At it's core, Buddhism is about learning non-reaction to both pleasure and pain, treating both as mere sensation. I suppose this practice could be defended in that vein. However, it reminds me more of the Buddha's early ascetic practices, that he himself renounced, declaring that there is no point in actively harming oneself, and that one should instead work to reduce craving and aversion (the two fundamental types of reaction).

There was another article about a small sect of Japanese Buddhist monks that had some horrible practices, like screaming at each other in the morning, and so on. Even stranger (and more horrible) practices exist. But I would not call them Buddhist.