Knees and elbow conditioning ?

[kh_s]

People say this

If you ever want to condition your shins, do it the safe way. Which is kicking Thai Pads and Heavy Bags. People advice to NOT take shortcuts. That includes rolling beer bottles, tapping it with rattan sticks, all those crazy methods. And some states that later in life, it will come back to you. Some bone surgery or something, and maybe different stuff. And another post before, if there is muscle forming over your shins, and you block with that shin, you will receive muscle pain. Then your opponent will see your weakness and will kick you there again. I`m not experienced in anything including martial arts, but there has been a few "shin conditioning" forums and I have read them before.

[skilzkid]

I'm not an expert, so someone plesae correct me if I'm wrong...

When you kick the bottom part of the bag, little tiny tiny tiny bone injuries form, and when it heals, the bone heals more dense, giving you an overall harder shin.

When you roll/tap beer bottles, there are two problems:
1 - When rolling, you toughen the skin as much as the bone, and the bone doesn't heal as dense...that can sort of give you a false sense of thinking your shin is hard, and a thai boxer will teach you that it's not...the hard way. I have read that rolling helps, but instead of rolling a beer bottle for 30 minutes, kick a bag!
2 - When tapping, instead of getting the tiny tiny injuries all over your shin, you get them focused at more points, they take longer to heal and they don't heal quite as well...

Check out:

http://stickgrappler.tripod.com/mt/kk24.html

He is in support of rolling, but never tapping. I've read mixed opinions on rolling, but always hear don't tap.

And he's damn right about the linament - that works pretty well on muscles too. Since I've started Muay Thai, my calf muscles have been killing me about 4 days a week (running, skipping rope and staying on your toes will do that )...linament is my cocaine

[kh_s]

Does it matter ?

Does it matter what kind of linament you use ? If i have started to roll beer bottles over my shins for about 2-3 months, do I have a chance to make my shins harder by doing the heavy bag way with linament?

Anyways what is the linament that you use ? Is it hard to find them, or can you buy them just about any martial arts store ?

[skilzkid]

Just get it sent to you from fairtexgear.com ...I'm sure other places sell it too, but I haven't done much shopping around for it...

[eighteenvisions]

THAISMAI.COM I WAS REFERED THERE IT'S PRETTY CHEAP. YOUR LOCAL ORIENTAL MARKET SHOULD HAVE TIGER BALM IT'S A SMALL CONTAINER BUT VERY POTENT5 BUCKS TOPS. WAL-MART OR WALGREENS SHOULD CARRY IT TOO IF THERE IS NO ORIENTAL MARKET "IGER BALM"

[Siegfried]

I use a tire swing to condition my shins, knees, abdomen, palms and fists. I swing it up in the air then hit it or let it hit me. So far I am the only person I know who can withstand it for about thirty minutes, but its good training, and I've been doing it for years. Yes, it hurt a whole hell of a lot at first. But its worked pretty well for me.

[Crouchtig]

questions

whats a banana bag, what does "rolling" involve, what causes muscle to grow over the shin, how does linement help, does conditioning cause long term problems, will just kicking a heavy bag condition my shins (plus some thai pad work), does the shin really need to be conditioned (if you are fighting someone who doesn't know how to defend against a low thai roundhouse). ????
When I kick with trainers on I dont do as well as when im barefoot, is it my trainers or technique thats wrong or is it the same with everyone? perhaps im not hitting with the shin enough. Im suprised at just how much kicking thai boxing involves. MUAY THAI helped me to accept unevenness (I used to hate being uneven, eg. if i went down the stairs with my right foot first then I would make a mental note to go left foot first next time etc.). by doing muay thai i now find unevenes acceptable (due to the left foot forward stance)

[kh_s]

A banana bag is a some type of special long bag, varies from like I think 4 to 6 or 7 feet long ? It was made for all ranges; low/mid/high kicks, knees, elbows, punches. Rolling involves rolling stuff on your shins. This is what I did, and I regret it; I got a beer bottle and rolled it on my shins for like 15 mins. I notice muscle forming over the side of my shin.

If you do a shin block when someone kicks, and your shins aren`t conditions, IT`S GONNA HURT LIKE CRAP! If it`s conditioned, the shinbone should be harder and nerves are dead so that you don`t feel pain when blocking/kicking.

Anyways thats all I know and it might be inaccurate, and I know I didn`t answer all your questions but I know someone else here would have more and better answers.

[snipa151]

Disagree

No matter how much nerves you kill on your shins. You will always feel the pain, but not as much when it is conditioned. I have been in Muay Thai at my Gym for 2 years. I'm an assistant instructor there, and I supposedly have the hardest shins in my gym. We have a cement bag at the gym, I kick that bag more then anyone. There are 2 types of shins, this is what I noticed. There are thin sharp shins, and round solid shins. What I noticed is that people with sharp shins cannot hit the hardbags too much, it hurts for them. People with solid shins can tend to condition themselves longer on the hardbags. When I first started, I was doing shin to shin contact with a friend who's shins were sharp, they hurt a lot, and someone who had more of a round solid shins, which hurt a lot more. If you have sharp shins and make contact with unconditioned solid shins he will feel more pain, but if you have sharp shins and you make contact against someone with conditioned solid shins, they dish out more damage simply because they can condition themselves better. In another sense, your taking a sword and hitting it against a wall, who would feel more pain? I have solid round shins, because I asked a friend to see if mine were solid or sharp when I hit his shins. Guys stop with the shortcuts, take the time to properly condition your bones and body. Having hardshins is not what Muay Thai is about, the Kru's don't condition there shins at all, the most they do is just hit the bags, they never rolled there shins with bottles, baseball bats or anything like that. What makes them deadly is there technique. I only conditioned my shins after I got my technique right. So work on your technique more then anything. Like my Kru says: "Walk before you run"!

[kh_s]

snipa151, do you mind telling me where your Muay Thai school is located or private msg me it ?