How can you harden yourself for martial arts?

Question

How can I toughen myself against attacks?

I train by myself and can't find anyone to train with.

I am wanting to toughen my body against blows, not how to learn counter.

Answer 1

the best defense is a good offense. your counterattacks are more important.

dont kick trees, or punch rocks..you will just hurt yourself and damage your legs, hands, and feet.

hit a heavy bag, or at least focus mitts or some kind of target that has some give to it instead...it will 'softly' condition your shins, fist, foot..etc in a natural way with no injury. later you can (if you feel the need) look into iron palm training as taught in many kung fu systems. or get a makiwara (striking post) used in karate styles and toughen yourself further.

as for your legs, and torso...if you have a partner, just have them hit you repeatedly lightly..and gradually over time increase pressure. this is how thai fighters train...when they strike one pad...their trained hits them with the other pad to toughen them.

do TONS of situps...and other exercises. but especially situps/crunches because a strong core is a strong person. your muscles are your armor..thats why thai fighters, kung fu and karate fighters pick their targets...ie..not muscles but joints, or weak areas such as the eyes, temple, groin...you cannot condition or toughen these areas.

if you have a heavy bag you can swing it and let it hit you in the stomache. or if you have a medicine ball you can lie down and toss it up and let it land on your belly. or if you have a partner, you can toss it back and forth...letting it hit you in the belly before catching it (will do wonders for your grip strength too)

likewise for the legs...do stances...yep deep kung fu and karate type stances...your legs will get much stronger. do lunges. have someone kick you lightly all over your legs. let the bag swing into your thighs. etc etc..just dont get in a hurry and hurt yourself. it takes time.

you can also purchase a video on sanchin or iron wire. sanchin is a kata practiced in karate (goju ryu, and uechi ryu) that is dynamic tension, which will make you stronger and able to resist strikes as well. but you need a partner for your "testing"...they will hit you in various parts of your body to make sure its firm.  iron wire is the same basic idea but without getting struck..it is taught mainly in hung gar kung fu

and sparring always helps.

if you go to wing lam kung fu website...he has 'iron body' master kits...you get a training video and a long thin canvas bag filled with beans or steel shot which you hit yourself with lightly, but repeatedly. ...which is why shaolin monks can get kicked practically anywhere and laugh at you.

they even go so far as to hang themselves to strengthen their necks. though i dont think id recommend it...especially alone.

some ideas...hope it helps

Answer 2

o easy in muay thai they kill the nerves of pain by causing trauma to that body part in which they wanna harden.

so for knuckles i punch a peice of stone which made them super hard.

then for kicks i actually spent time grinding an ekrima stick up and down my shins. then i spent time kicking bad now my legs are like a blade when i kick somebody

all you need to know is if u take some pain the less u take on later.

Answer 3

buy your self a punching bag some hand wraps and some gloves. you can practice all the punches and kicks there. kicking a hard sruface with you shin will help you block kicks with out hurting and be able to kick harder, because by kicking the hard surface with your shin, it will build up calcium and make it hard enough for you not the feel the same pain.

Answer 4

i'm going to go with different things for different skills.

Kicks.  ie roundhouse etc, your going to want to get a nice heave back to kick.  See if you can get one of the mushroom shaped ones, and hang it fairly low, this way you can use it to practice your kne's also.  

Make sure you practice in shorts, this way its the actual shin making contact so as the shin gets conditioned.  

As far as punches go i'm going to recommend either knckle push-ups or punching paper, something like a makiwara board.  (i still need to buy one of these actually) these are good for hardening the knuckles for straight punches.  

Practice your uppercuts on the mushroom shaped bag also.  perhaps have one high hook and one low hook for mounting the bag.  You'll wnant to try your hooks on this also.

This way your not only hardening yourself, your also practicing the techniques and training the muscles for these techniques.

However these only harden you for attacking.  not blocking.  well except in the shin cae since in muay thai you use your shins to block kicks.

Far as blocking is concerned your going to want to do some different things.

You'll be getting hit in a fair few places which your going to want to train.  First is the arms.  this would be the inside and outside of the elbows if yoru good.

you can practice elbow strikes on the mushroom back inside elbow strike, outward one, next qrm inward and outward.  This also helps train your obliques.

