Heya so I have an ongoing problem of as soon as someone gets a proper rib kick on my body im out for a few weeks at least. Now iv noticed that when the men fight they land these kicks and it winds them but they get back up and you see them the next day etc. If I went onto a super high protein diet say 100g a day would it strengthen my bones to the level of being able to get back up after being floored and continue training. Iv heard that in muay thai they will often just trade kicks, not bothering to block them until one backs away, war of attrition. How do they do this if ribs break easily? Have they conditioned there ribs to just be able to take kicks. Im not talking of using toughness of a first line of defence but more that sometimes a kick gets through and then bang im out for at least 2 weeks. I think my diet is kinda bad as I dont really focus on it, im trying a crazy high protein diet to speed my recovery up but wondering if it can also be good for making bones strong.
Are you only doing Muay Thai? Are you doing any strength and conditioning exercises? Any core exercises? Also what does your coach say when you ask about defending round kicks to the body?
People will often get kicked in light play sparring all the time but they won't take a full body kick if they don't have to in a fight. There's definitely a difference. Learn to block first, then worry about conditioning.
definitely focus your training on technique and don't get caught up in the idea of conditioning to take a hit. Being stronger will help in a lot of ways, but you'll still get dropped by a good kick unless you avoid/block it
I agree core conditioning is probably one of the biggest factors for receiving any strike to the ribs, hands or feet, head, etc. The better you can keep your core stable the less your floating rib and other delicate parts get razzled.
Who in the world told you a high protein diet of 100g a day would be a good way to strengthen your bones? For starters, a high protein diet isn't 100g a day unless you weigh around 100 lbs. People strength training often do 1 to 2 grams of protein per pound of their body weight. It's up in the air on whether or not eating that much protein does anything significant for muscle growth, but it's what very muscular and strong people tend to do for their diet. Second, protein doesn't build bone. After you've went through puberty and "filling out" as an adult, your bones only grow as a reaction to stress. For example, a person in the military who is humping around hundreds of pounds of weight by foot every day are going to have thicker, stronger femurs (thigh bone) than somebody who sits at an office desk. The extra density developed in bones are just like gains in muscle growth and strength too, albeit changes happen a lot slower: use it or lose it. As soon as the person in the military stops humping around those hundreds of pounds, all the bone density turns into fat around the mid section (no not really but that seems to be what happened to me! The bone just adapts to current levels of stress, or "back to normal.") Bone adaptation is a very long and slow process (we are talking years), and the fastest way to increase overall bone density and strength is going to be by performing extremely taxing physical activity at high levels of intensity. Heavy weight lifting, plyometrics, sprinting, body weight exercises, martial arts training, etc. are all examples of this. A good diet, probably with plenty of calcium, is just as important. There is an immediate solution to your problem beyond trying to grow ribs you can catch leg kicks with and snap off by doing the washing machine pre-workout warmup maneuver. Train your mid section! Planks, crunches, crunch variations that work your obliques (muscles around the ribs), leg raises, etc.. If you build up some strength and muscle in the area, it can take more damage. Doing some serious core training consistently for about a month will probably cause you to notice a significant reduction in how shots to the mid section affect you. Also learn to breath. When you get hit, especially when it's in the mid section, you should be breathing out sharply. When you do this, you reduce the air pressure within the chest cavity. This helps with not getting the wind knocked out of you, as well as creating more space for things to move around in the chest cavity that can help reduce injury. Please take note that learning to breath out when getting hit wont entirely prevent you getting a rib cracked, it only helps it to not happen. Sometimes people can just hit hard and fast enough and you're screwed. You can practice breathing while being hit by . . . . breathing out when you get hit. Or you can go the method of having somebody slap your stomach or drop a med ball on it during crunches to simulate it but that's a superfluous activity in my opinion.
