Iron Training

[Inevitable]

Hey whats up, new to this thread so i'm not to sure if this has been asked before, but what are the different parts of the body that can be trained?, i know about the hands forearms, stomach, head, legs and back but are there any more?
thanks

[shaolinstylee]

Depends on what you concider "iron." There are some external qigong practices which involve just about every part of the body that you can think of.

[dave]

good hard qigong skill works the whole body, developing the structure, mind, attitude, bone density, posture, tendons, muscles and skin. Of course as well as the breathing and issuing power too most skills build up different parts of the body gradually, starting at the big areas like the stomach and back, then working eg. head, fingers, ribs, throat... gradually getting to all those small places. Thats how my skill and the few others i know about work anyway

dave

[doc]

Some people train in "Iron crotch". I'm not sure I understand the use of the testicles as a weapon though. They always seem to get me into trouble...

[kirvixus]

I would think the point of iron crotch would be so you can take hits in the testicles. but hey I got some iron crotch training for ya............castration.

[Nightstrike]

hahah, yeah.
But How do I go about in iron training?
I need to condition my fists and feet a little.

[daodejing]

A good way to start off is to have a wooden barrel, or other deep cylindrical object with an open top, filled with sand. Through your punches into the sand. Footsweep the sides of the barrel. When you get tougher, start doing forearm strikes and footsweeps on the barrel, and still keep punching the sand. When you break the barrel to an irrepairable point, ask your teacher "what now". And do lots of qigong along the way. Massage your hands, feet, or whatever your conditioning with dit da jow for at least 20 minutes after you finish training, and wash your hands in cold water before you massage them. And for gods sake eat well. Nutrition helps more than you could imagine (its amazing what mixing bone meal into your diet when you doing bone conditioning will do).

[daodejing]

Oh, and if you're looking to condition your fingers a bit more, doing pushups on your fingertips (dont do those unless youre over 18 years old) and also playing catch by yourself with a 20 lb. bag of rice are good for strenghening the fingers. And you're supposed to catch the rice with one hand by the way, using two is cheating. That way, when you're broke because you've quit working and been training all day, you still have 20 pounds of rice.

Another thing for finger strength, (though its more a tui na excercise than a martial one) is to simply massage a bag of rice until you've crushed the rice into powder. Its not that hard, just takes some time and discipline.

[zachsan]

it doesn't really qualify as iron training, but in hung gar we put metal rings on our forearms and do forms with them on, both for the added weight and also so that they brush up against the forearm when a punch or palm strike is thrown, supposedly making it stronger. also, holding fishbowls at the top while sitting in horse stance is a traditional way of strengthening the fingers. and sometimes we knife-hand bricks for a few minutes on each hand. just for kicks.

- zach