiwara, be sure that it has enough give in it. It should not feel very stiff.

 

I have done makiwara training and never experienced any harm to my knuckles (i.e. "conditioning", which causes cartilage to form in knuckles, is actually harm, not a good thing), nor have they got bigger. Still, I can punch with no problem and I haven't noticed that my knuckles would be weak.

 

Use makiwara to get your mechanics well - not for conditioning. It is not a conditioning tool by origin.

[aefibird]

I train with a heavy bag, both for punching and kicking, but its not for conditioning. It's more to help me perfect techniques and get the feel of hitting/striking/kicking a solid object.

[Jussi Häkkinen]

Yes, indeed. You don't need to condition your knuckles. You need to get a good punching technique, where bone alignment is good and joints are in as strong position as possible.

 

When "conditioning" knuckles, one actually creates small fractures to the joint area. That causes some cartilage to form to the joint area - which limits the movement and is guaranteed to cause harm in the future.

 

Shinbones and arms are the areas you actually can condition by fracture-heal-fracture -method (thai boxers use such methods rather often). However, you shouldn't use such method to condition joint areas (knees, knuckles, elbows...) due to their negative effect.

 

And, well, cartilage is softer than bone.