How long does it take for microfractures to heal?

Discussion in 'General Martial Arts Discussion' started by Godzilladude123, Jan 21, 2018.

  1. Godzilladude123

    Godzilladude123 New Member

    Hey guys. I'm currently a senior high school student who's going to start attending a muay thai clinic this April. I can't wait to finally learn martial arts. Due to my excitement I've been researching about muay thai for almost a month now. However there is one question that seems to elude me.

    Many muay thai fighters practice a lot of roundhouse kicks and low kicks on either a heavy bag or a banana tree to create microfractures in the shins to make it tougher (known as Wolf's law?) to the point that they can kick baseball bats in two (I hear legit Thai fighters kick a tree 1000 times a day to deaden nerve cells... OMG). While I obviously won't be doing that amount of kicks on a bag yet since I am a beginner, I am curious of how long does it take for microfactures in a shin to heal? If I'm going to start training, I don't want to overtrain myself and end up like Paul George or Anderson Silva who ended up with snapped shin legs.

    So how long does it take for microfractures to heal?
     
  2. axelb

    axelb Master of Office Chair Fu

    It's a common misconception that Muay Thai training involves kicking "trees", even though it's often called a tree, the banana tree is an collection of tightly packed leaves.
    Kicking this is on par with kicking a heavy bag.

    The repeated kicking does cause the bone to adapt and become stronger to a point. This doesn't intentionally involve micro fractures, I'm not saying that they doesn't happen, as in sparring this can happen, but it's not required for that process to work.

    microfractures can set your training back, days or weeks depending on your age/health/lifestyle/day job.

    Don't let this put you off starting, any gym worth looking at isn't going to have you going home with microfractures constantly.
    You will get bruises, this is part of martial arts training, but this is not the same as regular microfractures.

    It takes years/decades of dedicated training to get to that level, all contact sports have the same risks.

    Don't let what you see at top level athletes put you off starting.
     
  3. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Don't worry, you won't be intentionally hitting anything that hard. Your nerves will deaden over time and hitting things will feel less painful over time. Don't go out of your way to do this thogh, it will happen through training on its own.
     
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  4. Van Zandt

    Van Zandt Mr. High Kick

    Tibial fractures can take anywhere from 2 to 5 months to heal depending on: severity and extent of the injury; treatment and rehabilitation protocols used; and assessment of healing criteria.[1]

    Understand that fractures are exactly that: injury. No rational training programme would purposely cause injury, especially not an injury as significant as fractures. Get it out of your head that kicking banana trees or concrete posts is a good thing. It is stupid.

    Also, proper training does not "deaden" the nerves. You need fully functioning sensory and motor nerves - dead nerves are not good nor fun. Trust me, I have a neuropathic disorder which plays havoc with the nerves in my legs and it isn't a nice experience. It's likely that the mechanism behind being able to comfortably kick dense objects like Thai pads and heavy bags is a recalibration of one's pain threshold. Build up progressively over a long period of time.

    [1] Acceleration of Tibial Fracture-Healing by Non-Invasive,... : JBJS
     
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