Get a bag full of pee gravel (or is it pea?) and stand it straight up. Find a way to support it (get creative with how you set it up i.e. lincoln log style for support) and start at the top of the bag. Kick it everyday and slowly move down the bag as the days progress. Your shins should fracture and rebuild after you have done this for a long while. By the time you get to kicking the bottom of the bag as hard as you can everyday, your shins will be like rocks.
I read an article in the Asian Journal of Martial Arts that was against rolling things on your shins to toughen them. They published a study of Muay Thai practitioners over a 30 year period. The ones that hit banana trees (which are similar in density to a heavy bag) toughened up their shins over a longer period of time, but had no nerve damage. Those that used wooden rollers or hit hardwood poles developed thicker bone density in a shorter period of time, but a large percentage suffered nerve damage in the shin area later in life.
The guy that I know who did the pea gravel heavy bag thing that I wrote about can't feel anything in his shins. It's pretty fun to watch him kickbox.
Go get an bag from the army surplus store (those big green bags) and fill it with pea gravel. Don't get a huge bag, you need something that you will be able to kick at a lot (no taller than say your waist). If you kick this bag, starting at the top, your shins will slowly break down and rebuild. By the time you get to the bottom, the bag is very hard (from all the gravel, similar to a heavy bag and it's sand).
don't try stupid stuff like kicking solid objects or hitting your shins with wood. It takes patience, if you're a begginer then the right way is get conditioning by hitting the heavy bag/thai pads.
LMAO at kicking a fuckin tree. I bet they kicked trees b/c they had little else in the equipment dept. I can only imagine how brutal it would be to repeatedly kick a tree.
I mean ive been taking Muay Thai for a couple weeks now and my shins are so bruised I can't kick the bag more than a few times without feeling to much pain. How long before you get over the hump and can kick the bag repeatedly without significant brusing.
A few more weeks maybe. Kicking the bag or pads never bothered my shins, 15 years of getting whacked in the shins with skateboards and play soccer without shinguards did that for me. I couldnt tell you how long. Just make sure you are treating your bruises like any other injury, with ice. While I cant tell you how long it will take for your shins to become conditioned enough for excessive bag work you can reduce your recovery time by taking care of them like any other injured part of your body. Treat the injury, eat right and get plenty of rest.
Banana trees are very soft and supple. Kicking an oak or something stupid like that is a sure ticket to the hospital.
In order for them to rebuild then a person needs some time off... am I correct? If you keep on kicking then you will continue to break them down. If this is correct how much time should a person take off so that you shins will rebuild? Is a week enough? Thanks. Wolverine ///
AFAIK, you only need a break if you seriously damage or break your shins. Bones tend to grow under pressure, that's why sometimes you have these metal casts pressing the bones together so they heal faster. It's different from muscle growth. To be honest with you, I don't really think shin conditioning is about making your bones stronger (although they do get stronger). It's more about desensitising them so you can take hits with less pain. Your shins are already fucking hard without any conditioning whatsoever, it's just that it hurts like hell to get hit.
So starting out rolling them and kicking a heavy bag maybe 3 times a week is a good or bad idea? I want to start conditioning my shins before I start at a new Muay Thai school.
I think that the consensus is that rolling things on your shins is bad, and kicking the heavy bag is good. If your bag is not heavy enough, you can use some shin pads on a hard surface. just don't kick anything solid, make sure there is a bit of cushion (like thai pads, heavy bag, etc).
Or you could just say f**k the bullshit and slam your shin into a car on your motorcycle and have some custom titanium installed in your leg like I did! OR.... kick a concrete pillar like Tom Po did. He had pretty strong kicks....
