# Help my legs



## Damon1698 (Mar 26, 2009)

What are some good conditioning workouts to strengthen my shins ? I bike a lot and skateboard and man... I've had my fair share of cuts and bruises, I'd just want to know a simple home exercise/work out.


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## terryl965 (Mar 26, 2009)

Wrap a old mattress around a tree and start kicking it, they will get condition. Make sure you have some Dit Dat Dow on hand to rub those leg down afterward.


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## clfsean (Mar 27, 2009)

terryl965 said:


> Wrap a old mattress around a tree and start kicking it, they will get condition. Make sure you have some Dit Dat Dow on hand to rub those leg down afterward.



That's a simple way to do it. 

Another simple way is to take a broomstick & just run it up & down the shins. 

And have the dit da handy.


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## Aiki Lee (Mar 27, 2009)

clfsean said:


> That's a simple way to do it.
> 
> Another simple way is to take a broomstick & just run it up & down the shins.
> 
> And have the dit da handy.


 
Yes this is what I used to do, only instead of a broom I used a baseball bat. Same thing though.


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## clfsean (Mar 27, 2009)

Himura Kenshin said:


> Yes this is what I used to do, only instead of a broom I used a baseball bat. Same thing though.



Yeah but a baseball bat doesn't have the same diameter for the length of it. You want something (especially early on) nice & uniformed. Even later when weight has been added & materials changed, you want the uniformity of the object to keep the pressure on the legs the same.


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## Nolerama (Mar 27, 2009)

I used to skateboard and aggressive inline. If you were about tackling any kind of rails or spent any amount of time in a skate park, your shins should be solid. My shins are scarred and lumpy from all the reminders of my failed grinding attempts, or catching air in the middle of the vert spine and crashing on my shin on the reentry.

What you could be experiencing are shin splints, and they go away with time and exercise. I prefer running.


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## Skpotamus (Mar 28, 2009)

Rolling something up and down your shins is the absolute worst thing you can do for shin conditioning.  It will deaden nerves, but won't strengthen the bones like repeated impacts will.  The only safe way to strengthen shins is by kicking a heavybag and pads a lot.  

I have yet to even hear of a Muay Thai school doing anything other than kicking the heavy bags and thai pads regularly for shin conditioning.  The rolling thing seems to be an invention of TMA students trying to take shortcuts in conditioning.  

One big misconception about shin conditioning is that hitting something hard will no longer hurt.  That's simply not true.  You can get used to it and strengthen your shins through kicking though, so that it doesn't bother you when you did hit something hard (elbow, knee, shinbone, etc).


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## clfsean (Mar 28, 2009)

Skpotamus said:


> Rolling something up and down your shins is the absolute worst thing you can do for shin conditioning.  It will deaden nerves, but won't strengthen the bones like repeated impacts will.  The only safe way to strengthen shins is by kicking a heavybag and pads a lot.



Baby steps... one thing at a time. 



Skpotamus said:


> I have yet to even hear of a Muay Thai school doing anything other than kicking the heavy bags and thai pads regularly for shin conditioning.  The rolling thing seems to be an invention of TMA students trying to take shortcuts in conditioning.


 
Who said anything about Muay Thai? And no the "rolling thing" is a baby step on condition... just like partner work before dummy work.



Skpotamus said:


> One big misconception about shin conditioning is that hitting something hard will no longer hurt.  That's simply not true.  You can get used to it and strengthen your shins through kicking though, so that it doesn't bother you when you did hit something hard (elbow, knee, shinbone, etc).



Again... who said anything about it not hurting? It still hurts, just not as bad.


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## Skpotamus (Mar 28, 2009)

clfsean said:


> Who said anything about Muay Thai? And no the "rolling thing" is a baby step on condition... just like partner work before dummy work.
> quote]
> 
> It's not a babystep, it's a useless step that doesn't get you any closer to your objective.  The reason I use Muay Thai as an example is that they are pretty much the pinacle of shin conditioning, literally slamming their shins against each other, full speed and power hundreds of times in a fight, repeated throughout a typical career that spans over 100 fights in a few years.  Every MT gym I've been too or heard of says the only way to condition your shins is by kicking pads and bags.  Anything else is either useless or dangerous.
> ...


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## clfsean (Mar 28, 2009)

Skpotamus said:


> clfsean said:
> 
> 
> > Who said anything about Muay Thai? And no the "rolling thing" is a baby step on condition... just like partner work before dummy work.
> ...


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## Akira (Mar 29, 2009)

Yeah what would the Thais know about shin conditioning??  Geez..:lol:


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## Damon1698 (Apr 16, 2009)

let me clarify, I want to be able to kick someone using my shin as hard as I can without breaking it. lol.


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## blindsage (Apr 16, 2009)

Muy Thai fighters are not the only ones who use the shins or toughen them.  I used to do Kyokushin Karate and they smash their shins just as much as Thai fighters do.  Shin conditioning has a couple of elements: 1) getting used to hitting them, just this process like any other part of your body, helps. 2) deadening the nerves in the shin, yes, factually, this is part of shin conditioning and part of why the pain gets less over time. 3) muscle conditioning, working out the muscles in the shin and around the shin into good shape helps as well.  Here's a good article on it, http://www.ironlife.com/mag/issue6/shin.shtml

This all being said, rolling a bar or broomstick (in my case my teachers recommended an old style glass coke bottle) will help deaden the nerves in your shin which *IS* a piece of the conditioning process, but it is not all that goes into it for fighters.


