Iron Palm Conditioning:

by Sifu Dale McDine

Iron Palm, also known as Iron Hand, conditioning is just one of many series of exercises that are done to strengthen the hands, wrists and forearms to withstand very powerful strikes. When done properly, Iron Palm training will develop extremely strong, normal looking hands without the damaging side affects or ugly scarring that happens when a person uses improper conditioning methods. With dedication and time, a student will understand how to send energy through the hands to create a very powerful and devastating strike without breaking the bones of the hands, wrists or forearms. Iron Palm training is not a martial arts system, but a technique or tool that will enhance anyone's martial arts training. It is important that a student follows the correct conditioning methods under a qualified teacher, uses the proper herbal liniments and follows the correct meditation and massage techniques to promote a strong, healthy hand. If done incorrectly, Iron Palm training can have a damaging affect on the nerves, joints, tendons and bones of the hands. This can lead to both immediate and long-term pain and symptoms throughout the body.

The exact history of Iron Palm training is very hard, if not impossible, to accurately trace. Since the beginning of Chinese martial arts, people have always been looking for ways of developing a stronger, more effective weapon. This also includes the weapons of the body, such as the hands, feet, forearms, shins, head, etc. Many martial art systems found that by striking and rubbing a particular body part over and over again would reduce the pain from when someone else struck that body part. Different conditioning methods were developed in many systems of martial arts to strengthen the body, hands and feet against attacks to make striking and defense more efficient. Even the famous Shaolin Temple had methods of conditioning the body and head to withstand powerful blows, and generate great force in their attacks with their hands, feet and bodies.

With the evolution of these conditioning methods, it was also noticed that some methods, especially the ones pertaining to the hands and feet, over a period of time would cause the practitioner to become sick and weak. Through the understanding of acupuncture and acupressure points, it was discovered that some people who conditioned their hands and feet were also damaging the nerve points that were directly connected to their internal organs such as stomach, kidneys, eyes, heart, etc. These students were also damaging the joints and tendons of the hands and feet causing great pains such as broken bones, arthritis and tendonitis.

Many different herbal medicines, both internal and external, were created to counteract the damaging affects of these conditioning methods. It was also noticed that some forms of conditioning disfigured the body and caused great scarring and pain in the joints over a period of time. Through centuries of trial and error, many methods of Iron Palm, Iron Fist, Iron Shirt, Iron Head, Iron Body conditioning methods evolved to make the practitioner's attack and defense extremely powerful. Unfortunately, many conditioning methods left the practitioner sick, weak and, over time, even crippled because of the improper methods they had used to strengthen their bodies. Not all conditioning methods left the practitioner in pain, but many times students would over-condition, or not follow the exercises correctly and damage their bodies and internal organs.

An example of a very rare and dangerous method of hand conditioning that was practiced a long time ago were different methods of Poison Hand training. This conditioning method, if not done properly, often left the practitioner sick and sometimes to die an early death. One of several methods of poison hand training was for the practitioner to make a poisonous brick made out of many different and secret herbs. The practitioner would strike the brick with his fingernails a thousand times a day, which, over time, would produce a rock hard, discolored, fingernail. This conditioning method caused the poisons in the brick to be absorbed into the fingernails of the student. The practitioner would then sharpen his nails to be razor sharp and use them for attack and defense. Although the practitioner did turn his hands into a deadly weapon, many would have to take a herbal remedy so the poisons absorbed through their fingernails would not get them sick and cause an early death. Also, some practitioners would accidentally cut themselves, or their students, thus causing them to get sick from the poisons and sometimes die. This training method was very secret and had to be practiced with the utmost respect and correct training method or the practitioner would suffer ill effects. It was also because of this conditioning method that many systems of Iron Palm over time developed the myth that you should not handle small children while conditioning. Depending on the system and the herbal liniments you use for conditioning will determine if a student of Iron Palm should handle small children during their training.

I mention these conditioning methods because it shows that improper conditioning, whether with poisons or just striking objects, can lead to short term or long lasting side affects that can lesson the quality of life for the practitioner. It is important that you practice any conditioning method with the proper technique involved to avoid any damaging side affects. Many people start a conditioning program with good intention, but sometimes with improper technique, or trying to hurry the results, they end up hurting themselves and making it so they are unable to continue in the method. Patience, consistency, determination and correct practice will help lead you through any conditioning method safely, and with minimum damaging results.

