Jingle

I've trained with a guy here who is a warrior. The guy is frickin awesome. He was trained by an old Laotian Muay Thai fighter, and I just want this to be a bit of an homage to him, but he's incredible.

I have a bad leg so I can't do as intense of leg conditioning, and I was wondering how everyone conditions. Travis used to walk out into the woods and he would start by kicking a thin tree until he eventually kicked it down, then he would move onto a thicker tree and so on and so forth. Is this common? I've heard that they kick banana trees in Thailand, but those aren't quite as hard as the oaks Trav used to train on? What are your opinions?

I used to train my forearms by taping a wooden dowel vertically on a heavy bag with duct-tape and then i'd smash elbows into that and throw blocks at it until my arms look like i had implanted golf balls into my forearms. The nerves are all dead now though, and they're solid. I guess it's too late, but is this advisable in muay thai? It works, you know? I'm just not positive whether or not it's completely healthy. I've heard the calicification that occurs actually makes the bones harder, but then just recently i heard that later in life it leaves your bones very brittle.

Anyway, i hope someone can provide me with some enlightening information, because we don't have muay thai gyms here. We are all grass roots martial artists and fighters.

Thanks guys

-J

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running water never grows stale. so you've got to just keep on flowing - Bruce Lee

aseepish

Kick Thai pads. Kick the heavy bag. Be patient. Anything else is risky.

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"It was about that time I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses." -Cortázar

seppuku

i think theres merit to that. i have now stopped kicking lamposts. that was a hard thing to give up on tho... enough talk here of dead nerves and similar bad things that i thought id better not kick galvanised steel so often.

still, made a difference, the pads dont hurt anymore tho the heavy bag does. im now happy until i kick someones elbow.... or their shin

Screamtruth

Man, I'd go with aseepish on this; kicking trees and stuff like that can do some serious damage to your shins and feet. All the Thai's I have talked with train constantly and rigorously on the pads and bags to develope their conditioned shins. Some of the pads you can buy are STOUT and are hard, so work your way up in the different power levels. Start easy at first; you will probably bruise up. Give your shins time to heal, and massage them down after a session. If you start too hard, your bones will not have the time to heal or condition properly. I speak from experience on this; I had a heavy bag that had a HARD side to it, right at the seams. So, during my sessions I would be tearing it up, then BAM, a hard shot right on the seams would put me to the floor! So, after a structured conditioning program and a few months, I am now able to hit the hard spots and not have any problems. Remember, train smart and you will see the benefits while maintaining good conditioning. Same with the elbows; you don't want to develope any joint problems and stuff like that. Also, it dons't take a whole lot of force for elbows to be effective; I have a scar on the forhead to prove that theory.

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KICKING you in the face, 'cause that's what we do!

LoneHusky

Not worth it. I think the cons far outweigh the pros.

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