Torso your going to want to strengthen your midsection, first i'd recomend just doing situps.  make sure they're slow and controlled, you want to build up resistant muscle here not explosive.  After you get a stronger stomach buy a leather medicine ball.  Hold this above your head while lying down and then try to do a sit up, it'll be much harder.  As well as this while you go to sit up bring your arms over and slam the medicine ball into your stomach (ok not slam let it fall) this will train your stomach for impact as well as strengthening your triceps

So thats practical training for hardening your shins, knees, fists and elbows for strikes.  And training for taking blows to the shins, arms, and stomach.  

The only problem left now is the outside and inside of your leg, which is where the majority of thai fighters will be kicking.  All i can recommend here is either squats, or staying in horse / sumo stance for a LONG time.  this will build up resistant muscle on the top part of your leg so you'll hopefully not be as badly injurred from kicks.

Hope this advice helps somewhat.

Answer 5

You know professional Muay Thai fighters become homeless hobos at the age of 18+ right?

You know why? Because they harden the body by kicking  & punching trees all day, after all these years the stuff which repairs the bone and makes it stronger(don't know the word) is gone and you can say good bye to that body of yours.

Answer 6

well, first of all learn how to stretch very well, that is essential before anything else.

in taekwondo, which is the martial art that i practice, there is something called forging, where you repeatedly hit hard things. i found it useful to take an old phonebook and constantly wrap duct tape on it, it serves as a great thing to build up your hand muscles so that you will be able to strike things without a recoil.

for your instep of your foot, prop up the phone book on something as high as your waist (make sure that the phone book stays there and its not very movable) and keep hitting it, for your shins, you can manually hit your shins with something not extremely hard but hard enough, or do shin kicks against something medium-hard such as tightly wrapped leather or something.

to build up blows to body, practice exhaling quickly when being hit because that prevents getting the wind knocked out of you. also, you can take some loose cardboard prop it on your body and have someone strike it until you become stronger.

Answer 7

Actually, by training yourself for martial arts, you're getting healthier, boost up your confidence & relax your mind.

After all, martial art is not about offensive, it's more likely to defensive. If still you want to toughen your body, get some physical fitness training, grow some muscles, and do some yoga & mind training but yet you are still vulnerable. Train yourself for mind overcome the body.

Nothing is perfect, you just improving but nowhere to 100%.

Answer 8

Do you have a swimming pool?

Do lots and lots of belly flops, front and back.  I'M SERIOUS.

Belly flops will toughen the body for impacts, because water has all the give of concrete.  If you powerslam your entire body doing roughly 10 to 20 belly flops per day, both sides, your entire tissues will be toughened against blows.

One of the things the Shaolin do to harden their palms to break clay jars without injury, is repeatedly strike water.  After only 1 year of that, their palms become strong enough to break things, but amazingly enough, the skin of the palms do not lose their pliability or softness.  So, taking that Shaolin training method, do 10 belly flops a day, both sides, 6 days a week for about a year.

Remember though; drop from high enough in the sky, at terminal velocity, falling on water is fatal.  You actually have better odds of survival landing on a farm field, than you do on water, which, at terminal velocity is indeed as hard as concrete that is why therefore striking water at maximum palm striking speed, is akin to hitting concrete.

Be careful with the belly flops though; aside from the fact that not doing them in private will make you look silly to other people, the ignorant who won't understand what you're doing, if you do it from too high up, you risk serious injury so take it easy, don't do more than your body can handle.

The logic behind the belly flopping idea, to toughen the body, is the same as the water striking skill idea presented here, at 3:30 into the provided youtube vid.

If you have ever belly flopped before though.... you know, right off the bat, my suggestion is an exceedingly painful way to train.  But, the same logic used in it, is the one applied to develop palm force.  If striking water will toughen palms, then striking water with your entire body, should toughen your entire body.

Hope that helps.

Answer 9

I've heard that Muay Thai fighters repetitiously kick trees and punch rocks.

Thats a little harsh but I would reccomend taking a stick and hit your shins with it. Gradually, strike your shins harder and harder until you can't feel it. This will deaden the nerves in your shins and make the bone tougher so you can do leg kicks without injuring yourself.