The cornerstone of hand conditioning for the front or rear strike is the knuckle bend. The ability of a fighter to perform several hundred push-ups at a time, at their knuckles, on rough asphalt or even gravel, is a sure sign that the front “face” of their fists will be able to withstand, with room to spare, the pain associated with hitting a hard surface. If you’ve performed tens of thousands of push-ups in your life, but not one on your knuckles on a street or street-like surface, you are in for a little surprise. You might be thinking, “Well my gosh, how hard could a push-up like that really be?” Try it; Walk to the nearest sidewalk or parking lot, and do nothing more than assume the ready position on your knuckles, not straining even to perform a full-range push-up (and greatly intensifying the pressure and pain in your fists), and see how you do it. . Many people who do these push-ups for the first time think that it is the most intense pain they have ever felt; So what does that say about the level of conditioning of someone’s knuckles who can perform thousands of them at once?
The relevance of the knuckle bend lies in the punch style that martial artists throw; the punch is actually thrown so that the primary blow is delivered by the knuckles of the index and middle fingers; a small part of the blow may be secondarily impacted at the knuckle site of the ring and “little” finger, but these fingers should not serve as points of impact. Because the force of the blow is channeled through only two specific points on the hand, it is absolutely essential that these areas develop to a high degree so that they are as destructive and impervious to pain and damage as possible.
Therefore, for the knuckle push-up to achieve its objectives, it must be performed in such a way that the knuckles of the first two fingers of each hand remain the main contact points on the surface on which the push-up is performed. At first, the temptation is to flex so that the weight is carried by the entire fist. One of the reasons for this is simple inexperience; It usually takes a little time to do the knuckle curl to get the balance needed to perform the exercise with only the knuckles of the index and middle fingers serving as contact points with the surface. Also, there is often a misunderstanding that the entire fist should be developed, which is simply not true. Remember, the real hit points are the index knuckles and the index finger; Any impact absorbed by the other fingers should be minimal, at the most.
The best way to master the knuckle curl is to start gradually. It is best to start this exercise on a carpeted surface. Once you get to a point where you can do 300 of them (not necessarily as a set; 10 sets of 30, with a minute rest between sets is fine), it’s time to move on to a harder surface, like a linoleum floor. . Again, you want to repeat the goal of getting to the point where you can do 300 of these on that type of surface. Next, it’s time to try a surface that’s a little harder still, like the smooth concrete floor you can find in your garage or outside on your patio. It is when you move to this type of surface that the first taste of real pain will be provided to you.
Once you’ve mastered that, it’s time to “step up” and move your pushups onto the bumpy, gravel-filled surface of the street or sidewalk. Once you get to the point where you can perform 300 full-range knuckle push-ups at least three times a week on this type of surface, without stopping and with no resulting cuts or rips to your skin, then you can be satisfied that your fists they are properly conditioned. Some breakers insist on regularly looking for the roughest surfaces they can find to perform their knuckle curls. While that may seem extreme to some, these martial artists know that the higher the conditioning level of their hands, the easier the breaks will be, for two reasons: first, their hands will be solid, like battering rams to themselves, and second. , the likelihood that the pain they feel when trying to break a stack of boards or blocks will prevent them from making the break successfully is greatly reduced.
An excellent complement to the knuckle flex in fist conditioning is the repeated hit of the makiwara with both the front fist and the rear fist. It is especially important to spend a lot of time working the makiwara from the back fist position, because neither the bending of the knuckles nor the makiwara strike with the front fist sufficiently conditions the “top” or the “back” of the first two. knuckles. Of course, developing this area is not as essential to standard front punch conditioning, and if you plan on never throwing a back punch you could probably do without it, but your neglect of this component will result in a lesser punch. than the total. conditioning.
While there is nothing terribly scientific about hitting the makiwara, it is advisable that you hit it every day, using a figure of 1,000 as a guide for the target number of repetitions. As with all these exercises, that figure is one you will have to work on; however, once it is there, it will have reached a level of conditioning that makes this area of the hand “ready to break.”
As a substitute for the makiwara, you can use a heavy bag, but keep a few things in mind. First, for the heavy bag to serve as a suitable substitute for the rough surface of the makiwara, it is advisable that you stick with a heavy bag made of canvas. Today, the heavy bags that martial artists often use are made of vinyl and are slightly softer than canvas bags. While this difference is important to allow kick training with less risk of foot injury, the old-style duffel bag is still the best option for hand conditioning. Also, be sure to locate the hardest part of the heavy bag and use it as a hitting surface. Today, most heavy canvas bags are filled with fiber, but regardless of the padding used, the tendency is for the contents to settle in the bottom half of the bag. This means that the part of the bag at or closest to the bottom will be the hardest and is therefore the area where you will find the most beneficial place to hit. As with those who use the makiwara, you should aim to reach a point where you hit the heavy bag to the tune of roughly 1,000 reps each day.