Timeline for Can martial artists strengthen limbs, appendages, and other parts of their bodies to "super-human" degrees?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Jul 13, 2011 at 23:35 | comment | added | Erik Harris | "Strengthen" can also be vague. Nalgenegirl pointed to a Skeptoid episode that addressed muscular strength, but the drills you're talking about are mostly bone conditioning (some, like "Iron Dong" are, I'm guessing, desensitization and nerve-deadening). Bang on a bone and it calcifies and gets denser and harder, and thus "stronger." Studies on this would be hard to do, since it would basically require breaking the bones of study participants, which no IRB is likely to approve. | |
| Jul 12, 2011 at 11:20 | vote | accept | Beofett | ||
| Jul 9, 2011 at 12:29 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackSkeptic/status/89672459934113792 | ||
| Jul 9, 2011 at 12:09 | comment | added | fred | @Beofett - my wife doesn't call me "captain literal" for nothing. | |
| Jul 9, 2011 at 0:52 | answer | added | ChrisW | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 23:52 | history | edited | Beofett | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1112 characters in body
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| Jul 8, 2011 at 23:40 | comment | added | Beofett | @nalgenegirl the first link is something a bit different, and I think may already be covered in a different question on this site. The other two videos are more what I am talking about, thanks (I couldn't browse youtube earlier). This one is another good example: youtube.com/watch?v=4-vR_VfEriI | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 23:35 | comment | added | Beofett | @Fred that was why I put "super-human" in quotes, as obviously it is a bit of hyperbole. I thought "Can martial artists strengthen limbs, appendages, and other parts of their bodies to the point where they have a significant increase in durability and resilience over the limbs of athletes who train using more conventional methods?" would have been a bit too lengthy for the title. | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 21:04 | comment | added | nalgenegirl | I would recommend these as extra sources to your question: Iron Stomach: youtube.com/watch?v=OaHLpWzfXNA Iron body: youtube.com/watch?v=mOM3MsEDJvw&feature=relmfu | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 20:53 | comment | added | nalgenegirl | Is the kind of thing referenced in this skeptoid podcast: skeptoid.com/episodes/4255 kind of what you are looking for? That podcast is about "superhuman strength". The work of Vladimir Zatsiorsky (156 papers on pubmed) might help anyone doing research on this. | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 20:31 | comment | added | fred | I would think that any level a human could get to would not be 'super-human', but just 'human', by definition. Granted, it may be the extreme upper limit, but still within the realm of human. | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 15:18 | comment | added | Beofett | @Christian Nothing I have seen indicates that the skin for "iron skin" training is cut as part of the training process. However, would it be clearer if I dropped the part referring to "iron skin" and kept the scope of the question restricted to reputed limb durability and resilience (e.g. can a fist trained with this technique survive a higher-impact blow without broken bones than the fist of, say, a bare-knuckle boxer?)? | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 15:12 | comment | added | Christian | "Reputed strength"? vague. If I cut skin repeatedly scar tissue will develop. Scar tissue is significantly different then "normal" tissue. | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 15:07 | comment | added | Beofett | @Christian "Have their been any studies comparing the reputed strength and durability of limbs trained with these techniques versus the limbs of athletes employing more traditional training and conditioning practices?" and "Is the reputed resistance to piercing and cutting attributed to skin subject to this training significantly different than the properties of 'untrained skin'?" | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 15:06 | comment | added | Christian | As it stands this question seems to vague. What's your standard for "super-human"? | |
| Jul 8, 2011 at 14:26 | history | asked | Beofett | CC BY-SA 3.0 |