Body Durability or Toughening

[Diagen]

Despite your first thoughts this isn't about hitting yourself over and over again until you hate yourself.

There are several kinds of body durability and toughness. In material science there is:

• yield strength (bending without breaking or deforming)
• compressive strength (crushing without breaking or deforming)
• tensile strength (pulled apart without breaking or deforming)
• impact strength (beaten up)

This is just food for thought and is simple analysis of static structures. The methods one can use to toughen up the body are the following:

• Explosive movements, especially with decent resistance like sprinting, jumping, clap push ups, THROWING, et cetera.
• Heavy exercise like weight lifting.
• Disadvantageous levers. Like gymnastics.
• Extremely high reps and volume for mechanical and general physio stress requiring protein and recovery adaptations. 'Marching', high rep calisthenics, cardio, long holds or carries.
• Dry brushing for skin thickening and or toughening. Sterile cactus bristle body brush for a beginner, onto gradations of sterile nylon bristle stiffness, and all I'm going to say is that I bought a steel wire brush for this purpose along with a couple different nylon ones and am personally using the cactus bristle brush for 45 minutes a day.
• Being struck, striking or Impact. Palm, fist, leg strikes, stick, steel rod, hammer, it's all a bit different.
• Landing or falling. Falling over and taking a large surface area impact or rolling. High repetition with a manageable force is good.
• Kneading. Rubbing with knuckle, finger, heel of palm, knobby thing, pointy thing, tennis ball on the back laying down, someone walking on your back or chest and legs, that sort of thing. It is good to take the hands and push into the stomach while relaxing to get inner viscera (connective tissue), membranes (inner skins), organs, muscles. As well, the face and gums, the eyes, the neck and its trachea and neck bone. The back, kidneys, spine, ribs, between ribs. The balls - slight pull and squeeze, some twist, some pain is normal. Same for dick.
• Pulling or Tensile. Can be done with heavy exercises and explosive movements but generally done slowly and with high high RoM. Hand to toe stretch with weight like a kind of romanian deadlift (stand on box with toes elevated with something for depth) up to 50% of BW. Deadlifts in general pull. Hanging from a bar. Hanging from a bar with ankle weights. Hanging from a bar with the tops of your feet. Whipping your arm and leg around will do this. Whipping your torso around like peekaboo style, baseball bat swinging, et cetera but with speed.
• Compressing. Weight vest walking around (there are slim 20 lb ones), dead lifts of course, stomping, striking, balancing on the head, handstand hold, rack pulls (like deadlifts), yoke walks!!
• Sleeping on something uncomfortable. Like the floor. Sleeping on stones quite viable.
• Twisting, lending to yield strength. Arm wrestling results in a lot of spiral fractures. Bones can twist even. Any twisting motion is big and big power lifters lose out to much smaller arm wrestlers all the time since twisting strength and durability is quite specific. Lot of power lifters pull their bicep tendon arm wrestling for the first time against someone that can actually beat them. Thus, all twisting movements are BIG for a complete athlete and of course martial artist and lends to durability. In linear movements it helps one by generating torque and keeping one from "leaking power" as smart weight lifters know. This can be done by twisting hands against the ground in a plank, arm wrestling or bending similarly with a weight (including reverse arm wrestling motion), twisting feet against the ground trying to grip the ground to get some resistance (adding weight of course an option), head twisting motion when doing a neck curl, cable woodchoppers or however you want to work the waist, lot of stuff.
• Hot, cold, wind, salt water, weathering, alcohol, vinegar. Dipping your hands in vodka or salt n vinegar after training bare knuckle is valid and useful.
• Bee stings, mosquito bites, stinging nettle, poison ivy, et cetera. There's a man that injects snake venom and his body produces the anti-venom now. He donates blood sometimes. You can find the documentary. All his blood metrics are incredibly good and he's middle aged. Just goes to show you how poison is medicine in small doses.

Start light and use incremental progressions. Only do damage you can recover from in a manageable timeframe (like a couple days or a week). Can't train if you're crippled.
The most controversial would be dry brushing and venom injection, but it's just living tissue. All tissues fall under the rule of incremental progression. I do 45 minutes and find that I don't scratch from a light slow brush from a steel wire brush even, and the stiff nylon brush isn't too bad to scrub with, but the nylon brush between cactus bristle and stiff nylon is my next step.
Do at least 1 hour of intense exercise daily. Weight training usually involves long rest periods but it should be under 5 minutes between each set. If your fitness training doesn't use heavy weights, explosive movements, disadvantageous levers, or very high volume it's not going to do anything for your toughness. "Heavy" and "explosive" and "high volume" might be relative but be thorough and progress diligently.
Do at least 1 hour of strikes/ impacts or brushing or kneading. This includes a bit of rest or a slow pace between strikes or impacts to the body.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Wolff's Law (or better yet, mechanostat) and Davis' Law can help you understand the concepts behind some of these methodologies.

