How to Choose an Internal Iron Palm Liniment

When looking for our Iron Palm Jow I tried numerous Iron Palm formula’s to find the one that we are recommending on or Internal Iron Palm DVD.

There are jows that are designed to protect and coat the hand and completely seal off the lao gong and finger points.

This kind of jow is not good for internal work because sensitivity is negated in the practitioner.

There are also jows that are designed to make the chi go to the hand and then express which helps create great ability to transmit energy but does not protect the hand or internally build the hand because almost all of the energy gets expressed. You had better have a lot of great Chi building exercises and be practicing them every day to use this kind of jow or the eventual depletion of chi will most certainly make you sick. My study on a lot of masters who have used this kind of jow is that although they are quite powerful they tend to die very young.

Now for the jow we have chosen to use. It helps the lao gong and finger points to open so that you can feel and express to and through an object / person while at the same time allowing the practitioner to keep a nice residual amount of Chi in the hand.  It does not overly draw energy from the body meaning that the as long as the Internal Iron Palm is being practiced correctly the practitioners health is not at risk. Also, this jow does a very nice job of covering and protecting the hand making it easy to correctly break with no side affects or harm to the practitioner.

Regards.
Sifu

Comments

  1. Dan Eidson, DCH, LMT says

    What are the risk factors to health for practitioners incorporating Internal Iron Palm into their daily routines?
    If you are taking some type of blood thinners would practicing Internal Iron Palm be of a concern?
    The old masters waited years for their students to become emotionally secure enough before teaching them any type of Iron Palm. On the other hand I suspect assassins did not have to much of a problem getting their hands on the knowledge of using Iron Palm in the dark arts. What would an individual use Internal Iron Palm for in the 21st century? Can it be used with regard to any type of healing techniques?
    Do you need to use Jow when practicing One Touch and One Hit Knockout techniques?
    Why would you need to use jow if you already have enough chi flowing through your body to perform an internal strike?
    Does the energy flow out of the practitioner’s body for healing and jolt out of the pracitioners body for destroying, risking harm to the pracitioner himself?
    Apparently I am full of questions today because this type of martial art practice is a fascinating subject that wields much power to the humans learning it, with err on the side of caution for an occasional student who wants to learn it for all the wrong reasons. My view is that it best be taught under direct scrutiny between teacher and student.
    Amitoufo….

    • Sigung Clear says

      What are the risk factors to health for practitioners incorporating Internal Iron Palm into their daily routines?

      Very little to None.

      If you are taking some type of blood thinners would practicing Internal Iron Palm be of a concern?

      I would not be hitting much if the blood is thin but most of the “internal” iron palm practices can still be practiced. We do use our own body a bit in the beginning of this method but we do not hit our own body in the other parts of this method which can still be practiced by almost anyone with no ill effects.

      The old masters waited years for their students to become emotionally secure enough before teaching them any type of Iron Palm. On the other hand I suspect assassins did not have to much of a problem getting their hands on the knowledge of using Iron Palm in the dark arts. What would an individual use Internal Iron Palm for in the 21st century?

      In todays world bad characters who just wants to harm their fellow man can easily obtain a gun or at least a baseball bat etc and I have found that the time required to train is to much discipline for these types so I am not overly worried about misuse.

      Self Defense in todays world of steroids, weapons and gangs / high crime etc where the physically young and strong prey on the old and weak calls for most adults to have some self defense skills. Iron Palm is a good tool in the self defense arsenal and instead of carrying mace or some other tool iron palm is with you all of the time as part of you so you are never left undefended.

      Can it be used with regard to any type of healing techniques?

      Internal Iron Palm also has the benefit of developing and focusing energy in a way that makes it so that when you learn healing you are already developing the energy points such as the Lao Gong that are a crucial part of energy healing practice.

      Do you need to use Jow when practicing One Touch and One Hit Knockout techniques?

      No.

      Why would you need to use jow if you already have enough chi flowing through your body to perform an internal strike?

      Even for those with excellent Chi development Jow can be beneficial and certainly should be used to help protect the hand whenever you are breaking materials such as boards and bricks. However, jow is not “required” for a lot of the internal training.

      Does the energy flow out of the practitioner’s body for healing and jolt out of the pracitioners body for destroying, risking harm to the pracitioner himself?

      That depends greatly on the method you are using and what you are doing with it. I only strike and break to test my ability NOT to train my ability so I break much less than I train.

