Make Yourself As Hard As a Brick
If you want to be a really good martial artist, you should aim to harden yourself physically as much as possible. According to Anko Azato and Ankoh Itosu, teachers of Gichin Funakoshi, physically hardening yourself is one of the key principles of Karate. Here are a few tips on how to do so.
Contents
Steps
- Do one part of your body at a time. This way, you're not completely beaten and bruised when you go to work in the morning.
- Start with your hands. In old-fashioned karate lessons, there is something called a makiwara that you bash your fists against, but hitting a brick wall with your hands wrapped in tea towels, or doing push ups on your knuckles will harden your knuckles considerably over a period of time.
- Strengthen your fingers by doing push-ups on them. Do five finger push-ups, then four fingers, three fingers, etc. Do amount twenty a day, with your knees on the floor.
- Harden your forearms for blocking purposes by padding out your sleeves then hitting your arms against a tree. The next time someone tries to punch you, block with your hardened fore-arms, and they'll think twice about it in the future.
- Do the same with your legs. See how useful your tree is?
Tips
- If you're punching and the skin on your knuckles breaks, stop immediately and continue another day. This is why you need to have pads on your hands.
Warnings
- Don't over-do the training. You may hurt yourself irreparably.
- This may cause arthritis.
Related Articles
- Perform Strength Training for Gymnastics
- Build Functional Strength
- Build Size, Strength and Performance through Hybrid Training
