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First of all, let me say, I'm a knuckle pushup fanatic. In fact I'm doing them now between sentences. In a real fight situation, you'll more than likely not have sparring gloves readily accessible, so if you foresee a real confrontation in your future, you should toughen the knuckles. There are two components of knuckle conditioning: the bone, and the skin. Both are equally important. Think of covering a battering ram with paper and crashing through some doors. Needles to say, the paper isn't going to last very long. The same goes for strong skin and weak bones. The latter isn't too realistic as the best skin conditioning method, knuckle pushups, also strengthen the bone to a degree. However, if you're hitting the makiwara or some other hard surface, knuckle pushups primarily work the skin.
When I started MA, I lived in a hectic home environment. WHenever I'd get frustrated, I'd hit a brick wall as hard as I could. Maybe it was the adrenaline, the anger, or perhaps it was that my body was too used to pain, but it never hurt. Within a week--one WEEK!--the two top knuckles on each fist (mostly the right as I'd usually hit with this one) got HUGE, and haven't gotten smaller since. I continue to hit hard solid objects full blast and do hundreds of knuckle pushups (I did, haven't the past six months, starting up again as of yesterday) I love the way my knuckles look. Now I've begun conditioning the last three knuckles. I hit with the top two, but why not train them all? Besides, there is one angle at which I would use the other three to strike.

For all those who think that knuckle conditioning is harmful, well, I don't know one way or another, but as for me, my hands are no different from before I started conditioning them. There isn't as of yet scientific backup discouraging the practice, yet there are clear benefits, so I say, do it!

So that's my speech for the day.

G2g, knuckle pushups to do!

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