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## Xue Sheng (Apr 16, 2009)

terryl965 said:


> Wrap a old mattress around a tree and start kicking it, they will get condition. Make sure you have some Dit Dat Dow on hand to rub those leg down afterward.


 
treeeessss :EG:


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## kaizasosei (Apr 16, 2009)

Practice seiza!  Practice seiza or kneeling not only on wood and concrete, kneel on sharp corners or lay out a bunch of bamboo and kneel on it for longer and longer periods of time . Move around on it by shifting weight.  
practice kicking semi hard things as well as soft things. 
Even if you have tough shins, you still need to hit accurately to really give you a good strike-which is the goal, i take it.     

I heard that in thailand they put sand in a bottle and hit their own shins over and over again.  Sure must be good to train the stress of handeling the shock.  
Good idea to eat lots of nuts or poppyseed, sesame seed(basically seeds are the best calcium source)
Even though one would want to learn to take a strong shock to the bones, it would be wise to work on absorbing the shock when neccesary. One simple way to do this, i would think is to train until it hurts so bad or the force is so dangerously strong that one must absorb or even slow down a tad.


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## girlbug2 (Apr 16, 2009)

I was surprised when I read kaizasosei's post, but it turns out that yes, sesame seeds are extremely high in calcium! Whether or not they are _the best_ is subjective, but indeed at 900 mg/serving it's one of the highest.


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## Akira (Apr 17, 2009)

kaizasosei said:


> I heard that in thailand they put sand in a bottle and hit their own shins over and over again. Sure must be good to train the stress of handeling the shock..


 
I can confirm they don't. I've trained in Thailand for a while and I've never seen this at my gym, nor any other gym I've trained at. 

Funny the only people who ever talk about doing such practices are never Thais. The Thais condition by kicking thai pads, heavy bags, sometimes banana trees and of course, each other.


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## Skpotamus (Apr 17, 2009)

Akira said:


> I can confirm they don't. I've trained in Thailand for a while and I've never seen this at my gym, nor any other gym I've trained at.
> 
> Funny the only people who ever talk about doing such practices are never Thais. The Thais condition by kicking thai pads, heavy bags, sometimes banana trees and of course, each other.


 
+1
Every thai trainer I've ever met told me to kick the pads and bags and a few specifically told me NOT to hit my shins with bottles, sticks, roll stuff on them etc.  The only places I've seen or heard of bottles and sticks were here in the states at gyms NOT run by professionals who actually were fighting.


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## kaizasosei (Apr 17, 2009)

I think i have tried to hit my shins with a bottle when i was a kid just to try it out because i read about that bottle story quite a while ago.  Now i don't remember if the sand goes in the bottle or on the shins as well, but whatever the case, i admit i myself don't practice this.  I just remember reading about it.  

If i were to kick with my shins in a fight, i would try to hit a target softer than my shins- maybe like theighs, ribs or side of knee(kindof nasty).
If it came down to shin on shin collisions, i would hope that i don't experience as much pain as the opponent and have the skill or luck of hitting/being hit at a favorable angle.

But let's take a closer look at what we need to have truly badass shins.  
First of all, the shins are the strongest bones in the body, so they are quite tough as it is.  Greater chance of injuring the skin and surface of shins that breaking the bone.  This is not the case with the adjacent fibula and the shin itself does have weaker spots like at the base close to the ankle where the bone actually becomes more and more narrow and then slightly wider as it fuses to the ankle.  

Where the shin bone is strong, it even possible to damage the shin bone to some degree without it breaking because the bone is so dense and accustomed to stress.

In order to be able to use shins as a weapon, one may want to desensitize the nerves around the area by repeatedly striking with shins, or striking the shins with a given object or substance.
With repetitive intense training, the stress and controlled selfinduces injuries will cause the shins to develop extra bone tissue which will feel like small bulges and inconsistencies on edge of the bone(i have a little of this from a accident at at swimming pool as a youngster-backflip went wrong-nasty-nuff said)
Depending on the person i believe one can also develop different kinds of padding on top of the bone-like fat that coagulates to some degree.
Lastly, if one wants to be extreme and practices barelegged enough one could even aim to toughen the skin to a point that one develops callouses.  This is probably a good thing for the ultaserious shinkicker but it will be visible to others and may look a bit menacing if not just shocking.

Of course, getting a good source of nutrition to feed the bones with the necessary stuff to develop, is important too. Also avoiding drug use or radiation and anything that will rob the bones of their natural strength.

Lastly, the shin is only as good as the leg and feet, so it is most positive to practice kneeling and stretch legs and toes to the max. 

I hope this helps them and that they are not hurt by, but flourish to dangerously though yet healthy slabs, through  whatever you plan on doing to them..



j


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