Shins

Khannie

So I got my bag up on the 26th and at this stage my shins are pretty sore (even to the touch, let alone kicking the bag). My question for the more experienced among you is this: Should I keep kicking to toughen up my shins and just suck up the pain, or give them time to recover before going at it again?

I found this....

A quite common, mistakenly held belief is that muay Thai training includes special exercises for hardening shins and other body parts. In reality, muay Thai training does not include any special hardening exercises in addition to heavy bag training.

on this website. Is that true too? I thought I'd heard about the thai lads deliberately killing the nerve endings in their shins.

Clive

The human body is a wonderful thing - the same processess occur regardless of activity. When lifting weights, it's your recovery that entails muscle growth. Similarly, if you ran 100 miles, you'd probably drop dead, not have better lungs.

I know this is usually my philosophy, but chill out, have a few beers, go for a run and give it a few days. As a general rule, I find that if it's actually sore (not uncomfotable) then it's probably bad - be it stretching, conditioning, dieting etc.

JohnMc1

Give yourself a couple of days to recover.

Michael O Leary

Hi all,

Actually this is a very good question and I would be interested in the answer. Fair play on the two replies so far but rather than just giving specific advice to Khannie can anyone fill us in on the big picture?

Is it a case of the shin bone becoming more dense, nerve endings dying, etc and are there any adverse long term health implications to practising Muay Thai. ie Dodgy hips, wrists.

Regards,

Michael O'Leary
www.iewto.org

Roper

I'd like to hear from a doctor...

yomchi

Doctors are dangerous! You'd be safer kicking the bag

kenpo_dave

My shins used to get bruised and sore all the time when I first started training in Kyokushin. But after a while they toughened up. Now they dont really bruise any more, but do hurt after a good hard training session with alot of emphasis on low kicks. I agree with JohnMc1, let your shins rest, rotate your training and focus on something different for a while, and then go back to round houses when your shins are better.

paddyc

your shins will be fine, you aint killing the nerves you just making them more sensitive to pain

keep kicking for a couple of months and you have shins of steel, and if you stop training your shins will go back to being like putty

training thai is tough and yes there are massive strains on the body, (thats why thais finish fighting in there early 20's... )this will lead to some aches and pains in later life i would imagine, but cyclists, tennis players, golfers all have aches and pains that are sports specific to their sport... at least we can say that we were never gay :)


paddy

ColinJennings

The inside of your bone is like a matrix or latice (think waffle crisp). Every time you put stress on the bone some of the matrix or latice strands break. To reapir the broken strands they matrix rebuilds with more strands. This is what 'strengthens' the bone.

Michael O Leary

So the bones become more "dense" like when you practise weight bearing exercises?

How does this explain the shins not hurting as much upon impact?

Sorry if I seem picky, I am just trying to get a grasp on this.

Regards,

Michael O'Leary
www.iewto.org

ColinJennings

Well that I don't know. I'll ask my doctor friend and get back to you.

Millionaire

Like Paddy says....just keep kicking the bag.

If I can harden my shins...ANYONE CAN! as I used to have the worst shins for pain in the world.

Now I can kick rock hard sand filled Thai bags full blast without even a tickle!

It does help to massage them if brusied with Thai Oil, or Muscle rub. Rest a few days, and go at it full blast again. As Paddy says in a few months, you will have little problem.

Soon you'll be able to crack a baseball bat in two with a kick! LOL! ;-)

Khannie

Thanks for all the replies lads. I eased off the kicking the last two days (was in a fair bit of pain when doing the kicks) but I'll get back to them today.

Michael: I think you feel less pain because the nerve endings are killed off. That's what I heard (somewhere, though I'm not sure where). From what Paddy said though...it sounds like they regenerate if you stop doing the kicks. TBH, I couldn't give a fiddlers if I never feel anything in my shins again.

UglyIrishBMX

sorry i didn't realy read all the other posts don't know if this will help i whent to school for bio-chem
but i would say yes you can harden some bones over time doing this but don't ever take them to the point of pain and keep going it's the same with muscles you can't keep exersizing uperbody every day and keep pushing them to be effective push them to there limit then give them rest if you keep pushing them past there threshhold you can cause perminent dmg push them let them heal to higher your threshold