Does anyone have some ideas on how to toughen your shins up. I heard you can roll glass coke bottles up and down them, to kill the nerves, But I haven't tried it.
Careful conditioning is a long process. killing your nerves is stupid and can lead to further problems. Thai fighters in Thailand did it because they had to for financial gain. The more you kick the tougher your shins will get as athey slowly leather. The bottle thing is actaully to sharpen the bones when still an adolescent, my teacher has done it and believe me his has a hell of an edge.
Still have patience with this. It is no good to damage yourself because you want to be like those who already have.
Damn! I gotta read other peoples replies, before I post! haha! LOL
Okay, try taking a glass coke bottle, fill it with sand, and lightly tap it up and down your shins, everyday. After a while, your nerves will become increasingly numb. With practice, you will be able to strike your shins fairly hard with the glass bottle. A Kali stick works well, as a striking tool for your shins, but the glass bottle filled with sand has some weight to it and it doesn't take as much energy to strike your shins. You need to use something that gives you a nice THUD sound. (*This method was taught to me by a Japanese Black Belt*)
Don't forget your Dit-Dat Jow, this stuff is great for bruised limbs. Go to your nearest Herbal specialist in China Town and buy the home made family secret stuff in a jar. I'm serious.
Remember to take your time, conditioning your limbs doesn't take 24 hours, this is something you have to work on, little by little, everyday.
Also, I don't know the long-term effects of conditioning your shins, so take that into consideration too.
^doesnt happen, i train in muay thai, weather you spar hard without shinguards, kick a hard bag, whack your shin with a stick, bottle etc, really all does the same,
what happens is:
as the shinbone takes impact the bodie thinks ''naturally'' oow that hurt, i seem to be taking impact alot in these area's, i need to protect myself, so to counter this problem the bodie forms layers of scar tissure in the areas of impact, the end result is a shin bone covered in layers of scar tissure and normal skin which means when the shin is struck the scar tissure/skin asorb the impact more then the bone itself at the same time the nerves die off because they are no longer needed to regester pain in that area since pain is now a normal thing,
it usually takes years of conditioning to feel no pain at all,
One of the many properties an aspiring Thai, Low Kick Kickboxer requires are conditioned shins or even a good fighter who likes to stand his ground and sweep everyone off their feet with his round houses or just likes to break ribs. I have a friend who can break three baseball bats with his shin. I might put up the video clip soon if requested. and one of the questions I get asked frequently is just how do you condition your shins? Should I kick trees like in the Jean Claude Van Damme movie, Kickboxer? Tap them with bottles? Roll them with Rolling pins?
Well there are certainly many methods employed to getting the shins conditioned to a level where by you can fight and check leg kicks however, due to misinformation and a lack of understanding about the body, some of these methods utilized by trainers and fighters alike actually could be detrimental to the body in years to come.
The idea that the shin can become harder, due to calcium deposits developing over the shin bone or the bone itself getting harder is somewhat of a myth. A conditioned shin comes in various parts.
1. The nerves surrounding the shin have been weakened or deadened so the pain is not as excruciating as it was before shin conditioning started.
2. A lot of it can be psychological. In a fight anyway, adrenaline will be responsible for the fact that you might not feel the shin on shin contact as greatly as you would in training. Tell yourself that there’s no pain and carry on fighting.
3. Correct technique. The way you block a leg kick can also be a factor in the amount you feel when you check.
So what’s wrong with hitting trees or tapping shins with bottles and sticks?
Well, when you hit the shins with anything that’s harder than the bone you run the risk of causing tiny stress fractures on your shin. In the short term this may deaden the nerves however, in the long term this could actually weaken the shins causing pain and injury, even arthritis later on in life.
And what about kicking trees? Hey didn’t the Thai’s kick trees back in the day?
Before I went out to Thailand I had this vision of Thai’s just whacking away at trees. Haha how wrong I was. Nope, in this day and age, no trees are harmed in the making of a Thai Boxer however, it is true that before, Thais kicked the trunks of soft banana trees (the trunks were very rubbery and soft thus not like kicking an oak tree) The trunk of the trees they’d hit would be so soft in fact that they would make makeshift hand wraps with the strips of bark from where they kicked.
So how exactly do you condition your shins?
The tried and tested method is to basically kick the bags and pads AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!!!
The harder the pads and bags, the better the conditioning however, you must start at a level where by you are not feeling as if you are damaging yourself. After all, what’s the point in hitting the bags that are so hard that you are all bruised and battered and then can’t hit for at least a week?
Sure you will feel some pain on your legs after training but with the right treatment (Massage, Ice etc) you’ll be good to go for the next training session.
In Thailand I would see fighters train on the bags kicking away at them morning and afternoon, continuously kicking with one leg for over 3 rounds then switching to the next leg. This amount of kicking is the correct way of conditioning your shins. Along with patience and perseverance (Hey, it’s not going to happen over night in fact it could take at least 6 months of training like this)
Kicking leather Thai pads should also be placed as a mandatory training drill in your shin conditioning regimen.
What about sparring?
Sparring is a great way to condition shins and get used to blocking but it must be done with shin pads on as stated above, you must try not to strike your own shin with anything as hard as or harder than except of course for in a fight.
So It's all about deadening nerves?
Not entirely. As stated above it is also a psychological process. Another thing to help condition shins is to condition the muscles that are surrounding the shins. These muscles are usually worked out from the intense amounts of running and skipping a Thai boxer will do. The Thai style of running, whereby you strike the road/floor with the ball of your feet and stay on your toes, works the Calf muscles which in turn builds the muscle defenses on the side of the shin. As is the same with skipping.
So remember ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, train hard but train smart and train safe!
Best Regards.
"you are either, the hammer,
or, you are the nail..
which one are you?"
Unfortunately Phases your a little old to sharpen your shin. It is usually done before puberty, whilst the bone is soft enough to shape. I suppose it can be done to an extent when you are older but it takes a lot longer and can never be as sharp.
Thats not necesseryly true. With enough suypplementry exercises to strengthen the legs. tendons, bones, and the calf, like frog jumps and sqquats, keeping the lower body strong, can make shin conditioning possible if not better. you get stronger legs and shin bone can kill.
But only doing conditioning(hitting n rolling)will not help, mater of fact might give negetive results. You need to massage and put lotion or other ingredient if you know to keep the blood flow and surface alive.
With all these, supplementry exercises, conditioning, and caring, you can condition your shins at almost any age. But yes, its not a one day or a one month thing. Truth is conditioning shin is much tougher than iron hand training. But with time you will be able to sweep any one off their feet with your shin strikes hitting like steel bar and tremendous pwoer.
Cheers.
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment. "
When I got a kick out of the idea of really conditioning my shins, forearms and hands, I just hit the heavy bags and pads. I didn't go all out at first, I took it slowly. My favorite way of conditioning my shins was with a partner, he would throw a Low Round-House and I would block it with my shin, then Id kick him and he would block it, we would just exchange back and forth. I think it's better to condition your body thru actual practice of the technique you are going to use. I usually used the sand filled bottle when I was watching T.V.
That was a good explanation of Shin conditioning, E.D.
When you stop focusing on shin conditioning, does the feeling ever come back into your shins?
LOL