Best way to condition shins

hopkins88

Just enquiring what do people think is the best means to condition their shins be it for mma, muay thai or k1 style fighting?
Hitting the heavy bag, drilling techniques on the thai pads or just gradually through low kick sparring? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as there is loads of conflicting opinions online and i would like to use the most practical method that fighters are employing so i dont do any long term damage by conditioning incorrectly.
cheers !

cowzerp

mix of Heavy bags, thai pods and sparring should do it.

kiad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRHxmrce6IM

RoboRat

I find a good capful of Timotei with a bit of V05 Hot Oil and leave it for about 20 mins..

HammerHeadGym

to de-sensitise the shins a rolled up t-shirt, soaking wet (the one you just trained in for example) rolled tight and whipped into the shin will do the trick. To toughen the bone up I regularly smack it gently with something metal, I use a training sword with a fat, blunt blade, but any sort of stick will do.

Word of advice, start real slow. You can always do more tomorrow.

RAMA 5

HammerHeadGym wrote: »

to de-sensitise the shins a rolled up t-shirt, soaking wet (the one you just trained in for example) rolled tight and whipped into the shin will do the trick. To toughen the bone up I regularly smack it gently with something metal, I use a training sword with a fat, blunt blade, but any sort of stick will do.

Word of advice, start real slow. You can always do more tomorrow.

Real good idea :cool:..wait until you are in your 60-70s and your shin bone starts to go brittle and little bits start to break off from the damage you are causing now....hit a heavy leather bag, 50 kicks min everyday, that will do it for ya...
for the record i lived and fought in Thailand for 7 years..had 94 pro thai fights losing 5 and 140 amateur thai fights. So i have a fair idea what im talking about ...hope this helps

Peetrik

RAMA 5 wrote: »

wait until you are in your 60-70s and your shin bone starts to go brittle and little bits start to break off from the damage you are causing now

Ah in fairness I'd say anyone who makes a career out of full contact striking is going to be falling apart by that age anyway.

But yeah as was said, heavy bag and thai pads will toughen up the shin bone.

HammerHeadGym

I cant imagine why bone would chip off 40 or 50 years after the damage was done. Myself and the medical community were under the impression that damaged bone would re knit stronger after ossification.
I'm not saying it doesnt happen in Thailand, but I imagine there are more factors at play like gross deficencies in protein and calcium.

martinh

Rama 5 thats the most impressive record ive seen in a long long time for fighting thai.:)

Plastikman_eire

HammerHeadGym wrote: »

to de-sensitise the shins a rolled up t-shirt, soaking wet (the one you just trained in for example) rolled tight and whipped into the shin will do the trick. To toughen the bone up I regularly smack it gently with something metal, I use a training sword with a fat, blunt blade, but any sort of stick will do.

Word of advice, start real slow. You can always do more tomorrow.

Tshirt idea is good. Smacking your shin with a strip of metal, not so much.

As a rule of thumb, never use anything harder then the bone itself when conditioning your shins.

HammerHeadGym

Plastikman_eire wrote: »

As a rule of thumb, never use anything harder then the bone itself when conditioning your shins.

Im honestly not trying to sound smart, but why not?

I use a peice of steel because Im trying to cause micro fracture which, with enough Calcium and vitamin D will knit back stronger than before. I'm not saying Im right but it makes the most sense to me. I imagine that a softer stick would just mean more wallops.

bobster453

I have been using a post in the ground with padding wrapped around it for some years now and find it good for conditioning shins, however as with all kung fu conditioning i use dit da jow or chinese herebal medicine rub afterwards to prevent any issues long time, not sure personally if it works but our teacher in hong kong has been using it for the best part of 60 years and he is still going strong.
Below is our receipe for Dit Da Jow for anyone interested, most Chinese Herbal Shops will make it up for you-immerse it in alcohol(rice wine is best, but vodka, gin etc will also do-no whiskey-too strong for the herbs) for about 2 months in an airtight container in dark conditions.
When using rub away from the heart(meridians, blood flow etc) and do not wash off for at least an hour after use.
Ingredients for TCM Medicinal Rice WineChinese Eaglewood 沉香,
Safflower 紅花,
Red Paeony Root 赤芍,
Peach Seed 桃仁
Myrrh 沒藥,
Frankincense 乳香,
Fineleaf Schizonepeta Herb 荊芥,
Costustoot 木香
Bitter Orange 枳殼,
Szechuan Lovage Rhizome 川芎,
Platycodon Root 桔梗,
Dragon’s Blood 血竭,
Cortex Moutan 牡丹皮,
Chinese Angelica 歸尾,
Cape Jasmine Fruit 梔子,
Tortoise Shell 龜甲.
The above-mentioned sixteen Chinese medicines three measurements each
(上述16味 各三錢).

