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Mastering martial arts often takes years of dedication. Some, like karate, focus on graceful movements, while others such as Thai boxing or jiu-jitsu are more tactical for self-defense or competition. All demonstrate precision, elegance, and agility.
Some simply require you to withstand blows to your groin.
Recently, Chinese kung fu expert Wang Liutai gained media attention for his ability to absorb groin strikes without harm, even inviting a partner to strike him with a large wooden log.
Other martial artists, such as Wei Yaobin (pictured below), have also shown a remarkable ability to endure blunt-force impacts to their groin, eagerly smashing bricks onto their private parts without so much as a yelp.
This ability, while certainly astonishing, seems to contradict what we know about the soft tissue of the genitals and how a forceful blow should result in immense pain and trauma.
So how are these individuals able to do it? What’s the secret to preventing a ruptured testicle?
Michael Kelly, DO, a sports medicine specialist and ringside physician for MMA events in New Jersey, has explored Eastern practices through the lens of modern medical understanding. He’s seen the footage of Liutai and others, and told Mytour that, from a practical standpoint, these practitioners should have been left with mangled genitals after taking a hit from a log.
“It’s not really some sort of skill you can develop to avoid injury to the testicles,” Kelly explains. “If you watch the videos closely, you’ll notice he squeezes his inner thighs together. By using his abdominal muscles and moving forward, he spreads the force over a larger area.”
Kelly suggests that such remarkable feats might be achieved by tensing the adductor muscles in the thighs, which connect to the testicles. By squeezing these muscles, the martial artist could create a “tensile net” that helps absorb the impact. However, this method would still be painful and likely result in injury.
“That kind of force on testicular tissue would cause damage,” he says, potentially leading to testicular rupture or bruising that could compress a vein, causing tissue death.
Another possibility is that those enduring these blows might intentionally engage their cremaster muscle, allowing them to pull their testicles into their abdomen. Typically, men do this involuntarily in response to cold or stress, but not to the extent of pulling them fully up. “There might be some training to help draw them in,” Kelly suggests, “or perhaps it's a mix of both.”
Although Liutai has expressed an interest in teaching his “iron crotch kung fu,” it's likely that these techniques only work in specific situations.
“I’d bet that if I placed him on an exam table and struck him with a reflex hammer in the testicles, he wouldn’t be able to handle it,” Kelly comments.
