# Feet Strengthening and Hardening



## Archtkd (Oct 17, 2010)

What do you folks, especially those doing a lot of sparring, do to strengthen and harden the foot instep and blade? I'm talking about long term excercise routines and safe conventional methods for adults and older adults.


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## chrispillertkd (Oct 17, 2010)

Probably the best thing to do to harden those areas of your foot is to kick the heavy bag on a normal basis. Think of it as a fom of _dallyon_ and try to do it daily if possible. 

I also think that training on a wooden floor, as opposed to mats hich are pretty popular in a lot of schools, helps to keep the bottom of the foot and footsword in good shape for kicking. The added cushion of padding doesn't do much for building up tough feet from what I have seen.

Pax,

Chris


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## Archtkd (Oct 17, 2010)

Thanks a lot. We train  on a wooden floor so the bottom of the feet are OK. The insteps, which tends to be on most of the recieving end of hard blocks and elbows, are the main area of concern We have Wavemaster kicking bags, which we use on a daily basis. I almost thinking of getting at a suspended boxing bag, which tend to become hard as stone when stuff settles at the bottom.


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## ralphmcpherson (Oct 17, 2010)

Training on wooden floors certainly helps, Ive only ever trained on padded floors a few times and really didnt like it. After continually smashing up the top of my foot over the years I have tended (probably subconsciously) to start using a lot more kicks that use the heel and incorporate the heel more and more into kicks. Axe kick, side kick, hook kick, spinning hook are all kicks Im using a lot of and using the heel. The heavy bag does work well for toughening up the top of the feet also.


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## bluewaveschool (Oct 17, 2010)

I wouldn't know, i do 0 kicks that use either the blade or instep.  My shins take more punishment than anything during sparring.  Not quick enough to not be there, so block shin to shin a lot.  Left shin always has some nice black/blue spots.


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## terryl965 (Oct 17, 2010)

Well kicking more will always help with a canvas heavy bag, but that will hurt until you build those insteps up over a period of time.


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## dancingalone (Oct 18, 2010)

Archtkd said:


> What do you folks, especially those doing a lot of sparring, do to strengthen and harden the foot instep and blade? I'm talking about long term excercise routines and safe conventional methods for adults and older adults.



I am a proponent of hand conditioning, but I do not believe the same level of efficacy can be accomplished with the instep or the blade of the foot.  Too many small bones IMO to safely be able to accomplish this.

Like mentioned above, I would emphasize kicking with the ball of foot, heel, shins, and knees since they are naturally strong already.  The shins can be conditioned successfully.  Just google for 'Muay Thai' and 'conditioning' and you should be able to find some information.


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## Gorilla (Oct 18, 2010)

My kids train allot as competitors and have very conditioned feet and shins.  About every 6 months they need to take about 3 weeks off from heavy kicking to heal up.  It is important in all areas of training that you take rest periods. We try to alternate rest periods so that they are always working but at different levels of intensity.


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## Gemini (Oct 18, 2010)

Archtkd said:


> What do you folks, especially those doing a lot of sparring, do to strengthen and harden the foot instep and blade? I'm talking about long term excercise routines and safe conventional methods for adults and older adults.


 
Primarily, the heavy bag. I'm not sure it hardens it as much as it builds a tolerance for kicking with those parts of your foot. Catching an elbow is painful regardless of your conditioning, but not necessarily debilitating. An added advantage is it will burn your foot if you don't roll your hip properly and slide up the bag instead of kicking though it.


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## ATC (Oct 18, 2010)

Gorilla said:


> My kids train allot as competitors and have very conditioned feet and shins. About every 6 months they need to take about 3 weeks off from heavy kicking to heal up. It is important in all areas of training that you take rest periods. We try to alternate rest periods so that they are always working but at different levels of intensity.


 
Great post. Time off is always needed. Both of my kids just got back from quite some time off. They both missed the last couple of tournament and my daughter will miss this next upcoming tournament (foot problem). If not forced to take the down time they would not.

*Back to the OP question. Your feet don't get tougher but rather you get use to or desensitized to the pain. It is not your feet that toughen, but your mind. Short of causing nerve damage there is not much that can be done for the feet (instep). You need to train your mind to endure.*

My son just got back from a pretty bad groin tear. He tore it during training for the last JO's (Jr. Olympics). He never told anyone. After the JO's were over he would cry during training but never looked like anything was wrong. Kicks looked fast and strong and he did not change the way he fought. It was only after starting a 10 mile run that I notice he started to limp really bad after about 3 or 4 miles in. We turned and walked back and I took him to the doctors. He told the doc that his groin had been hurting for some months. He was told to reset for 4 to 6 weeks with no training. Well he did that and the first day back first kick he tore it again. Tried to push through but was forced to take off again. Came back 2 weeks later and once again tore it. Never healed properly was more like it.

I finally took him to a sports therapist and had him rehab it not just rest it. It finally healed up after 2 weeks of daily rehab. His first time training without pain was this past Friday (10/15/10).

Me and his Master instructor sat him and my daughter down and had a stern talking to them both about letting someone know when they don't feel right. Sometimes pushing past pain or enduring pain is a bad thing cause pain is the bodies way as telling you that something is not right. We let them know that they need to understand their bodies and learn how to take care of it. Pushing past bumps and bruises is one thing but injury is something that should not be ignored, doing that can lead to lifelong problems that can be prevented when you know the difference between the two.

*My point is train the mind. Your body will harden as to minimize injury, but the nerves that dictate pain will always be there. How do you do that. Kick a hard heavy bag often. Even when it hurts just keep kicking it. Your mind will remember that feeling and after some time it will start to ignore what it is use to feeling. It will still hurt but not as much. Not because you don&#8217;t feel it or your feet got tougher but because your mind expected that feeling and won&#8217;t maximize the alert signal.*

*The end result will be total body toughening.*

*There is some science behind it. I will try to find it for you. The brain just minimizes the release of the chemical that produces pain.*


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## Archtkd (Oct 19, 2010)

Thanks all for the good advice. We can never learn enough on this long journey known was Taekwondo, can we?


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