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  • Hardening Exercises

    Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

    I know that some of you have trained Iron Arm with Rolling Bamboo. Did anyone continue with the practice and how did you find the outcome? Does anyone else have experience with other hardening exercises?

    Training in the Shaolin Temple offered many external methods for monks that had not yet proven their worth. On the other hand, such teaching by masters enabled even less gifted, though necessarily dedicated, students to develop some formidable power via various means that had little internal training. Perhaps the most famous legacy of these external methods were different types of hardening exercises that often provided both defense and offense to the conditioned parts of the body. Classically the 72 Arts of Shaolin include Iron Head, Iron Shirt, Iron Arm, Iron Palm, Iron Fist, Iron Leg, Iron Knees, and Golden Cicada for groins. There were many variations for training similar results like Iron Bull for training the belly and Golden Tortoise for training the back.

    We have Golden Bell in our training catalogue which works inside out. This is a very powerful internal exercise that among health benefits produces an energy field to protect the body, leaving the only vulnerable parts at eyes and testicles. It also leaves the skin soft instead of conditioning it to be externally tough and hard for touch.

    Is there any need for any hardening exercises after acquiring the Golden Bell? Considering cost-effectiveness of how much time and dedication hardening exercises require, it would be almost silly to pursue them without a proper reason. Golden Cicada could of course benefit nearly every man as terrible accidents might happen, but I was wondering whether additional hardening would provide additional safety for demanding professions such as fire fighters who may get exposed to extreme hazards. The Iron Head, for example, might turn out to be a worthy extra life insurance.

    With sincere respect,
    Olli
    Last edited by understanding; 16 August 2017, 08:38 AM.

  • #2
    Just because I'm curious too, I'd like to ask a question as well.

    Wouldn't hardening training decrease the effectiveness of Golden Bell?For that matter, is hardening training even possible once Golden Bell is attained?

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    • #3
      Dear Alex Sisook,

      Nice questions!

      Dear Family,

      I would like to correct myself that the Golden Turtle should instead read Tortoise Back.

      With sincere respect,
      Olli

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      • #4
        Hey Olli,

        I don't think Iron Body skills were necessarily for unworthy monks. Iron Palm was a requirement for advanced students in Sitaigung Ho Fatt Nam's school. We are just lucky that Cosmos Palm was passed on to Sigung. I have some small experience in Iron Palm in the past, striking the bag is useful in many ways, including feeling what it is like to hit something, and refining that until you can hit it very efficiently. It is actually a very high level art! Water Buffalos are majestic creatures too after all.

        I learned my Iron palm method from Wing Chun kungfu, later I learned Sigung's version from his book but never pursued the training of it. It was actually called Soft Palm because while hitting the bag the whole hand and arm was used in a totally relaxed manner so as to train the sinking of the force down through the bag, in application it was like the crack of a whip. The testing method was to liquefy a watermelon without breaking it.

        That all being said, in the past I was also able to break a capstone brick with Iron palm, but the very hard and dense paver bricks at the Cosmos palm course were another beast entirely, I could not break one until I had had been taught and trained forceful big windmill during the course. This clearly demonstrated to me the difference in class between the methods.
        Shaolin Wahnam USA

        "Every morning you are born again. What you do today is the most important thing".

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