Peetrik

bobster453 wrote: »

immerse it in alcohol(rice wine is best, but vodka, gin etc will also do

I'v heard of using alcohol to toughen up skin before alright (usually on the feet to avoid blisters if your training on rough canvas 6 days a week) but surely the padded post is where you'd see your main benifit from?

bobster453

Peetrik wrote: »

I'v heard of using alcohol to toughen up skin before alright (usually on the feet to avoid blisters if your training on rough canvas 6 days a week) but surely the padded post is where you'd see your main benifit from?

Apologies if my post caused confusion, the Dit Da Jow is used after conditioning supposedly to disperse what the chinese call dead blood(bruising) and to prevent blood clots forming

The explanation I was always given for conditioning was to make the marrow of the bones that bit denser over time thus enabling one to block and strike more effectively and harder,
and again this is in a traditional sense,perhaps a poster more medically knowledgeable than me could give the proper terminology.

Peetrik

Yeah I know what you mean. Best place I'v seen it explained is here, if you can stomach the cheesy American accent...

http://splicd.com/maQINqPI7S0/363/397

bobster453

Peetrik wrote: »

Yeah I know what you mean. Best place I'v seen it explained is here, if you can stomach the cheesy American accent...

http://splicd.com/maQINqPI7S0/363/397[/QUOTE]

Yeah thats me alright

Khannie

HammerHeadGym wrote: »

Im honestly not trying to sound smart, but why not?

I use a peice of steel because Im trying to cause micro fracture which, with enough Calcium and vitamin D will knit back stronger than before. I'm not saying Im right but it makes the most sense to me. I imagine that a softer stick would just mean more wallops.

I just don't get this business of battering yourself. I thought you were joking initially. My shins are grand and I don't do any special conditioning beyond training / sparring on them. Sure they're sore for a few days to a week after fighting but that's the nature of the sport. I'm not concerned with the bone density in the slightest. I kick enough things that the bone density in my shins is almost certainly very, very good anyway. I'd guess the same is true for you without the need to hurt yourself with steel.

Plastikman_eire

HammerHeadGym wrote: »

Im honestly not trying to sound smart, but why not?

I use a peice of steel because Im trying to cause micro fracture which, with enough Calcium and vitamin D will knit back stronger than before. I'm not saying Im right but it makes the most sense to me. I imagine that a softer stick would just mean more wallops.

TBH I couldn't tell you the physiology behind it, i'm just basing it on articles i've read;

http://www.mademan.com/mm/muay-thai-shin-conditioning-routine.html

JG009

Hard bag repeatedly.

Oh and supposedly the jump up and down thing where you bring your knees to your chest and hit the floor hard is important too.

The metal is not meant to be a good idea because its harder than your bone, whereas thai pad/hard bag/a banana tree is not.

bobster453

Khannie wrote: »

Sure they're sore for a few days to a week after fighting but that's the nature of the sport. .

Really tho Imo they shouldnt be sore for that long,the idea behind it is to start off nice and easy with something soft for about 9months to a year and then progress to something harder for another year until eventually you are conditioned to kick hard without doing any damage to yourself, and really no conditioning imo should be done without using some form of liniment afterwards, be it dit da jow or arnica.

Peetrik

bobster453 wrote: »

Really tho Imo they shouldnt be sore for that long

Mine would generally be sore for that long after a fight too just from blocking, longer if I kick them in the elbow or on the hip.

irateghost

I use an old truck tyre, great for building up low kicks and you can knee the crap out of it aswell ) still feckn hurts when some guy slams his shin into your leg but by blocking i guess your making it less pleasant for him.

rockynavan

i seen a video years ago whit andy hug he had a thick brush handle and had sumone rubing it up and down the shin over time the shin calusis i think long time ago so mite not be right

p to the e

Just get yourself one of these and you should be grand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w5modEjsWA

We use a combination of sparring/light kicking with shin pads on, bag work and rolling on the shin with cardboard tubes. The ones that posters would come in. If anybody is interested in bone density reshaping etc. look up Wolffs Law.

Langka

p to the e wrote: »

Just get yourself one of these and you should be grand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w5modEjsWA

We use a combination of sparring/light kicking with shin pads on, bag work and rolling on the shin with cardboard tubes. The ones that posters would come in. If anybody is interested in bone density reshaping etc. look up Wolffs Law.

Cardboard tubes? What a load of balls! Kick a hard bag and hard pads!

p to the e

Langka wrote: »

Cardboard tubes? What a load of balls! Kick a hard bag and hard pads!

Why would I put balls in there?