knuckle pushups

chh · Orange Belt

We moved to a new dojo a month or so ago, and had a nice raised wood training floor installed. Since the move I've noticed some slight stiffness developing in my hands, and suspect it's from doing knuckle pushups on the bare wood (our old dojo had carpet over concrete). I know from reading comments in other posts that several people here are not fans of knuckle pushups, I was hoping to get some more in depth opinions on this. We also do makiwara training for conditioning. I love my dojo and do want to harden & strengthen my body including hands & wrists, but then again I'm a programmer and do not want arthritis interfering with my early retirement plans.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

KickChick · Black Belt

Knuckle push-ups serve to strengthen the wrists for punching, building calluses, and teaching the body to overcome pain.
You may want to check these out http://www.dmartstores.com/irknucir2lbp.html
which might provide a little more padding for you.
"Back in the day" ... knuckle push ups were performed on gravel and concrete .... that wood floor doesn't sound so bad now does it?

ckdstudent · Green Belt

When you do knuckle pushups the knuckles 'spread' under the pressure on them, tiny microfractures open up and allow fluid in which solidifies, helping the joint to harden. Very good for punching, but a very bad idea for wanting to type a lot, especially if you do a lot of them. Doesn't affect everyone, but its not really worth the risk to be honest.

Whether the wood floor sounds bad or not, you're still causing injury. Pain is bad. Injury is bad. Avoid them.

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Pil Sung
Jimmy B

chh · Orange Belt

Just a trade-off, I guess. I want the added strength and hardened joints, but not the long term risk. It's not the pain while doing the pushups that bothers me, it's the fear of what my dexterity will be like 20 years from now. Thanks for your responses!

ad · Brown Belt

its ironic isnt it
knuckle press ups are supposted to be safer than the normal ones as medical officials say that the normal press ups damage your wrist, and so doing knuckle press ups instead is ideal
but in the end you find that knucle press ups do some damage as well

they are designed to toughen up your wrist and make your knuckles more redifined, if you really want to make sure your doing the properly, make sure you are using the first two knuckles only

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Green Belt Ho gar kuien Kung Fu
Green Belt Kickboxing
15 yr old
10 and half stone 5,9 height
eyyyyyyy, fair enough lads :wink:

[ This Message was edited by: ad on 2002-06-04 20:53 ]

Withers M.A.A. · Brown Belt

You must take extra caution when performing pushups on the fists. They will give you caloses on your hands which are good for toughening your hands but can cause problems in your knuckles. If you feel too much pain then just switch back to normal pushups. We do them on our fists then jump to our chickenwrists so you should be fine.

Pete

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2nd Degree black belt in Kenpo Karate and Tae Kwon Do. 1997 NASKA competitor-2nd place Nationally in Blackbelt American Forms. Firearms activist!

SaiFightsMS · KF VIP

You might also find it helpful to add hand exercises to your routine. Most can be done just sitting while watching tv. Open the hands and spread the fingers - then make a fist. Get a hand squeezer. Or try the bao ding iron balls I think they are really great.

Bon · Black Belt

haha, how bad is it ?!
I did knuckle pushups on a basketball court and my knuckles hurt for a week.. I, being a wannabe programmer can understand your concern, I'd probably stick to palm and do knuckle elsewhere if I still want to strengthen my wrist.

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It takes sacrifice to be the best.

There are always two choices, two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it's easy.

chh · Orange Belt

Chicken wrists, huh? That's where you curl your hands under and put your weight on the top of your wrist? Yeah, that's a bit beyond my capabilities right now, whenever Sensei starts doing those I get into the position, say "oh good god ow" and go back to knuckles.

It's not bad at all, but I've only been training for a year (and only a month on the wood). I don't think you can develop something like arthritis in that short a period of time, presumably the damage builds up over years and years. I think I'll probably do the young & stupid thing now, maybe when I hit thirty or something my common sense will kick back in.

I do have a hand squeezer thing, when it comes to long boring teleconferences it's the most useful desk toy I could own. I have a set of iron balls too (not so good on the phone).

shotochem · Pre-Black Belt

Hi All, I personally do not prefer to do Kunckle ups either. I can work with bruises and broken toes but I need my hands. What do you think about doing fingertip push ups? They are tough but they hurt me a lot less.

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Pain is only temporary, the memory of that pain lasts a lifetime.

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