Yep, I have to totally agree with Yoda here! Peoples pain barriers most of the time are just mental things. I would concentrate on training your mind rather then trying to tuffen your shins. I have very sensative shins, always have most probably always will. If I go to train with them, I will just where some shin guards!
Okay, professional opinion coming up (not a direct quote, merely the gist as far as I understood it). When you break a bone it grows back stronger on the inside, however conditioning is merely causing damage to the bone. There are two possible outcomes. Too many microfractures will simply make the bone brittle, hard but brittle (think of a diamond, you can grind it against anything but hit it with a hammer and it shatters) which means when it does break it'll shatter. The other, less pleasant one is some condition with a complicated name, but essentially turning your limbs into stone.
Ossification One of the best ways to encourage bones to become denser is to increase the load bearing that they undergo - i.e. Weight training. This is especially recommended to minimise the chances of Osteoporosis in women "of an age" (Polite mode)
When a broken bone mends the amount of bone tissue increases, ie. there's more bone there afterwards. I was under the assumption that this meant the bone was stronger. However, someone corrected me on that recently. The bone is still likely to be weaker, as the new growth is not orientated with the rest of the bone fibres. The new fibres are oriented randomly, which ultimately means a weaker bone. I concur with Yoda: probably the best way to strengthen bones is to place them under load, ie. weightlifting. The phenomena Jimmy's doctor friend mentioned I think alludes to calcification of the soft tissues as well as the bone, ie. your muscles etc begin to turn to bone. I think this most likely occurs as a result of disease rather than trauma. But perhaps the micro-trauma associated with shin conditioning might be sufficient to cause this, I don't know. Doesn't sound like something I'd want to do to myself though. Mike
Apparently its more often caused by disease, but only because people conditioning themselves is relatively rare. However the actual proportions compared to people at risk from disease and conditioning are the same.
it is not so much toughning the shins,the bag workouts will do this in a safes way for you .but the important thing is the body mechanics of the shin kick(round kick)..alot of people tend to push the bag when they kick instead of going thru the bag,try this techinique....stand arm lenths away from the wall execute your kick(softly) to the wall so your instep touches the wall first then your knee(you are just placing your leg on the wall)you should be able to feel if you are doing the kick right ..then try the kick on the bag see the differenc on the way the bag moves .to me this is far beyyer than trying to do harm to your shins when you will feel the pain of arthrittis kicking in when you get older thats my 2 cents ,hope this helps regards rick_nz
....... and still Thai fighters in Thailand die from bone cancer. They don't put THAT in their ads though - just sweep 'em under the carpet - life is cheap
Takin' a big risk here for disagreeing with u.......but would'nt that make big news I mean ppl hv been practising muay that for so many years and this is the first time I am hering that it causes cancer, sure they can be damaging if done wrong just like everything else but if done rite then it can only benifit u.........it's just wat I think....... |Cain|
I friend of mine used to go to Thailand every year to train. He reckons for every successful fighter you see in the ring there are 2 or 3 who quit at an early age due to injuries - many of those injuries being horrendous. Guys walking around on crutches with a thin shrivled leg is one that springs to mind. More so in the small provincial stadiums it seems. I'm not saying it's a huge risk - and Muay Thai is a fantastic art - but when taken to an extreme level it can and does take the life of some of its participants. Incidently - that same friend took ill with motor neurone disease and died - coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.
I realise u hv a reason for saying that and I understand that completely, sorry to hear about ur freind Yoda, I guess I should'nt hv brought that up. |Cain|
I seem to remember hearing that Thailand has above average incidence of cancer of the shin... I think this was specifically attrributed to Muay Thai but I can't trace the source at the moment so it could just be something 'I heard'.
You heard right. I once read it on one of Thailand's own sites that promote Muay Thai as Thailand's gift to the world. Thais have the highest shin cancer rate.
Don't The Wise say anything in excess, no matter what it is, is NOT good for you. We should take everything in proportion to everything else.
SHIN CONDTIONING They say kicking the bag 500 times per leg a day is a good start. I will admit that I only do 100 per leg maybe 150 If I'm havin one of those days. Rolling things on your shins is garbage, not only does it not make the bone denser it is a false sense of reality. Now moving on to the bone cancer. Along with studing Muay Thai I also practice traditional Karate body conditioning. When you train any part of your body you can't be sadistic about it! Over doing it will actually reverse the bone healing process. Wich in turn will lead to bone cancer. Using a linament before and after kicking the bag will help. I use Tiger balm, It should be at your local oriental market.......Hell Wal-mart carrys it now too! Dit Da Jow is amazing and works wonders finding everything that goes into it maybe be a little hard but can be accoplished. Also when hittng the bag you should do the first 30 light working on your form but by 30 you should start laying into it. Remeber to take time to massage your shins while hittiong the bag for blood circulation.And finally jumping rope for 20 min to ahalf hour before you kick the bag is a great warm up and from my progression has helped I believe it's kinda like impact training for my shins
What about Iron Palm conditioning??? It deadens the nerves in your palm doesn't it? Will breaking construction bricks give me palm cancer?
Don't know if this was touched upon, but when the bone breaks, the body compensates by making the bone stronger at the point of the fracture. This means that although this area is stronger, it will have leached minerals from the surrounding bone in order to make it stronger, there by making the surrounding bone weaker. I was told this by my trainer, and I have no reason to doubt him.
