The bedrock of hand conditioning for the forefist or backfist strike is the knuckle pushup. The ability of a fighter to perform several hundreds of pushups at a time, on his knuckles, in rough tarmac or even gravel, is a sure sign that the front “face” of his fists will be able to withstand, with room to spare, the pain associated with striking a hard surface. If you have performed tens of thousands of pushups in your lifetime, but not one on your knuckles on a street or street-like surface, you’re in for a bit of a surprise. You may be thinking to yourself, “Well, gosh, how hard could one pushup like that really be?” Try it; walk to the nearest sidewalk or parking lot, and do no more than assume the ready position on your knuckles, not endeavoring to even perform one full-range pushup (and greatly intensifying the pressure and pain on your fists), and see how you do. Many people who do these pushups for the first time come away thinking that it is the most intense pain they’ve ever felt; what, then, does that say about the level of knuckle conditioning of someone who can perform thousands of them at a time?
The relevance of the knuckle pushup lies in the style of punch thrown by martial artists; the punch is actually thrown so that the primary strike is administered by the knuckles of the index and middle fingers; a small part of the blow may be secondarily impacted at the site of the knuckles of the ring and “little” fingers, but those fingers should not serve as strike points. Because the force of the strike is channeled through just two specific points on the hand, it is absolutely essential that these areas are developed to a high degree to make them both as destructive and as impervious to pain and damage as possible.
Accordingly, in order for the knuckle pushup to accomplish its goals, it must be performed in such a way that the knuckles of the first two fingers of each hand remain the primary contact points on the surface on which the pushup is being performed. In the beginning, the temptation is to actually perform the pushup so that the weight is borne by the entire fist. One reason for this is simple inexperience; it usually requires a bit of time put into doing the knuckle pushup to gain the balance necessary to perform the exercise with only the knuckles of the index and middle fingers serving as the contact points to the surface. Additionally, there is often a misunderstanding that the whole fist has to be developed, which is simply not true. Remember, the actual strike points are the knuckles of the index and forefinger; any impact absorbed by the other fingers should be very minimal, at most.
The best way to become proficient at the knuckle pushup is to begin gradually. It is best to begin doing this exercise on a carpeted surface. Once you get to a point where you can do 300 of them (not necessarily as one set; 10 sets of 30, with a minute rest between sets, is fine), it is time to move to a harder surface, like a linoleum floor. Again, you want to repeat the goal of arriving at the point where you can do 300 of these on that kind of surface. Next, it’s time to try a surface that’s a little harder still, like the smooth concrete floor you might find in your garage or outside at your patio. It is when you move to this type of surface that you will be provided with the first taste of real pain.
Once you’ve mastered that, it’s time to “step up to the plate” and move your pushups to the bumpy, gravel-covered surface of the street or sidewalk. Once you get to the point where you can perform 300 full-range knuckle pushups at least three times per week on this kind of a surface, without stopping and without any resulting cuts or tears to your skin, then you may be satisfied that your fists are conditioned appropriately. Some breakers insist on regularly seeking out the roughest surfaces they can find on which to perform their knuckle pushups. While that may seem extreme to some, these martial artists know that the higher the level of their hand conditioning, the easier the breaks will be, for two reasons: First, their hands will be solid, like battering rams unto themselves, and second, the likelihood is greatly diminished that the pain they feel as they seek to break a stack of boards or blocks will prevent them from performing the break successfully.
An excellent complement to the knuckle pushup in fist conditioning is the repeated striking of the makiwara with both the forefist and backfist. It is especially important to spend a lot of time working the makiwara from the backfist position, because neither the knuckle pushup nor the forefist makiwara strike will sufficiently condition the “top” or “back” of the first two knuckles. Granted, the development of this area is not as essential for standard fore punch conditioning, and if you plan to never throw a backfist then you could probably do without it, but your neglect of this component will result in less-than-total punch fist conditioning.
While there’s nothing terribly scientific about striking the makiwara, it is advisable that you strike it each day, using a figure of 1,000 as a guideline for the goal number of repetitions. As with all of these exercises, that figure is one up to which you will have to work; nevertheless, once you are there, you will have reached a level of conditioning that makes this area of the hand “breaking-ready.”
As a substitute for the makiwara, you may use a heavy bag, but be mindful of a few things. First, in order 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. Nowadays, the heavy bags often used by martial artists are made of vinyl and are quite a bit softer than the canvas bags. While this difference is important in allowing for kick training with less risk of foot injury, the old-style canvas bag remains the better choice for hand conditioning. Also, make a point of locating the hardest part of the heavy bag, and use that as your striking surface. Today, most canvas heavy bags are filled with fiber, but regardless of the filler used, the tendency is for the contents to settle in the lower half of the bag. This means that the part of the bag at or closest to the very bottom will be the hardest, and is therefore the area where you will find the most beneficial place to strike. As with those who utilize the makiwara, you should aspire to reach a point where you are striking the heavy bag to the tune of about 1,000 repetitions each day.
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