      I believe that if you are constantly breaking and pushing to do more and more difficult breaks without the training required to make the breaking easy then you are most likely harming yourself.

      I allowed participants in our training to break materials the day after they learned and practiced the training method. Yes, they developed ability literally in 1 day! This method is very powerful. If you watch our video you will see that the participants # 1 comment on the breaks they did was that it was effortless and their hand did not hurt or get negatively affected at all. This should always be the case even when breaking a stack of bricks.

      If you can not break without receiving harm then it is not correct and you are not ready to break that many / much. Practice more and then break what you have trained up to.

      Apparently I am full of questions today because this type of martial art practice is a fascinating subject that wields much power to the humans learning it, with err on the side of caution for an occasional student who wants to learn it for all the wrong reasons. My view is that it best be taught under direct scrutiny between teacher and student.

      This video is the beginning level. In the Combat Tai Chi program we have more advanced palm and energy methods that build on what is shown in this video and then there will be more advanced videos on Steel Wrapped In Cotton, Fa Jing, Vibrating Palm and Cotton Palm.

      We have been holding and will continue holding the live workshops so that folks can come out and do some live training and ask questions and get live hands on answers. I am also available for private lessons (by appointment scheduled well in advance only). So, we do have a lot of opportunity available for correction and questions.

      I highly recommend that folks take advantage of this at their earliest convenience.

      Amitoufo….

      Best Regards.
      Sifu

  2. Dan Eidson, DCH, LMT says

    Thank you Sifu for answering my rather lengthy questionare with regard to Internal Iron Palm.
    (BOWING)

  3. Sigung Clear says

    You are most welcome. Thank you for the excellent questions and input. I look forward to working with you on the material.
    Best Regards.
    Sifu

  4. I was introduced to Iron Palm training over 20 yrs. ago. Training has included various Internal & External methods including a very rare internal style quite similar to Sifu Clears style.

    During this training I have never used liniments of any type.
    I do not suffer from any ailments or deformities( my wife will argue a mental aspect of this point).

    There have been numerous tests and various jow’s have been sent to labs for analysis. The results have all shown that there is no advantage to using these “Secret Formulas”

    I am not here to discourage the use of or block the sale/use of these products. I am seeking feedback that can prove the need for such products during training.
    Are the liniments preventative/curatives or placebo’s ?
    It is my belief the use of liniment is more tradition than need.

    • Hi Derick,
      Do have a link or more info to any of these tests? They sound interesting. I’d be curious to know what kind of jows they were testing, which properties of the jow they were trying to test and how they went about it.

      Some jow’s are preventative/curatives some are designed for other purposes, and of course the quality will vary from one to the next.

      I personally have used three different types of jow and each one had very different and distinctive effects on both the hands and the energy.

      • I will have to look for the contact info, it has been awhile since they were published.
        I have had 2 teachers tell me the Jows did nothing to heal the hands or incease the energy- so it is a topic for much discussion for the IP practitioner

        • Richard Clear says

          Hi Everyone,
          For most of the training on our Iron Palm video a jow/linament is not required. However, there is at least one method on there that I do not recommend practicing without jow unless you do just a “very” little bit at a time. I have done some heavy breaking with and without jow and can say with certainty that my hands sincerely appreciate and thank me for using protective jow/linament.

          Also, I have found that some jows/linaments do an excellent job of protecting/mending the hands and others simply cause more energy to be drawn to the hands and open the lao gong point causing energy to be expressed and there are other reactions depending on the type of jow / linament.

          I hope this helps.
          Best Regards.
          Sifu

    • kali amanita says

      Empirical evidence trumps a study every time…especially if the study is compromised in some way….and many are. I practice chinese herbalism/ holistic nutrition so read a lot of studies and have found this to be the case more often than not.

      these formulas were tested on statistically large populations over millenia….how much more proof do you need?

  5. Hello Sigung Clear,

    I’m planning to practice the Iron Palm in 100 days and Iron Body in 100 days. Can I begin to practice both at the same time? And do I need to start a more basic practice before the 2 Iron. I’m only doing basic QiGong… Standing meditation… no more than that.

    Please Elucidate me Sigung. Thanks

    • We recommend training both at the same time. Though many find they prefer to start with the Iron Body training for a few weeks before the add the Iron Palm to it. There are no pre-requisites to either of these DVDs so you can start at any time.

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