Shaolin Kung Fu conditioning.
Toughening Your Hands, Fists, Forearms

Sand Pan Method

This is a traditional Shao Lin method with which it is possible to develop the so-called Shao Lin iron palm (Tie Sha Zhang). Since this method is very unpleasant and destroys the nerves of the hands, it is not popular with modern exponents.
Sand is placed in a large, moderately deep, broad-rimmed iron frying pan and warmed over a fire. The pan is then set firmly on a solid base. The trainee who chooses to use this method does so on a daily basis for a period of from three to four months. Perform the exercise as follows:

Stone-Block Method

Another of the traditional Shao Lin toughening methods used to train the hands, fists and forearms makes use of a solid cylindrical block of granite or of some equally hard stone. This method is more popular with modern exponents of Shao Lin than the method just described; it is far less unpleasant than the pan method. The stone-block method, however, is a more gradual one and it must be carried out for a long period of time, possibly several years.

The stone used in this method must be securely set a top some suitable base. Toughen yourself as follows each time your train:

Sandbag Method

Perhaps the most popular and most appropriate of Shao Lin toughening methods centres on the use of the sandbag. The hands, fists, forearms, elbows, and other parts of the body are quickly made durable by the use of the sandbag. The most important use of the sandbag in connection with this kind of Shao Lin training is that which leads to the development of the Shao Lin iron palm (Tie Sha Zhang). Hands and fists that have been trained in this manner become amazingly durable without a deadening of the nerves of the hands.
All sandbag training should follow several stages. In the first three of these stages you should assume a level-horse stance (Phing Ma) for the hand-hardening actions and a triangle-horse stance (Shan Jiao Ma) for those of the fist, forearm, and elbow. Use the sandbag toughening exercises at every training session, performing them in the following manner:
Stage 1 (first month)
Slap, punch, or strike a ten-inch sandbag that has been filled with ordinary fine-grained sand. Do this 500 times slowly and lightly with each hand or arm. Apply medicine after each session.
Stage 2 (second month)
Proceed exactly as you did in Stage 1, but use a fourteen-inch sandbag that has been filled with coarse-grained sand.
Stage 3 (third month)
Proceed as you did in Stages 1 and 2, but use a Sixteen-inch sandbag that has been filled with glass marbles.
Stage 4 (fourth month)
sit on the ground before a large, smooth-surfaced marble or granite slab and slap, punch, or strike it with various parts of your anatomy (hands, fists, forearms, elbows) 500 times. Immediately after training, apply medicine to the body parts toughened in this manner.

Toughening Your Feet, Knees, Legs

Shinbones and Insteps

Exponents of Shao Lin concentrate on improving the durability of their legs so as to be able to absorb any shock directed against the shinbones and insteps, the simplest of the Shao Lin leg-toughening methods involves the use of a cylindrical piece of rotten cane about one-half inch in diameter. Tap this cane along your shinbone, form just below the knee to the ankle for ten to fifteen minutes during each training session. Apply medicine to the exposed parts on both legs immediately after such training.
As your legs toughen and you grow able to withstand the force of such light blows without experiencing any pain, increase the force of the taps until you can take a hard blow. This achieved, substitute a flat piece of wood about one or two inches square for the cane, and proceed as before until both shinbones become numb each time you use this method. Continue using the piece of wood at each training session for four months. After that you should impact your shinbone against a heavy sandbag.
Concurrent with training to toughen your shinbones, it is also necessary to toughen your insteps. Using a frontal snap-kick action, strike the underside of a sandbag with your insteps, or use a roundhouse kick to strike the side of the bag with your insteps. Kick at least 100 times with each leg during every training session. The size of the sandbag used and the nature of its filling material should be varied in accordance with the three stages used in developing the hands and fists by the sandbag method.
A wooden post that has been firmly set in the ground and wrapped with burlap or straw to provide a padded target is a good substitute for a sandbag. A fully trained exponent of Shao Lin is able to impact his insteps against an iron post that has been erected and padded in this fashion. When training to toughen the outer edges and the heels of your feet, impact these parts against a one-inch-thick wooden plank that has been set tightly up against solid wall.
It is also necessary to develop and maintain the flexibility of your ankle joints as you toughen your feet. Do this through flexion exercises. Stand on one leg and raise the other leg, keeping it straight, until the toes are just off the ground. Point your toes downward. Flex the ankle so that you can point your toes up and back toward your shinbone; then point them down once again. Make clockwise and counter clockwise circles with your toes. Make ten flexing and ten circling actions with each foot.
Do this every time you complete impact training for your insteps, and follow up with the application of medicine to the affected parts of your body.

Knees

The sandbag provides the best source of resistance when you train your knees to increase their durability and general toughness. Use the sandbag in exactly the same manner as you do when training your hands and fists. Never omit the use of medicine after training your knees.

Hardening Your Anatomical Weapons

It is traditional for each Shao Lin exponent to devote a considerable portion of his training time to the use of special exercises that are designed to harden and make exceedingly durable certain portions of this anatomy.
No matter what the exponent’s degree of skill with technique, if he is to effectively apply his art in self-defence situations, he often will have to rely on the natural parts of his body as substitutes for weapons. This is especially the cast when his assailant is also well trained in some art of combat.
A fully trained Shao Lin exponent is capable of generating tremendous force when his fist, open hand, forearm, elbow, knee, or foot strikes a target. In order to protect himself from possible injury while practicing such strikes, the exponent must toughen his anatomical weapons.
When the target is some vital part of an assailant’s body, the Shao Lin exponent can easily inflict extensive damage on the assailant, even to the point of completely breaking the large bones of the latter’s arms or legs with a single blow. Such drastic measures, however, are reluctantly taken by a Shao Lin exponent only if he fails to subdue an assailant by some less injurious means.
All the special exercises that are designed to toughen one’s anatomical weapons must be used in compliance with a qualified instruction’s advice; incorrectly applied, these methods can seriously cripple the exponent. After undergoing training to toughen his anatomical weapons, the trainee must also apply certain medicines to those areas.
In addition, he may drink herbal teas. The medicines and teas offset the chances that there will be injurious effects from hard training, but such medicines and teas are compounded from secret formulae known only to qualified Shao Lin instructions. Thus, trainees are not advised to undertake any Shao Lin hardening methods without the guidance of an instructor.