Have you ever tried Shaolin bone conditioning?

amateur

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Even though MMA is arguably a newer and more evolved art, what you have to give to Shaolins
is they have some really badass exercises for bones and even for some supposedly soft spots.
Western martial arts do not seem to care at all about strengthening a warrior's defenses in any
way other than just teaching them how to avoid being hit; no exercises that increase your durability
in case you do get hit (and, let's face it, if you get into a fight, you will get hit eventually, no matter
how skillfully you dodge or parry).
Yes, I know, from the info I have absorbed, that those exercises should not be done without the
supervision of a qualified master. But, since the chances I'll ever come across a qualified Shaolin
master are only slightly greater than the chances Ariana Grande will knock my door and beg me
to marry her, I was like 'whatever, life is pointless unless do what fulfills you etc'
So, I decided to take a chance. I watched some videos on the matter and tried it myself, carefully.
-I tapped my shins with a bottle.
-I kicked a stone wall with the bridge of my foot and with my toes.
-I trained my hands using a tree in a way I saw in a video.
-I tried to condition some certain soft spots whose names I cannot mention for obvious reasons.
Okay, about that last part, I really had no idea how to do it, since there was no info other than some
videos with shaolins merely displaying their endurance when hit there. So I just took a chance on
my own responsibility and started with light punches. In the end, it was not as bad as it sounds,
I just needed to remain on my knees for a few seconds afterward until I could comfortably stand
up again.
What I made of my experience is that, if you listen to your body and don't increase the hit force
past the point you feel a slight discomfort, if you wait for 2-3 days till the red marks on the spots
you conditioned go away before trying again, there will be no problem.
The conditioning exercises were satisfying and I have considered including them in my workout
routine.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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I had the opportunity to learn some of the conditioning stuff, but others on here know more about it so I'll leave them to comment. Regarding conditioning the squishy bits of yourself, I have one piece of advice: dont.

That's not an area you can really condition all that well, and most of the stuff about people getting hit there is more performance tricks than anything. Even if there are some people who have figured it out, it takes one little accident to make them not functional anymore, and you kinda want them to stay in working order.
 

Martial D

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Even though MMA is arguably a newer and more evolved art, what you have to give to Shaolins
is they have some really badass exercises for bones and even for some supposedly soft spots.
Western martial arts do not seem to care at all about strengthening a warrior's defenses in any
way other than just teaching them how to avoid being hit; no exercises that increase your durability
in case you do get hit (and, let's face it, if you get into a fight, you will get hit eventually, no matter
how skillfully you dodge or parry).
Yes, I know, from the info I have absorbed, that those exercises should not be done without the
supervision of a qualified master. But, since the chances I'll ever come across a qualified Shaolin
master are only slightly greater than the chances Ariana Grande will knock my door and beg me
to marry her, I was like 'whatever, life is pointless unless do what fulfills you etc'
So, I decided to take a chance. I watched some videos on the matter and tried it myself, carefully.
-I tapped my shins with a bottle.
-I kicked a stone wall with the bridge of my foot and with my toes.
-I trained my hands using a tree in a way I saw in a video.
-I tried to condition some certain soft spots whose names I cannot mention for obvious reasons.
Okay, about that last part, I really had no idea how to do it, since there was no info other than some
videos with shaolins merely displaying their endurance when hit there. So I just took a chance on
my own responsibility and started with light punches. In the end, it was not as bad as it sounds,
I just needed to remain on my knees for a few seconds afterward until I could comfortably stand
up again.
What I made of my experience is that, if you listen to your body and don't increase the hit force
past the point you feel a slight discomfort, if you wait for 2-3 days till the red marks on the spots
you conditioned go away before trying again, there will be no problem.
The conditioning exercises were satisfying and I have considered including them in my workout
routine.
Firstly, have you trained much MMA? I tell you what, slamming shin into shin is no picnic at first. Neither is shin on ribs, fists on body, etc etc every night(or at least as often as one attends)

Shao Lin guys don't hit each other, so they have different methods, surely.

Also, quit hitting yourself in the balls. It isn't going to help, unless you're one of those guys that's likes a little pain with your tea.
 

Gerry Seymour

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Most martial arts - if they have any real contact - have body conditioning. It's not always a discrete exercise, but people who spar with moderate (or harder) intensity definitely are better equipped to deal with getting hit. People who take falls on a regular basis are somewhat equipped to take a hit, and are certainly conditioned from less-focused impact (so a flying tackle, for instance). And, as Martial D pointed out, there's the clashing that happens regularly. In my primary training, we nearly always started classes with a round of block-and-strike, which some thought was practicing strikes, but I think it's more a conditioning exercise - oddly, more for the guy getting blocked. People who practice painful locks and submissions get better at dealing with pain.

Martial arts are full of body conditioning.

And, as others have said, don't try to condition the squishy bits. Muscle can be conditioned (Muay Thai fighters are an excellent example of this), but squishy bits cannot.
 

Bill Mattocks

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I do not try to condition bone, but that's a personal choice. I've seen what people who've done shin conditioning can do, but I'm just not interested myself. I would suggest getting competent instruction if you're going to do it. It can be dangerous.
 

