Conditioning for Pain Tolerance

     Most all Martial Artist exercise conditioning of their bodies for specific usages. For example Mauy Thai and Karate practitioners often harden their shins because the round house kick is integral to their strategy. On the other hand many different styles of Kung Fu train to harden their hands and fingers because these small bones are often their main striking surfaces. Any of these exercises condition the bones using what is called Wolf's Law. However the training also has an additional benefit of improving your pain tolerance. Pain Tolerance put simply is the amount of pain a person can withstand before reacting, submitting, or passing out.
      Mind over matter does have a lot to do with a persons pain tolerance however every person has their breaking point. So the question is what can we do to our most vulnerable parts such as pressure points and  other parts of us, that we can't simply bang against trees and rocks and metal? What has worked for me is gradual self infliction of pain and or pressure to my pressure points. The beauty of this is that it is something that can be practiced little by little in your day to day life. Here is one simple exercise you can try for yourself.

Apply pressure to your nail bed just in front of your cuticle. This pressure point is used often to teach women's self defense because it takes little to no strength to inflict pain to this area. Continue to apply pressure until you feel it is to much for you to handle, than stop. Bare in mind this is not your actual pain tolerance, but more so the amount your mind will allow you to apply pain to yourself, before your mind says "HEY MAN! what are freaking retarded?" So now once you find that point continually apply pressure till the pain is to much, hold for a moment, and release. Over time your mind will allow you to experience this for longer periods of time as the nerves get used to it. Do this on all our you digits in rotation and i guarantee you will learn more about yourself and improve your pain tolerance in the process.