How Many of You Practice the "Iron" Skills?

Discuss training methods, physiology, pedagogy, psychology, morality. Conquer yourself, contribute. Please stay on topic.

Moderators: nyang, Dvivid, Inga

How Many of You Practice the "Iron" Skills?

Postby Seiji » Wed Jun 16, 2010 10:46 pm

I'm curious on how many of the people on this forum practice them. Obviously, I'm new here, so I don't know much about you bunch, for one. Normally when I go to a forum, I post everywhere explaining my point of view, but in this forum, I don't because all of what I know has already been said most of the time. It's nice to know that I don't have to be the guy that spams the website.

On topic: How many of you practice the iron skills? Which ones? Do you have a routine?

In the morning before school and before the sun rose, I walked to my apartment complex's pool where I would practice iron arm and iron leg on wood poles. Sometimes I would apply dit da jow, sometimes I didn't need to. It's very rare for me to bruise myself in this training: I know the risks, it slows down progress a lot if you get a bruise, even if it's a small one. I did that every weekday morning for a few months with definite results. I would show off in school by "accidentally" (everyone knew it was a joke) hitting my shins on desks as I walked by, knocking them out of the way. Daylight savings time ruined that - I didn't practice there during the day because I didn't want people to yell at me and kick me out.
More recently, I bought one of those... I don't even know what they're called... They're like metal fiber optics that you can use to hit yourself with. Some sort of conditioning flail. At first I trained iron leg because my shins weren't as resistant as they used to be. The older students and my master at the kung fu school I went to thought I was crazy because it made me look like I tripped on knives. After practice, my shins looked bloody and a few hairs were ripped out causing a tiny amount of blood. However, it was just redness. The look went away in two hours. I practiced by hitting my shins one hundred times per inch or so, the amount of space the flail took up when it hit. I don't remember exactly, but the amount of times I would hit my shin and foot was about 1000. I would spend more than an hour working on both legs. I think my total ever was 3000 for both legs. 1000 per shin, and 500 per foot. It seems extreme when you look at the numbers, but the fact is; the training almost never injured me. I wasn't lightly touching, but I definitely wasn't smashing my legs either.
Only about a week ago did I start up practicing again... I would spend about five minutes tops on a new routine I thought of. I would hit my forearms and legs as hard as I could, without causing injury of course, about two times per spot. Pretty drastic change, right? I think the old way was better, so I'll create a hybrid soon.

I trained iron head, but that didn't last long at all. A week tops.
I used to train my phoenix eye fist. I used to be able to put small dents into pine trees after about 5-10 hits. My callous has almost gone, but I think I'll bring it back. I never use the phoenix eye, but it seems to be fun for me.
I had my hand at iron palm (haha, get it?) which lasted quite some time. However, I had no reason to practice it, and my parents were mad at me after a while because of the annoying sound the bag makes when I hit it. I practiced 100 hits on each side of my hand... Palm, back, knife, ridge, fist, and wrist. Sometimes I would throw in fingers too. I still have my bag, which I filled with mung and soy beans, but it just sits there with no use.
I never trained iron throat, but because I used to be a show off kid (I still am, just less of one), I would punch my throat at school. I couldn't explain why I was able to do it without hurting myself, but I did. One guy asked if he could punch me once, but I told him no because I didn't trust him. I probably could have handled it, but I rather wouldn't risk it.

Wow, what a long post. I guess I get around :D
Seiji
Forum Newbie
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:57 pm

Postby Dvivid » Thu Jul 01, 2010 9:13 am

It sounds to me that one possible danger of this training is that you risk making the body excessively Yang. People reading should understand that this training brings Qi out to the surface of the skin, and conditions the nerves and tissue to become stronger, but that its very important to cool down afterward. Balance the hardness with softness, or you risk various over-energized side effects, like insomnia, emotional outbursts, or worse.
"Avoid Prejudice, Be Objective in Your Judgement, Be Scientific, Be Logical and Make Sense, Do Not Ignore Prior Experience." - Dr. Yang

http://www.ymaa.com/publishing
Dvivid
Forum God
 
Posts: 1736
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2003 9:48 am
Location: Boston, MA


Return to General Training and Practice

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 26 guests

cron