Do you guys use any supplements to help with the shins?

A lot of people claim they drink more of it to help with the added calcium.

 

Yeah, although I can't pretend to know the exact effects it has, but more calcium can't be a bad thing for bone repair. When I started Muay Thai, my shins would be bruised like hell, knee to ankle, just from hitting pads. For shin conditioning, all I did was pads, bags, drink milk, and some running (I read somewhere that road-work helps built leg bone density?). It seems to have worked fine for me, can't recall a shin injury for quite some time now, although I don't yet fight bare-shin either.

Also, as already stated, your shins will hurt the day after fighting bare-shin, no matter what you do. Adrenaline will keep you from feeling that pain in the fight itself though, other than if you kick into a check or a knee/elbow. Timing is very important for saving your shins from un-necessary damage.

 

I recall reading that the body repairs its bones by adding density to areas that are stressed the most, now whether that's completely true or not I have no idea.

 

It's not really repairing as much as it is growing. Your skeleton will adjust by making bones bigger/denser (not on an extremely noticeable scale) wherever they have a load on them constantly. It's one of the reasons weight lifting is advocated so much, especially in older people and women especially who tend to develop osteoporosis in their later years.

 

Yes, that's sort of what I was trying to say...poorly apparently lol.