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Physical Conditioning

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In Wing Tsun (my school of Kung Fu), we are trained to be able to not exactly withstand pain, but to not be shocked by it. We do hit each other when we train, we don't stop at the last moment or just do it softly. We aim to do the moves correctly and with as much energy as we would in a real combat situation. Of course, we wear protection, in the way of a padded, wooden-backed chest guard, so that must of the damage is inflicted on the padding, but we still feel the force of being hit. The idea is, primarily, to do realistic training, and secondary to that, to not be afraid of being punched or kicked, to understand it is a risk in entering into a fight, but that it is manageable (supposng your attacker isn't a professional Strongman, built like a Brickhouse).

We do other things too, for example, when deflecting the direction of a punch, we use our forearms, which invariably end up pretty sore and somewhat bruised by the end of the evening. We also do a bit of explicit physical conditioning against pain, where one person hugs their arms to their chest, and the other person aims to punch the muscle on the arms (deliberatly avoiding the much more painful bone), so as to provide conditioning against the pain itself.

What I worry, is that this all too easily turns from 'accepting the pain as it happens', to just ignoring pain outright, treating this emotion as just a thing that doesn't effect you, and in turn, damaging your emotional capacity. I remember Nathaniel Branden, in 'The Psychology of Self-Esteem', in talking about compartmentalisation, I think it was, mentioned a Bouncer who went through pain-conditioning. He was saying the result was, yes, punches and kicks just did not phase this guy, did not hurt him, but in turn his sex drive just became inactive. Apparently, due to compartmentalisation only working on a relatively short-term basis, this 'emotions aren't important' attitude in regards to the stimulus of a punch, had carried over into his appraisal of pretty much anything shocking - pleasureable or painful.

I worry that if I continue this conditioning, which is an important part of training, it will do great damage to me in the long run, in other parts of my life. Let me stress, that we do not learn to walk on hot coals or broken glass (which incidentally, are just tricks anyway, but you get what I mean). Our Si-Fu isn't hell bent on making us stand up and get kicked in the groin for 2 hours every lesson. But his attitude is that you must learn to overcome pain. My worry is that in 'over-coming' pain, one is really just repressing the emotion.

Does anyone have any comments, maybe on repression in general and how it might relate to this, or their experiences with pain-conditioning, or their explicit understanding of this issue? It would be most appreciated, thank you.

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You're right as to the point being to withstand what you fear rather than discard the fear and embrace pain being the point of the training. Didn't you ever see Batman Begins :D I'll make two comments regarding this:

1. You should train like this to stretch and know your limits. An Austrian alpine climber, Herman Buhl, carries snowballs in his hands to develop his tolerance (psychological) and increase capillarization (physical). He climbs locally in Austria all winter long, even in storm conditions, and rides his bike for hundreds of kilometers on the way to the mountains for training. It paid off, of course,when he climbed alone to the summit of Nanga Parbat a few years ago. Nobody else had ever done that as they thought it suicide but he knew he could do it because he simulated the conditions and knew he could endure them. You too are simulating conditions to know your limits. You know you can take a punch from SpaceChimp007- athletic, but by no means a strongman or bodybuilder- and come back and strike me which would likely result in a KO :(

I'm into climbing and I know what I can handle on a rock because I train to stretch and, equally important, know my limits. If I have to do something or feel something I have never done or felt before on a rock, I know I am taking a bad risk because I have never experienced anything like this before and as such, have no idea whether I can handle it. Better to test your limits in a climbing gym with padding and help than isolated high on a rock somewhere. So too goes for fighting. If you don't push yourself in training with protection where you set the limits, you'll be more likely to wind up beaten in a fight because you will have not stretched your limits and more (presumably) "bad guys" will fall on the untested side of your limits where you have never experienced the pain they will inflict and as a result, you (should) back down from more "bad guys" than you would have had you stretched and knew your limits.

2. In regards to Branden's compartmentalisation, it has not applied to anyone I have ever known- albeit few- or have heard of who has trained hard. I suspect there might be a few more variables at work in the bouncer's case rather than just did he or did he not take pain-conditioning. Perhaps he underwent an excessive amount which attributed to a dimished or non-existent sex drive- I don't know. What I can say is that by undergoing physical training and enduring pain and pushing through it, you will increase your testosterone which will actually increase your sex drive.

Just my .02c though. . . . If you no longer find Heidi Klum hot or don't notice you cut your finger until you discover a blood trail from the counter to the kitchen table, I'd scale it back. Until then, man up!

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In the context of fighting, I would guess that the most important thing isnt to learn how to overcome the pain of being hit (since your body is likely to do that automatically in a fight situation due to the increased adrenalin) - its more to condition yourself to avoid going into shock when you get punched in the face. People who arent used to contact fighting will sometimes just freeze up as soon as a punch gets landed on them, even if it isnt really 'painful'. This is why martial arts which arent based around full-contact fighting where you actually have a good chance of being hit hard are probably less useful when it comes to real-world situations.

The real pain in sports fighting comes just as much from forcing your body to keep going when youre exhausted after intense training and it feels like your muscles are going to explode, as it does from trying to deal with a few kicks in the leg. And I doubt this sort of conditioning is much different from the kind that marathon runners or 400m sprinters do.

What I worry, is that this all too easily turns from 'accepting the pain as it happens', to just ignoring pain outright, treating this emotion as just a thing that doesn't effect you, and in turn, damaging your emotional capacity. I remember Nathaniel Branden, in 'The Psychology of Self-Esteem', in talking about compartmentalisation,(...)
Dont be misled by the fact we use the same word to describe 'physical pain' and 'mental/emotional pain' - the two are very different. Edited by eriatarka
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Thanks for the comments. I think what you're both describing is exactly the goal of this conditioning.

I think, as you both say, I'm confusing emotions with sensations. I was thinking on this issue some more and I remembered something else Dr Branden was saying: that repression and temporary avoidance are not the same thing. That is, if you need to concentrate on a specific goal, and something else important comes to mind, it isn't repression to say 'I'll deal with that later', so long as when later comes, when that memory of what you need to do comes again, you do deal with it.

So, essentially, with this pain thing, I think this conditioning is more 'putting it off' than ignoring it. It's like saying, 'Agh! Ok, I know I've been hit, but I don't have time to focus on that. I know I have a hard-wired standing order for self-preservation, which results in shock, but it's wrong in this context, and I need to overcome it'.

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