I'm curious on how many of the people on this forum practice them. Obviously, I'm new here, so I don't know much about you bunch, for one. Normally when I go to a forum, I post everywhere explaining my point of view, but in this forum, I don't because all of what I know has already been said most of the time. It's nice to know that I don't have to be the guy that spams the website.
On topic: How many of you practice the iron skills? Which ones? Do you have a routine?
In the morning before school and before the sun rose, I walked to my apartment complex's pool where I would practice iron arm and iron leg on wood poles. Sometimes I would apply dit da jow, sometimes I didn't need to. It's very rare for me to bruise myself in this training: I know the risks, it slows down progress a lot if you get a bruise, even if it's a small one. I did that every weekday morning for a few months with definite results. I would show off in school by "accidentally" (everyone knew it was a joke) hitting my shins on desks as I walked by, knocking them out of the way. Daylight savings time ruined that - I didn't practice there during the day because I didn't want people to yell at me and kick me out.
More recently, I bought one of those... I don't even know what they're called... They're like metal fiber optics that you can use to hit yourself with. Some sort of conditioning flail. At first I trained iron leg because my shins weren't as resistant as they used to be. The older students and my master at the kung fu school I went to thought I was crazy because it made me look like I tripped on knives. After practice, my shins looked bloody and a few hairs were ripped out causing a tiny amount of blood. However, it was just redness. The look went away in two hours. I practiced by hitting my shins one hundred times per inch or so, the amount of space the flail took up when it hit. I don't remember exactly, but the amount of times I would hit my shin and foot was about 1000. I would spend more than an hour working on both legs. I think my total ever was 3000 for both legs. 1000 per shin, and 500 per foot. It seems extreme when you look at the numbers, but the fact is; the training almost never injured me. I wasn't lightly touching, but I definitely wasn't smashing my legs either.
Only about a week ago did I start up practicing again... I would spend about five minutes tops on a new routine I thought of. I would hit my forearms and legs as hard as I could, without causing injury of course, about two times per spot. Pretty drastic change, right? I think the old way was better, so I'll create a hybrid soon.
I trained iron head, but that didn't last long at all. A week tops.
I used to train my phoenix eye fist. I used to be able to put small dents into pine trees after about 5-10 hits. My callous has almost gone, but I think I'll bring it back. I never use the phoenix eye, but it seems to be fun for me.
I had my hand at iron palm (haha, get it?) which lasted quite some time. However, I had no reason to practice it, and my parents were mad at me after a while because of the annoying sound the bag makes when I hit it. I practiced 100 hits on each side of my hand... Palm, back, knife, ridge, fist, and wrist. Sometimes I would throw in fingers too. I still have my bag, which I filled with mung and soy beans, but it just sits there with no use.
I never trained iron throat, but because I used to be a show off kid (I still am, just less of one), I would punch my throat at school. I couldn't explain why I was able to do it without hurting myself, but I did. One guy asked if he could punch me once, but I told him no because I didn't trust him. I probably could have handled it, but I rather wouldn't risk it.
Wow, what a long post. I guess I get around