| Building stronger hands and fists is something almost | | | | - Finger Exercises - You probably don't want to to try |
| every martial artist wants to know the secret to. This | | | | Bruce Lee style two finger push ups just yet. But you |
| can be desired for board breaking or for delivering | | | | can put elastic bands around your fingers and then try |
| actual blows to an opponent. After all you aren't going | | | | to separate them repeating at a high number of reps. |
| to look very tough curling up in a ball and screaming like | | | | Knuckle Conditioning |
| a girl after punching an opponent on the cheek bone | | | | This is something that needs to be done carefully and |
| and hurting your own hand! But this should really be | | | | gradually over time. This can be done with knuckle |
| broken into two parts; hand strength and knuckle | | | | push-ups for conditioning knuckles and building wrist |
| conditioning. | | | | strength at the same time. Others of you will be |
| Building Hand Strength | | | | inspired by martial arts movies and rumors that |
| There are a large number of exercises that can be | | | | punching brick walls is the way to go or that breaking |
| done to build hand strength. Unfortunately with so | | | | your knuckle bones will make them grow back |
| many exercises for the rest of the body, the hands | | | | stronger. The hasn't been proven to be true. Using a |
| are often forgotten to be focused on as well. These | | | | Makiwara is a much better way to achieve this. A |
| exercises include: | | | | Makiwara is a board designed for punching to build |
| - Stretches - Even just stretching your hands all the | | | | conditioning. But it is purposely made to be flexible and |
| way out and then clenching your fist can be used to | | | | is normally covered in rope or other material to |
| build core hand strength any time of the day wherever | | | | prevent breakage. Or you can also just start by |
| you are. | | | | working the heavy bag with your bare fists, but be |
| - Hand Grips - There are hand grips that you can buy | | | | careful to build up your wrist muscles slowly or you will |
| to build strength by squeezing, but you can also easily | | | | end up breaking something! |
| use a tennis or stress ball. | | | | |