Push-ups on your fingertips?

Can they
damage you?

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1. 03-06-2001, 02:40 PM #1

John Wesley
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Push-ups on your fingertips? Can they damage you?

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Hello
the other day I was taking a KravMaga lesson and the instructor wanted us to
make push-ups on the fingertips. Since I have very thin fingers(thin bones) I'm
afraid to damage my fingers. Or is it just an issue of training the finger muscles?
Any info appreciated!

Thanks...

John

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2. 03-06-2001, 05:21 PM #2

PROTECTOR
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The trick to fingertip pushups is to start from the down position. Get you fingers
set and your weight equally distributed. Lift yourself very slowly (which makes
for a better pushup anyway) and see if any fingers feel overstressed. If so, readjust
until comfortable. As a last resort, you can put a tennis ball under each palm for
extra support unitl your fingers are strong enough.
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3. 03-06-2001, 07:13 PM #3

James Y
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Also, in general one should not allow the fingers (except perhaps the thumb) to
become bent back during pushups; though should be supported on the tips, not the
pads, like a claw.
According to some teachers of Chinese systems, the fingertips should not be
trained at all, as in CHinese medicine over-stimulation of the fingertips can affect
one's eyesight. I did fingertip pushups for years without problem, but a person I
knew tried to do iron palm by himself incorrectly by striking a wooden stool with
his fingertips. Not only did he develop shaky hands, his eyesight began to go; he
started seeing blurry and double. He was only about 20 years old at the time.
Jim
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4. 03-07-2001, 07:11 AM #4

Gigante
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How do you know there's a connection between his iron palms and his blurry
eyesight? I doubt it.
Anyway, pushups on the fingertips... there ought to be a better way to train your
finger strength... sounds so.. constructed... like ok we're doing pushups.. hey why
not train the fingers at the same time... great.. and let's do splits too.. and train the
neck muscles by moving the head up and down...
-----------------Balisong Sweden

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5. 03-07-2001, 01:56 PM #5

Gigante
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What about maybe leaning against a wall or pillar, like doing fingertip pushups,
but standing up ?
It would mean less stress on the joints, yes?
And maybe better for the finger muscles?
-----------------Balisong Sweden
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6. 03-07-2001, 03:44 PM #6

jestre7
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My problem with finger pushups is, what the heck are they FOR? Pretty weak as a
finger exercise - basically an isometric exercise at an angle you'd never need in
reality.
As a "tough" thing, OK. But I'd rather stick spar - you learn more. And they're
possibly damaging. I'd feel pretty dumb wrecking my guitar playin', keyboard an'
wife touchin' fingers over such dubious activity...
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7. 03-07-2001, 04:21 PM #7

thekuntawman
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my grandfather did hit things with his fingertips, but it was more for
entertainment when he could hit things, like put a hole in a apple. he did not
believe in fingertip techniques unless you are digging into eyes slowly. we
practice this by hitting things with the fingers, but he also belive that if you did it
too much your eyes go bad. so its more than just the chinese who think that way.
my granfather has perfect vision, i dont.
but for puchups, i think its only bad if you let your fingers bend backwards while
you exercise. it is better to bend the fingers like you are grabbing the ground. this
exercises your hand.
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8. 03-07-2001, 11:31 PM #8

judge
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Posts
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Get a Szaball or any of the training balls or devices rockclimbers use for
finger/lower arm strength development. BTW, I hate fingertip push-ups.
-----------------"Peace is not without conflict; it is the ability to cope with conflict" - Leo Giron
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9. 03-08-2001, 12:39 PM #9

rinpoche
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The important thing that most people miss with iron palm training is the massage
element. After training iron palm techniques you need to massage your hands with
Jow for at leat 1/3 the time of your actual training. Practice iron palm for 1/2 hour
= massage hands with jow for 10 minutes. This is important to maintain joing
flexibility , break up blood clots, and prevent joint calcification.
Strengthening the fingertips is mainly done to help spearhand techniques. The
masters who have been doing this for years can pierce a side of beef up to their
wrist. You can draw the correspondance with the human body. I know of a sifu
who can put a golf ball in the bottom of a vase, fill the vase with sand and stretch
leather over the top and fasten. He can shove his hand through the leather and
sand and grab the golf ball from the bottom.
As to fingertip pushups, I hate them. You can do them on the pads without
bending the fingers - this owuld be the best way. I try to avoid damaging my
hands at all costs.
I practiced tiger claw iron palm for a while and am meaning to get back to it. I can
tell you that while I was doing it I had to really pull back while sparring because I
was beating the hell out of my partners due to not knowing my own strength.
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10. 03-08-2001, 05:44 PM #10

Bobbit
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Rinpoche, Through a side of beef??? Great mythology!!! I agree with not
allowing your fingers to bend backward, very damaging. The tennis ball trick is
the best way to start.
[This message has been edited by Bobbit (edited 03-08-2001).]
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11. 03-25-2001, 09:12 AM #11

Timber
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I don't know about finger push-ups, as finger strength has not seemed so
important to me in stick fighting. Knuckle strength seemed far more relevant. For
that I hop on my knuckles; body prone, s in a push-up, weight on the balls of your
feet and the bottom two knuckles, wrists straight, elbows tight to the body, a sharp
thrust upward with the arms, feet pushing forward, hands jumping forward, feet
catching up. The body never rises more than four to six inches.
This is a category in the Inuit Olympics. Competitors race around the perimetr of
a basketball court at fairly good speeds, with bare knuckles. The explanation I
heard was that it is useful for hunting on the ice sheets, where you do not wish to
show against the horizon. Polar bears crawl and push a block of ice, or snow,
ahead of them so as to hide their nose, which shows black against the perpetual
white of the endless ice flows.

It has seemed to help me keep my sticks when struck in the knuckles, it may just
develop some tolerance for pain, I don't know.
Climbing trees, ropes and swinging axes makes for stronger fingers and a good
grip.
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12. 03-25-2001, 12:31 PM #12

Leo Daher
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The masters who have been doing this for years can pierce a side of beef up
to their wrist. You can draw the correspondance with the human body.
Yeah, right...
FWIW, I used to do lots of fingertip pushups, including thumbs only, back in my
Shotokan days. Many years later, I started feeling this annoying pain in my thumb
joints (nothing major, but still bothersome). I'm pretty shure it's related.
I won't do it anymore, and, if I could go back, I wouldn't have done it.
The Szaballs, OTOH, are great - just wish they'd last longer.
Leo
------------------

"Though the meek shall inherit the Earth, they won't keep it past Saturday
night..."