Basically, your body adapts its structure to accommodate increases in demands, in this case, the demand of increased stress of impact. If you train in body hardening techniques, you increase the demands of the shaft of the bone that you are striking with, and your body stimulates bone growth in that area, i.e. "bone calluses"

A similar process occurs in connective tissue when imposed tensile demands on soft tissue are increased. Think of it like "gristle" on a large cut of meat.

 

[Diagen]

Wolff's Law (or better yet, mechanostat) and Davis' Law can help you understand the concepts behind some of these methodologies.

Basically, your body adapts its structure to accommodate increases in demands, in this case, the demand of increased stress of impact. If you train in body hardening techniques, you increase the demands of the shaft of the bone that you are striking with, and your body stimulates bone growth in that area, i.e. "bone calluses"

A similar process occurs in connective tissue when imposed tensile demands on soft tissue are increased. Think of it like "gristle" on a large cut of meat.

Quality should also be considered. The arrangement of proteins, presence of different kinds of proteins, sophistication of the interplay between different tissue, elements, and compounds. Limpet teeth (a snail) are perhaps the hardest biological material known at this point and it's just a "perfect protein combination" around a nanoscopic graphene line (rod?), scaling up linearly in strength as you put more and more of these units together.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Quality should also be considered. The arrangement of proteins, presence of different kinds of proteins, sophistication of the interplay between different tissue, elements, and compounds. Limpet teeth (a snail) are perhaps the hardest biological material known at this point and it's just a "perfect protein combination" around a nanoscopic graphene line (rod?), scaling up linearly in strength as you put more and more of these units together.

I'm not sure how much an individual has control over that. Neither diet, nor tranining methodology would result in my knuckles producing a callus with the makeup of a limpet tooth.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

I would suggest to folks that wish to temper their body, seek professionals that are trained in such methodologies. Personal trainers, strenght coaches, certified body tempering professionals, etc.

I write my programs slightly different than what you are describing above. In fact, I would caution against some of them. Pain for the sake of pain, and reps to exhaustion aren't the best ways to achieve your intended goals. As for the venom and such, I think it's safe to say the average person should stay clear of such dangerous practices.

That being said, a tempered athletic body is something martial artists should strive for, IMHO.

 

[Diagen]

I'm not sure how much an individual has control over that. Neither diet, nor tranining methodology would result in my knuckles producing a callus with the makeup of a limpet tooth.

Well it's just an example of regular tissue creating something with very different properties.

I would suggest to folks that wish to temper their body, seek professionals that are trained in such methodologies. Personal trainers, strenght coaches, certified body tempering professionals, etc.

I write my programs slightly different than what you are describing above. In fact, I would caution against some of them. Pain for the sake of pain, and reps to exhaustion aren't the best ways to achieve your intended goals. As for the venom and such, I think it's safe to say the average person should stay clear of such dangerous practices.

That being said, a tempered athletic body is something martial artists should strive for, IMHO.

There's not too much reason to seek excessive pain. Struggle, momentary pain, and discomfort is the general rule of thumb. Finding a pro is a great idea.
For body tempering: vinegar or alcohol on the skin is good after training. If you have vinegar or alcohol it's good to put some herb in it to become more of a tincture like onion, garlic, cilantro, rosemary and basil. What people eat together often goes well together in a tincture haha.
I have read that gladiators in Rome would coat themselves in onion juice and eat them regularly.
I have seen one testing the onion hypothesis with a half or whole onion a day in their diet (raw) and after a couple weeks or a month (details are difficult to recall exactly) his free testosterone (blood serum test) went up by quite a bit. It makes sense that one training regularly would want higher testosterone in their blood. Onion has many properties of course and the direct perception of its affects lead me to believe that it has well-rounded warrior aiding properties. It's pure raging blood-Orc food. The more you train the better its benefits of course. In terms of epidermal recovery it has high Nitrous Oxide so that means a lot of blood flow, a lot of recovery. Free test is great for any protein tissue, including epidermal. As far as I've experienced it's potent for recovery.
Onion recipe: Milk, Honey, Onion, Banana. Tried this once, drank a big couple glasses and WOW. My whole body and brain was buzzing and bright. Crazy. Like a drug.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Well it's just an example of regular tissue creating something with very different properties.