Conditioning the Hands for Iron Palm Training

NASA recently did a study to see how they can safely send a team of astronauts to the planet Mars without the individuals losing too much muscle mass and bone density while in space. The study consisted of taking a turkey and other animals and placing vibration plates over different areas of the animal and vibrated those areas at low frequencies for 10 minutes a day. What they found was that through vibrating the various areas on the animals, the muscles, tendons and bone density strengthened and improved over a period of time. They compared the animals they vibrated to other animals that were not vibrated and found these important results. The study showed that by sending vibration through the bird caused the body to deposit calcium into the bone structure, creating a denser bone mass, stimulating muscles and strengthening tendons and joints. They also found that too little vibration for too short a period of time had little to no results and too much vibration could lead to harmful calcium deposits, torn muscles and tendons.

I mention this study because this is exactly what you are doing while training in the Iron Palm. You are conditioning the hands by smacking peas, rocks, iron pellets, bricks, cocnuts, etc., over a period of time which sends vibration through your hands and forearms to create a denser bone, stronger joints and tendons, and a healthier hand, wrist and forearm. Too much conditioning, too fast or too hard can cause deposits of calcium into the joints faster than your body can adjust too. This can cause stiffness, tendonitis and sometimes arthritis over a long period of time. This could also cause the tendons to stretch or separate from the bone and muscles, which is also very painful. The pain from improper conditioning will limit the mobility and strength in your hand, causing great pain and may take away from the quality of your life.

Over-conditioning can also cause many internal side affects and imbalances in your body's organs. There are nerve points in your hands and fingers that lead to all the major organs of your body. When you strike objects with your hands, you are stimulating the different nerves, which then stimulates the organs of the body. Proper stimulation can lead to very healthy results, not only in your hands, but organs as well. This promotes good internal balance. Too much stimulation, or too hard can lead to a negative affect on your organs that can create an imbalance which over time can lead to a loss of function, or disease within the organ. Conditioning for one day, or one month improperly will most likely not cause these affects, but improper conditioning over years, can accumulate the damaging affects in your organs. This is another reason why it is important that you use proper herbal liniments and massage to promote blood flow and energy into the hands after you condition. It is important that you do not rush your Iron Palm training, or any other conditioning method, so you can safely develop a healthy, properly conditioned hand or body.

While conditioning in the Iron Palm training methods, not only are your bones, tendons and muscles strengthening, but your skin is also being conditioned. With proper practice, the density and toughness of your skin will improve, and your hands will become stronger. Compare this to a person who has been working on a construction site for many years to a person who has been working in an office environment for an equal amount of time. You will find that the construction worker will have denser, thicker hands and skin where the office worker will have weaker hands with smoother skin. By constantly working with your hands, the skin will thicken and strengthen.

One day, a Kung Fu student was practicing a two-man fight set where he had double broadswords and his opponent had a spear. Accidentally, the opponent with the spear thrusted at the student and gouged his hand really bad. The student went the hospital and found out that he would need stitches. The doctor at the hospital bent four different needles trying to pierce the student's skin to put in the stitches. The doctor finally had to find the thickest needle in the hospital and was barely able to pierce the student's skin to put in the stitches. The doctor asked the student how he got his hands so tough? The student mentioned that he was studying a conditioning method called Iron Palm. The doctor was amazed because the student's hands were very normal looking and didn't appear to be that strong.

I mention this story because it is important that while you practice Iron Palm conditioning, your hands should maintain a normal, healthy appearance about them. You should not be developing thick calluses on the hands and knuckles, nor should your hands be scarring in any area. It is also important that you maintain the feelings in your hands. Many conditioning methods are designed to deaden the feelings in that area so you can withstand strong blows, such as conditioning the shins, forearms, and even chest. It is important that you do not deaden the feeling sensations in your hands. By conditioning properly in the Iron Palm, you will be able to withstand the painful sensations from slapping items such as stone, iron and brick over a long period of time. Many 90-day Iron Palm methods are designed to strengthen the skin and muscles of the hands in a short period of time, but you need to be careful that you are not damaging the nerves, or deadening the sensations in your hands. If you practice Iron Palm correctly, you should be seeing results in your hands within 90-days. It is important that you practice with caution so you are not over-conditioning for the very reasons mentioned above in this article.

Personal stories of Over-conditioning

I, like many other students in the Iron Palm, have been guilty at one point or another of over-training to achieve faster results. Fortunately, I know what some of the symptoms of over-training are and I also know when to back off before any permanent, long lasting damage occurs. Unfortunately, I have met many people who do condition their hands and bodies and have painful results from improper techniques or over-training. Injuries ranging from broken bones, calcium deposits in the joints, separated tendons, ugly scars and disfigurements. Many hard-core martial artists call these injuries "battle scars" and are proud of them. What I find ismost people who are proud of their "battle scars" today, often regret the scars as they get older. Many of these hard-core training methods cause constant pain in the joints and body as a person gets older. A few years of hard-core conditioning can lead to a very painful life in the long run.

