Any Info on James Lee's Iron Palm Conditioning?

[It is Fake]

See to me there is more to iron palm. It is funny because, the mysticism makes it out to be dumb.

I laugh because take away the legends and the rest of the conditioning of Iron Body is just like boxing and MT. You hit certain parts off your shin (ala MT) to desensitize and make your shins tougher.

Same with hitting the heavy bag repeatedly in Boxing. You just do the same thing with forearms. It was just like the medicine ball training that boxers did and do when doing sit ups. Nothing mystical just conditioning.

Granted you graduate from hitting softer to harder targets. Whether that is good or bad as you age is another debate.

IP is supposed to be the same thing with the palm. If taught correctly it is supposed to help with the structure of your strikes. Yes I said structure. Just like boxers and MT fighters learn proper structure to deliver kicks and punches.

Kung fu gets a bad rap because we run around saying things like "look at the boxers structure it is off," or "Poor structure leads to less power in kicks," which is true. The problem lies in the application. It's easy to have proper "structure" standing still or hitting air.

I did it with no bad effects so far. Can I prove it helped the density of bone structure as some people claim? Nope.

When all the principles are involved did I hit harder ? Yes. Then again I can also sit on the other side and say, I wasn't taught the structure before IP and it isn't about the conditioning at all.

Who knows it was an extra work out and I saw benefits.

[M1K3]

IIF, good post, thanks.

[Frank White]

Good. I kind of agree. Science wins again. But historically in traditional Chinese martial arts, what was the conventional opinion on the role of sex when training and its relation to external and internal arts? Did they have no opinion? Perhaps they thought sex was not relevant and did not matter?

Complete abstinence leads to nocturnal emmisions, and one 'wet dream' is equivalent to the loss of energy (chi) of 100 emissions during normal sexual intercourse. So to the guy who abstained from sex for several years, "oops".

Sex is great. Too much sex is not. Not enough is unthinkable.

Sex is considered very relevant to internal martial arts, as semen retention is considered a source of energy. Of course, too much of anything is generally not a good thing. And for you jazz musicians, always remember, no sax before a fight. (sorry, had to do it.)

[Jack Rusher]

There are multiple studies proving sex before the big game, match, war, adventure etc is not detrimental.

... except when it keeps one awake all night, thus preventing one from getting any sleep the night before a big match. :icon_joke

Anyway, back on topic: I conditioned my forearms and shins with (a) heavy bag, (b) smaller sand bags, (c) a piece of bamboo (lightly tapping along the length). My fists and palms were conditioned on the heavy bag. All areas treated with jow after training. Seemed to work, but I can't know whether the jow actually helped (a single N=1 trial), whether the small sand bags or bamboo made any difference beyond what I got from heavy bags and heavy sparring, and so on. I can say that the overall process toughened and bruise-proofed the aforementioned areas without causing me any joint problems, but that most of it wore off during a lengthy hiatus (as evidenced by the bruises on my shins from recent MMA sparring).

[EmetShamash]

I think you are supposed to do like 100 days of mung beans, then 100 days on sand, then 100 days on padded rock or cement or something, and then if you want to be a super badass you can move up to 100 days of metal. I am not sure if that is the complete for sure way, but from what I have heard you are supposed to do it every day for those 100 day periods or you need to start over that 100 day period. Using Dit da jow or whatever after every session.

The biggest thing I wanted to point out is that this is a slow progression that eventually leads to not doing any more iron palm training. After you have the supreme glorious iron palms of legendary masters they don't go away. It makes sense to me, I have no proof but I always heard that when you break a bone it grows back stronger and that IP works along the same lines.

[Mor Sao]

I think you are supposed to do like 100 days of mung beans, then 100 days on sand, then 100 days on padded rock or cement or something, and then if you want to be a super badass you can move up to 100 days of metal. I am not sure if that is the complete for sure way, but from what I have heard you are supposed to do it every day for those 100 day periods or you need to start over that 100 day period. Using Dit da jow or whatever after every session.

The biggest thing I wanted to point out is that this is a slow progression that eventually leads to not doing any more iron palm training. After you have the supreme glorious iron palms of legendary masters they don't go away. It makes sense to me, I have no proof but I always heard that when you break a bone it grows back stronger and that IP works along the same lines.

You never want to break any bones as that makes the structure weaker as you have damaged it. Its a total myth the bones come back from such an injury stronger. You want to slowly condition the hands to be able to take more and more impact as your training progresses.

Some IP programs start you off on a metal shot bag from day one. Others see you doing the progressive method with beans, gravel and then metal shot as the advanced bag.

Good to be back guys.

Be well, Train hard, be safe.

Dale Dugas