Christopher Adamchek

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As other have said many arts have conditioning methods
some good tips for conditioning:
  1. you should start by hitting a heavy bag ALOT!
  2. remember bone conditioning involves high impact microfractures that recalcify over time and increase bone density so it takes a long time and you dont want to hit anything too hard when starting
  3. occasionally striking hard surfaces during your bag conditioning will help condition nerves and capilary beds to the impacts so you eventually feel less pain and have less bruising
  4. make sure you eat right so you body has the building blocks to repair itself (calcium and vitamin D are important)
  5. utilize some weight conditioning to improve the muscle strength around the bones
  6. spar ALOT, it will round out areas you forget to work by yourself
  7. after many years utilize more hard surface striking
 

jobo

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Even though MMA is arguably a newer and more evolved art, what you have to give to Shaolins
is they have some really badass exercises for bones and even for some supposedly soft spots.
Western martial arts do not seem to care at all about strengthening a warrior's defenses in any
way other than just teaching them how to avoid being hit; no exercises that increase your durability
in case you do get hit (and, let's face it, if you get into a fight, you will get hit eventually, no matter
how skillfully you dodge or parry).
Yes, I know, from the info I have absorbed, that those exercises should not be done without the
supervision of a qualified master. But, since the chances I'll ever come across a qualified Shaolin
master are only slightly greater than the chances Ariana Grande will knock my door and beg me
to marry her, I was like 'whatever, life is pointless unless do what fulfills you etc'
So, I decided to take a chance. I watched some videos on the matter and tried it myself, carefully.
-I tapped my shins with a bottle.
-I kicked a stone wall with the bridge of my foot and with my toes.
-I trained my hands using a tree in a way I saw in a video.
-I tried to condition some certain soft spots whose names I cannot mention for obvious reasons.
Okay, about that last part, I really had no idea how to do it, since there was no info other than some
videos with shaolins merely displaying their endurance when hit there. So I just took a chance on
my own responsibility and started with light punches. In the end, it was not as bad as it sounds,
I just needed to remain on my knees for a few seconds afterward until I could comfortably stand
up again.
What I made of my experience is that, if you listen to your body and don't increase the hit force
past the point you feel a slight discomfort, if you wait for 2-3 days till the red marks on the spots
you conditioned go away before trying again, there will be no problem.
The conditioning exercises were satisfying and I have considered including them in my workout
routine.
I'm not sure the monks were well up in science or had day jobs to go to?

you can most certainly increase you pain tolerance by experiancing pain, any contack sport in fact any sport where you regularly fall over like ice skating or mountain biking or being very drunk, will have that effect, you can strength en bone by percussive exercises , jumping up and down hitting a heavy bag, though your talibg years to make any meaningful difference to how likely it is to break.

punching a wall or a tree is a rather bad idea, you can damage your hands punching a heavy bag and at the least your going to end up with arthritis in latter life, getting hit in the stomach does not strength your abs, hitting yourself in the cookies, may lessen your pain response, but won't stop them being damaged if your are kicked there. hitting them hard enough to actually damage then is just plain stupid
 
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pdg

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hitting yourself in the cookies, may lessen your pain response, but won't stop them being damaged if your are kicked there. hitting them hard enough to actually damage then is just plain stupid

There's a somewhat Darwinian beauty to that practice though.

Doing it enough (or hard enough) to cause damage and loss of function removes the propensity for self harm from the gene pool.
 

jobo

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There's a somewhat Darwinian beauty to that practice though.

Doing it enough (or hard enough) to cause damage and loss of function removes the propensity for self harm from the gene pool.
I'm willing to bet the monks weren't overly concerned about their reproductive functions,
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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I'm not sure the monks were well up in science or had day jobs to go to?

you can most certainly increase you pain tolerance by experiancing pain, any contack sport in fact any sport where you regularly fall over like ice skating or mountain biking or being very drunk, will have that effect, you can strength en bone by percussive exercises , jumping up and down hitting a heavy bag, though your talibg years to make any meaningful difference to how likely it is to break.

punching a wall or a tree is a rather bad idea, you can damage your hands punching a heavy bag and at the least your going to end up with arthritis in latter life, getting hit in the stomach does not strength your abs, hitting yourself in the cookies, may lessen your pain response, but won't stop them being damaged if your are kicked there. hitting them hard enough to actually damage then is just plain stupid
I'm loving the image of drinking as being a contact sport.
 

frank raud

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TIL that all those years of having medicine balls slammed into me was not as a conditioning exercise, but because my teacher was a sadistic bastard.
 

Hanzou

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Unless your goal is to be some sort of circus freak, I would avoid that pseudoscience nonsense like the plague.
 

wanderingstudent

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Most martial arts - if they have any real contact - have body conditioning. It's not always a discrete exercise, but people who spar with moderate (or harder) intensity definitely are better equipped to deal with getting hit. People who take falls on a regular basis are somewhat equipped to take a hit, and are certainly conditioned from less-focused impact (so a flying tackle, for instance). And, as Martial D pointed out, there's the clashing that happens regularly. In my primary training, we nearly always started classes with a round of block-and-strike, which some thought was practicing strikes, but I think it's more a conditioning exercise - oddly, more for the guy getting blocked. People who practice painful locks and submissions get better at dealing with pain.

Martial arts are full of body conditioning.

And, as others have said, don't try to condition the squishy bits. Muscle can be conditioned (Muay Thai fighters are an excellent example of this), but squishy bits cannot.

Yeah, you'd think that. I was shocked when Anderson Silva broke his leg kicking his opponent in UFC168. I assumed from his years of training/conditioning, it wouldn't have happened.

 

pdg

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I am soooo slow today.

Is it too late to try some innuendo based on groin shots and "bone" conditioning?
 
OP
A

amateur

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Muscle can be conditioned (Muay Thai fighters are an excellent example of this), but squishy bits cannot.

This video explains how it can happen. Watch 3.18-3.55 part...



punching a wall or a tree is a rather bad idea, you can damage your hands punching a heavy bag and at the least your going to end up with arthritis in latter life

Brainlessly punching a hard surface is stupid indeed. But there is a method to utilize a tree for hand conditioning. This video explains it...

 

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