Hand Conditioning

Fighting hurts, there is no way around it. The only hope is that you deliver a far greater beating than you receive. Forearm and fist conditioning is a useful element in your training. Not only does it make your bones and skin more resistant to breaking, but it also allows you to strike harder and with greater intention.

How does such training make you hit harder? While the physical benefits have been questioned by many, the mental element of such training is clear. Hitting someone bare knuckle hurts tremendously, and many street fights result in broken knuckles and hands. Strike someone with bone on bone, without any conditioning, and you will be less willing to strike them again. Getting used to the torturous feeling of high impact gives you a greater sense of what to expect. Get used to hitting hard things, and you will get used to the pain, to the point where it rolls off your shoulders. This makes annihilating someone's jaw easier to do, and makes blocking someone's punch a torturous affair for them, not you.

While Buk Sing has given me a greater opportunity to practice conditioning, on a weekly basis, Karate has given me great forearm conditioning, due to the linearity of many of the techniques. With that said, my fist remains not terribly well conditioned, something I am rectifying. Conditioning of the forearms and fist should be taken slowly, and at a gradual pace, less a serious injury occur. There are many different ways to strike a makiwara, some involve direct strikes, others involve angling to engage different knuckles, others require a certain pushing sensation to ground and grind the knuckles down. It may seem strange, but the practice can become extremely meditative and very enjoyable.


Conditioning the hands makes you less likely to pull your punch out of the fear of pain. Without the fear of bone on bone contact, crashing through someone's guard becomes easier, and makes for one very terrified opponent.