If it's that frequent, you should probably see your doctor, see if there's an underlying issue. If you're clear in that regard, I would start looking both at technique and conditioning. In Sanda we caught lots of kicks, as opposed to just blocking or evading, which meant that the kicks would make contact. So you look at minimising the power it's going to hit you with. I've always liked stepping in towards your opponent as they kick, and catching the leg near the knee. Check with your coach for what's legal in your art. Conditioning wise, what are you already doing? I like nice simple core stuff, planking, dynamic planking, playing around with dynamic movement from dish holds. Depends where you're at. Weightlifting can also be great for core, particularly deadlifts and squats. Good luck! @Grond what do you mean when you say core conditioning is a factor for getting hit in the head?
@ OP From your profile it says that you're female, and from your post it sounds like you're relatively new to combat sport martial arts that involve a significant amount of contact. Your posts from this thread and the other one you've posted in bug me a little bit and I just want to mention two different things. 1.) You're a female, so your bone structure (especially in the upper body) is a lot frailer naturally than what a man's bone structure will be (on average). This has tremendous impact when it comes to how hard you can get hit, and how hard you can hit. Considering the issue you are having, learning to not get hit is your best option BUT putting in extra work to develop a strong upper body, which in time will strengthen your bone structure, is going to benefit you tremendously. I'm not familiar with your age, activity level, or exercise routines, but if you are an older woman then bone strength and density may be an even bigger issue than you think. If this is the case, talking to your doctor about supplementation for bone support may be something you want to do to add into your nutritional intake. 2.) If you're as new to a sport martial art as you seem to be by your posts, you should not be in situations where people are hitting you hard enough to crack a dang rib. I would mention this to whomever is instructing the class, and avoid the people you've sparred with who have hit you hard enough to hurt you good enough to be out for a couple of weeks. That type of striking in a competitive sport gym should be reserved for competition fighters prepping to fight who have to learn to deal with working through being hit hard and to fight through pain. Even if that's your eventual goal, you shouldn't be doing that type of sparring until you've completely mastered the basics and can control the force of your punches and kicks anyways. If you find yourself getting beat up all the time and in a situation with people you can't regularly spar with who aren't going to hurt you . . . . then it's probably best to find another gym. Just some food for thought. Take it as you will. I'm extrapolating quite a bit from minimal info., but you're mentioning things that sound like red flags for a competitive martial art style where new students are used/abused for the more experienced students or fighters in the gym.
In boxing, you use your core to not get hit in the head quite a bit. Bobbing and weaving, or leaning back or forward or whatever direction to get out of distance or negate the power of a strike. If you do boxing, try doing a few rounds without punching your opponent and just dodge them (imagine Piccolo screaming DOOODDDGGGEE the entire time -teamfourstar joke-). It's a great core/leg workout. I can't speak about other martial arts though. I don't think it would help with the structure of your dome piece getting clocked though. 6 pack = no concussions seems kinda' ridiculous to me xD.
Well I'll be as blunt as I can. IF your core is able to take a head strike, you'll remain standing as long as the head strike isn't a KO. What I mean by this is that if your clock gets rocked, the only thing keeping you on your feet is your abdomen and the legs underneath. IF you've boxed enough you know that sometimes you have to take a lot of head shots and still keep your feet. Does that make sense? I've had a lot of occasions where my head was ringing, but I kept my core and feet planted.
Only taking a protein-rich diet will not help you in healing your rib injury. I think it takes much in healing, so keeping yourself apart from training till it gets fully healed, is really a good idea. For preventing such injuries my coach advised me some preventive measures, that include focus during boxing and wearing protective stuff, which you can get from (Second link deleted) . I prefer to take rest for healing it and adding essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals is necessary for perfect healing
Absolutely not—a heavy protein diet doesn't reduce rib injuries. Core conditioning/iron shirt training (takes a long time and a lot of discipline) could help.
I support that diet matters a lot. But not all the game is done by diet. That said, you've to visit a doctor, and follow the medical treatment, to heal the injury.
