Conditioning the fingers

Hi, everyone!

I am back and ready to give you my latest blog post.

We are still on conditioning and this is the last part of the hands that I am going to discuss, namely the fingers.

Kung fu seems to take unarmed fighting really really far in that its techniques do not only include punching, striking, kicking and throwing, but also grabbing and tearing.

Techniques like Tiger Claw and Eagle Claw are known to rip chunks of flesh from an opponent. In less extreme cases a limb gets rendered useless due to the damage it does to muscles.

What Kung Fu and Karate have in common where fingers are concerned is that both these martial arts have in their arsenals techniques that involve striking or thrusting with the fingers.

This is just about the point where I sometimes think that these martial arts may be taking things too far. One would think that having fists, palms and elbows to strike with would be enough, but fingers...?

Nonetheless- the striking of vital points on the body with a part of the body smaller than the fist makes a lot of sense to students of Kyusho and Snake Fist Kung Fu. The fingers as they naturally are, however, do not make really good weapons, so a fair amount of conditioning is needed.

Here are some of the exercises that I have identified as excellent ways to strengthen the fingers:


1. Thrusting into sand




This is still a trusted and safe way to strengthen the fingers for strikes and thrusts. A bowl or bucket of dry sand is the only equipment you need. You can thrust your spear hand/ snake fist into the sand or just claw into it by digging the fingers into the sand with the eagle claw. After a year of doing this you are likely to be able to strike an opponent's solar plexus quite hard with the fingertips with a reasonable result. I know of people who could even bruise ribs with fingers conditioned with this exercise.


2. Catching a concrete/ cinder block:



I particularly love this exercise. Not only does it help you develop a really strong grip, but it also helps making your hand nimbler and trains the catch/ grab reflex that one uses in defense (blocking, trapping and immobilizing) and attacks (eagle claw grabs to targets like the throat).

3. Taming the Tiger

Honestly I do not do so well on this exercise. This is finger push-ups that are done on all 5 fingertips of each hand pushing into the ground in the Tiger Claw form. What I don't like about it is that the fingers, especially the thumb, tend to bend under your weight, causing you to press down with the flat parts of the finger joints instead of the fingertips. I personally prefer to lean against a wall supported by my fingers. It still puts a strain on the fingers, but does not bend the joints as badly.



4. The jar gripping exercise

In traditional Okinawan Karate as well as its predecessor Toudi we find the weight training tools known as mi-ichi or strength stones. In Shaolin we find ceramic jars with a similar shape. What both these training tools have is a shape that allows for one to pick them up by the top with the fingers. Once picked up the hands are then rotated by the wrist joint to swing the jars in circles.

While this exercise develops strong fingers as well as wrists I have found that the strengthened bones also make for a harder fist.


5. Sand bags

These bags need not be very big. In fact- I have only seen small ones like the ones in these photos below being used.



Striking these bags with the fingertips may not feel like a big deal at the beginning, but will start showing results after a year.



I have taken to hitting a normal heavy bag with a snake fist as seen in Shaolin Kung Fu and a Spear Hand like the one used in Shotokan's Heian Nidan and Heian Sandan.


Strong fingers are not a requirement in most of the modern martial arts styles that get taught these days. If you feel like developing this skill in any event- you really do not need to rush it. Or rather-
You SHOULD NOT rush it. Rather start out too lightly and gradually work your way up to harder training. The thing is- regular practice that is kept up over a long period of time will always give much better results than training that gets interrupted by fractures that need to recover.

With that having been said I wish you all a good week and good training!