I believe that strong fingers are necessary for manipulating. So, how do you actually train your finger to be more muscular? :D

I think what you need is not strong fingers, but fingers that are flexible. You can find some exercises on Trilogy.

However, I don't do any of those stuff. I just pratise the move over and over and over again until I get it. Your fingers will get it eventually. When I started doing Charlier cuts, it was really hard despite people saying I have long fingers etc. I kept at it, and now I can do multiple charliers, with both hands.

Just keep at it. You'll get there eventually. There aren't really any shortcuts in magic.

In my opinion, strong fingers do necessary too.Such as backpalming cards.. Till now, i can only backpalm not more than 5 cards. more than 5 cards then the gap btw the fingers can be seen easily :angry:

Is not about how strong ur hands are to master a sleight..
Is how flexible ur hands are as what I agree on VincentP..
Either way.. the size of ur fingers and palm do determine how well you can catch up in mastering the acts.. Sorry for those who have smaller ones as they surely have difficulties in doing so..

But if u really wanna have stronger fingers..
Try doing push ups with your knees on the floors and spread out your 10 fingers on the floors,supporting ur body... :!!: :!!:

yea...i think its mostly about flex and dex... but if u do wanna have strong fingers then be my guess..do what jeremy said... ^_^
try doing it like a regular push up (no knees..)
:ph43r: :ph43r:

erm, then how they backpalming 10-20 cards if his fingers are not strong enough to hold the card in position? :(

Wanna work out and strengthen ya fingers?

- Get a squeeze ball, or stress ball. U know those squeezable things. Just keep squeezing it.

- Also you can go to fitness stall and get the squeeze thing... to work out ya forearm as well.... dont do too much or you'll end up looking like Popeye :D

But yeah, for manipulation/backpalming u need the strength. As for flourishes on the other hand... it is the flexibility really.

Well i think playing the piano helps a lot too. You've all these insane finger exercises which you're forced to play. It's to build up individual finger strength, dexterity and flexibility. But practicing it on a keyboard doesn't do you any good btw!

I think Brendan's idea works as well. You're releasing stress at the same time too!

There are manipulation cards that are super thin apparently!

There are some other ways to get stronger fingers, but I won't get into that. -_-

I'll give myself a warning now. :wacko:

I guess it's all the hardworks and time you put in that'll show how strong your finger really is.

I'll share with you 2 examples;

(1) Muscle Pass - The Japanese even add weight on their coin when they are practising and when they switch to a ligher one, the coins just went flying everywhere. The current highest record is nearly 2 metres~!

(2) Back Palming - Some manipulation cards are thin enough that you can literally back palm the entire deck straight out from the box, but this doesn't mean you do not need practise. My hands are quite big and currently I'm able to back palm 15~20 Regular Bicycle Cards and that's nearly 30~40 Thin Manipulation Cards. It took me well over 6 months to developed the strength I need as to strengthen my finger joints.

It all depends what do you want to do with your hands and what sleight are you trying to archieve. You always start out with the tougher path and you'll feel much ease when you approach in the later status.

As for flexibility, I'm not much of a flourish person so I'll leave it to the MMF Flourishers.

Maybe i want to be like JeffMcbride? Manipulator that use only ordinary playing card but now manipulation card? :rolleyes: anyway, thanks for the idea. Someone just came my house and tune the piano. But, I can't play piano. I want to learn. I want to be like Yiruma? :wub: (Dreaming)

Get several rubberbands, twist them smaller, then place them around your 4 fingers and stretch your fingers until they hurt so bad you wish you didn't want to take up card manipulation, that's what I did.

It paid off, seriously, I now b**k palm 40 twisted Bike cards with no problem at all, and when you put your fingers together, there are no holes/gaps in between them. :rolleyes: Now no mosquitoes can go through.

Slowly work your way .
From 5 card to 15 card , and then jump to 30 cards .
Finally , 45 cards .

In no time , you can backpalm 30 cards .
Before you practice backpalm with 30 cards ,
try to do Cardini's Single Production first .
You have to get use to the "feel" for single production of 20+ cards.

Then only make ur way to 30 cards and so on .


Good luck .

Best,
Kenny

Thanks for all the suggestion, appreciate it. :)