An experience of over-training that happened to me was when I decided to hold an Iron Palm seminar for a group of students. I not only wanted to discuss in this seminar how to properly condition the hands and arms, but also demonstrate the proper breaking methods for wood and concrete blocks using the Iron Palm. Years before that seminar, I had committed a lot of time and training in how to properly break wood and bricks with an Iron Palm slap, and wanted to demonstrate some of the old breaks that I use to perform. Some of the old breaks that I wanted to prepare for were a 3-brick break with no spacers, breaking the bottom brick only with a two brick set up, and breaking the top and bottom brick leaving the middle brick unbroken in a three brick set up. Two weeks prior to the seminar, I bought over 30 concrete blocks and decided to practice some of those old breaks everyday.

Each day I would work on fine-tuning the breaks for the upcoming seminar. There were days were I would break 10 blocks one after another, and sometimes two or three blocks at a time. I still conditioned in the Iron Palm method, but my hands were not use to that kind of impact in such a short period of time. I was also pulling some of my strikes (a bad habit), which would cause a great amount of vibration to come back into my hands and body, instead of going through the blocks. A week before the seminar, I noticed a couple physical ailments were starting to bother me.

First of all, my hands and wrists were bothering me a little bit because of the hard impact of breaking bricks. My arms were fatigued, and I noticed some stiffness in my joints. I also noticed that I started suffering from bouts of heartburn. On the days I did a lot of breaking, the heartburn would be more serious, and painful. I also started suffering headaches and pain in my lower back (sciatic nerve) and found it difficult to turn and move a lot. Three days before the seminar, I decided not to do any breaking or hard slapping until the day of the seminar. I also decided that after the seminar, I would take some time off to let my body heal from the damage that I was causing it from over-training.

The seminar went great. The students really enjoyed the conditioning methods, the breaking demonstrations and the information they received that day. I also made sure to use my story of over-training as a warning to the students of what not to do. I advised them that the heartburn and the backaches were caused by the energy of my slap traveling back through my arm and into my stomach area and lower back. This trauma caused my body to ache and show signs of heartburn and fatigue. I also ended up having to see a chiropractor for two weeks after the seminar to reduce the pain from a pinched nerve in my lower back. I was happy to take the two weeks off from any breaking, because it took that long for the aches in my joints and body to leave. I made sure I also used the proper massage, herbal liniments, stretching techniques and diet to relieve the pain. Now I make sure I slowly build my breaking skills back up instead of jumping right in and damaging my hands and body.

Another incident that happened to me many years ago was from not dedicating the time to train properly in the Iron Palm. I had been conditioning my hands for over a year before I started to learn how to break concrete blocks. It took a while for me to build up the confidence to slap a concrete block and break it. I pulled a lot of my strikes, and ended up stinging my hands many times. After I started learning how to break a concrete block with one slap, my focus on the Iron Palm changed and I stopped conditioning as much as I was previously. Unfortunately, I took about three months off from conditioning, and my hand strength started changing back to its weaker state.

One day a group of students and I were talking about breaking bricks with the Iron Palm slap. I told them that I was able to do that break, but it had been some time since I actually practiced it. The students set up a concrete block for me to show them the break. I decided to give it a shot. I lined up on the brick, pulled my energy back to create a wave and struck the brick hard. The brick broke, and my hand stung. I didn't show the pain to the other students, but something was hurting in the center of my palm. When I walked away, I looked at my palm and noticed that I had split the skin in the direct center of the palm and created a gash in my hand. The energy leaving my hand to break the brick, and the impact of slapping the brick caused the weakened skin in the center of my palm to split. My hand hurt for the next couple of days. After my hand healed, I immediately started conditioning again.

Since then, there have been times when I had not been as dedicated to Iron Palm conditioning as I should have. Many months would pass where I did not condition the hands, and I noticed a definite change in the strength and tightness of the skin on my hands. When I would condition again, it was easy to get back to the state I had been prior to not conditioning, but it did take some time. Today, I make sure I condition in the Iron Palm several times a week. For beginning students, it is important that you practice every day to gain the results needed for an Iron Palm. As you progress in your training, the number of times you condition your hands a week will be less. It takes years of proper training and dedicated conditioning for the density of the bones in your hands to change. Your hands will not only be stronger, but your hands will feel heavier and more solid. It will take less energy to create a very powerful strike with your hands, and when you do strike someone, it will feel like an Iron Palm is hitting them.