There's not too much reason to seek excessive pain. Struggle, momentary pain, and discomfort is the general rule of thumb. Finding a pro is a great idea.
For body tempering: vinegar or alcohol on the skin is good after training. If you have vinegar or alcohol it's good to put some herb in it to become more of a tincture like onion, garlic, cilantro, rosemary and basil. What people eat together often goes well together in a tincture haha.
I have read that gladiators in Rome would coat themselves in onion juice and eat them regularly.
I have seen one testing the onion hypothesis with a half or whole onion a day in their diet (raw) and after a couple weeks or a month (details are difficult to recall exactly) his free testosterone (blood serum test) went up by quite a bit. It makes sense that one training regularly would want higher testosterone in their blood. Onion has many properties of course and the direct perception of its affects lead me to believe that it has well-rounded warrior aiding properties. It's pure raging blood-Orc food. The more you train the better its benefits of course. In terms of epidermal recovery it has high Nitrous Oxide so that means a lot of blood flow, a lot of recovery. Free test is great for any protein tissue, including epidermal. As far as I've experienced it's potent for recovery.
Onion recipe: Milk, Honey, Onion, Banana. Tried this once, drank a big couple glasses and WOW. My whole body and brain was buzzing and bright. Crazy. Like a drug.

It is true that allium species do increase nitric oxide synthase activity in the body, but the amounts of any culinary herb/vegetable/fruit that would have to be consumed to meet a therapeutic dose is pretty great. I do eat onions and garlic everyday, because I love them, but I'm not sure how much of my martial prowess I can attribute to the onions in my diet.

The German Commission E has the most extensive research of all phyto-active compounds. If you are unfamiliar with it, here is a link:
German Commission E

That said, placebo can be a powerful thing, and if it's working for you, that's great!

I mean, take it with a grain of salt, I barely eat a daily vitamin. I do, however, prepare food daily. Seasonally from my garden. I attempt to eat a balanced healthy diet.

 

[Diagen]

It is true that allium species do increase nitric oxide synthase activity in the body, but the amounts of any culinary herb/vegetable/fruit that would have to be consumed to meet a therapeutic dose is pretty great. I do eat onions and garlic everyday, because I love them, but I'm not sure how much of my martial prowess I can attribute to the onions in my diet.

The German Commission E has the most extensive research of all phyto-active compounds. If you are unfamiliar with it, here is a link:
German Commission E

That said, placebo can be a powerful thing, and if it's working for you, that's great!

I mean, take it with a grain of salt, I barely eat a daily vitamin. I do, however, prepare food daily. Seasonally from my garden. I attempt to eat a balanced healthy diet.

Raw onions in excess of half an onion may be more beneficial, try it out and see if it does anything for you. Thanks for the link. I avoid chalking anything up to "placebo". It's better to speciate 'placebo', which is to say speciate one's spirit, will, emotion and body. This is much more analytical and productive.

I regret mentioning nitrous oxide since it's overly reductive. Compounds in plants are symbiotic and complimentary. Whatever compound in your body can be made more or less effective with different dietary compounds introduced.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Raw onions in excess of half an onion may be more beneficial, try it out and see if it does anything for you. Thanks for the link. I avoid chalking anything up to "placebo". It's better to speciate 'placebo', which is to say speciate one's spirit, will, emotion and body. This is much more analytical and productive.

I regret mentioning nitrous oxide since it's overly reductive. Compounds in plants are symbiotic and complimentary. Whatever compound in your body can be made more or less effective with different dietary compounds introduced.

Oh I grew up eating whole "spring" onions out of the garden. They are a bit larger than a golf ball. We ate them at the dinner table as garnishes. I'm not sure how common that it is world-wide, but it's a common Appalachian tradition.

 

[Diagen]

Don't watch. Listen. Guy is a fountain of knowledge. Every single thing here will floss your body inside and out, wake up every dormant muscle and build full range of motion strength and endurance so that you can train every day and more intensely without wasting time overcoming your own physical weakness. If your body is well put together and athletic it can deal with injury and exhaustion better. You can't become tough efficiently without peak physical prowess.
What is toughness? Start with building bone, tendon and muscle strength. If you hurt yourself because you move wrong you aren't completely tough are you? You need the full body to be fit and tough inside and out. Toughness can be gotten from exertions of the body. If you can lift great weights for high high reps every day you have a degree of toughness not found in others because that works your body from the inside out.

 

[Diagen]

Your body will BREAK DOWN without exercises like these. If you think you have better then whatever but this guy is learning from olympic coaches and athletes and learning from anatomy and the athletes he trains. TENDON, LIGAMENT STRENGTH.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Not disagreeing that exercise it good, it is good, but not all people are created equally and what is good for one might not be good for another. However, for the record, your body will breakdown as you age, even with exercises like these and in some cases you would need to modify them do to age related issues or they could cause more damage

I can tell you , exercises I did easily and 30, I cannot do at all at damn near 60, arthritis can be one tough mistress. And before you go for diet and exercise preventing such thing, well it can, but when it s rather prevalent in multiple generations of your family...its in the DNA