# Skin conditioning



## GetOntheGoodFoot (Sep 21, 2012)

hello, I don't exactly practice muay thai(as of yet) but I am very much into fitness & I do exercise on a leather boxing Heavy bag. Every now and then I decide to try and condition my elbows, end result being bloody elbows with less skin. Ive read that the skin toughens over time, but I want to know if its really productive or normal to go through skinning yourself(and they do scab over) in order for your skin to toughen up enough to withstand it or is it bad for you in the long run?

hopefully this post is acceptable for the muay thai forum, if not I apologize.


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## lklawson (Sep 21, 2012)

It's normal.  Go a little bit lighter until your skin starts to toughen.  No use rubbing your skin raw.

Jack Dempsey once recommended applying "Camphor ice" to knuckles raw from bag work.

In old style western boxing ("pugilism"), it was common to use a jow-like application.  Usually it was some sort of solution which contained a weak tanic acid which caused cross-linking of the collagen in the skin.  However there were other solutions including pickling brine and there's rumored to be a recipe which includes urine which would have provided uric acid for an effect similar to tanic acid.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk


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## PoolMan (Sep 21, 2012)

Taking some skin off and a little blood are perferctly normal parts of hitting a bag hard with any part of your body. But they shouldn't be getting overly bloody. Make sure you are hitting the bag squarely and not just skimming it.


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