Tell me about it! I think the thing with some of those exercises is to ease into them gently (e.g. by initially doing them from the knees) and realise that tendons take longer to recover than muscles, so allow for sufficient rest and recovery between sessions.
yeah, but tendon stretching is something that i'm not quite keen on trying, with the possible exception of my achilles, to see if i make any gains in dorsiflexion. as far as my hands go, for now i'd rather try strengthening my wrist extensors...
I apologize if I misunderstood, but I thought that this comparison was between the for e.g. shin bone and knuckles...
I think it depends on the goals. I'm not a fan of randomly stretching tendons either and obviously the flexibility requirements for gymnastics are different than for martial arts (and not necessarily better for long term health). If stretching is to combat tightness caused by every day activities and allow the joint to work in a natural full range of motion that's one thing, stretching to allow for abnormal flexibility (with the potential for long term joint stability problems) is another.
Knuckle press ups are great. They don't do any damage, they promote proper wrist alignment, they keep pressure off your wrists as you don't bend them as much, plus them isolating the triceps like fish said. If you're punching the ground, fine - they're bad for you. But if you do them properly they fantastic. I know this has all been said before, but I wanted to reiterate the point. If you're a healthy individual with no predisposition to knuckle problems and you hurt your knuckles/wrist through knuckle push ups you're doing them wrong. Plain and simple. In fact when I've had a sprained wrist, I've been able to do knuckle press ups much sooner in the healing process than normal ones.
I heard its better to do push ups on your knuckles because it takes the pressure off your wrists (I do knuckle pushups because I have carpal tunnel), also it conditions the knuckles. Alternatively you could use pushup bars if your knuckles are not strong enough or you could try on something soft like a gym mat and work your way up.
Although hand conditioning is very stupid, hapuka is right about everything else, there are alternatives to knuckle push-ups.
hand conditioning is not stupid. if you're getting hurt, it's not conditioning, and THEN it's stupid. /HEADDESK (<--not conditioning)
and your martial arts training is more productive than that? go fix the economy, then talk to me about productivity. and don't get me started on the fine arts besides, WHY is it a waste of time? i make my bones more resilient, therefore they are harder to break. i make my fists, specifically, a bit more resilient, because i regularly use them for impact in my martial arts training. therefore to me, it is useful. unlessyou're holding on to the idea that fist conditioning involves three hours a day of punching trees and gravel, in which case i will tie your nipples to your testicles
knuckle/wrist conditioning doesn't necessarily equal knuckle pushups. My first two knuckles are quite large and pointy. When I first started doing knuckle pushups I used to rock around on them and it hurt. Then I aligned my hand and wrist properly and all my problems went away. I'm not conditioning my knuckles by doing press ups any more than I'm conditioning my feet by standing on them. I'm teaching myself proper alignment and form. And it works - if I get my form wrong, my wrist buckles and I faceplant. In 7 years of constant training I think I've done that probably once? And my knuckles are still fine.
what, that fist conditioning leads to less chance of breaking your hands? (nevermind the fact that, as stated, knuckle pushups are not fist conditioning) fine, here's me doing bagwork with nothing but sports tape on my knuckles. no broken bones yet. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXj5yM1WSlQ"]new bagwork - YouTube[/ame]
No, prove to me that it's worth it (You touching up a punch bag doesn't prove anything). Breaking your hand from punching someone is because you hit them in the wrong place. Rather than doing that, you should be grappling
i didn't break my hands, therefore it was worth it. what do i have to do, punch someone in the face to prove it? besides, you still don't really get that at least in karate fist conditioning is, barring certain very high level people who pretty much do it for the lulz, nothing more than a side effect of training correct striking. until this point i don't even know WHAT you're saying isn't "worth it", since the thread is about knuckle pushups, which are not fist conditioning.
Breaking your hand by punching someone in the wrong place is rare (although it does happen). Usually the reason for breaking your hand is that you did not set it up properly (perhaps not the best translation)... The point is that no mater how hard (and where) you hit your opponent, if you aligned your hand properly there shouldn't be any severe damage... Knuckle push ups help my knuckles to become more resistant and helps me to align the hand properly... Why is that so hard to accept? PS: People who train Karate use Makiwara for similar reasons, although their target should be to develop striking skills while feeling some resistance... But they also tell me that it does wonders for hand alignment and knuckles...
