I read recently about Muay Thai practitioners rolling bamboo on their shins to toughen them, and deaden the nerves. Then I couldn't find where I read it, or anything further on that anywhere. Is that a common practice? What are the specifics? I could use tougher shins, if nothing else for walking across my living room in the dark.
I knew some guys who used rolling pins to the same effect, not a sore initially and it takes longer to get there, but a bit more comfortable! Thanx
That's exactly what I tried last night. I'm glad to hear that it works. I tried about five minutes each shin with moderate pressure and speed. If that's wildly different than the effective dose could you let me know?
hi i'm no expert in this area (or any other!) so feel free to contradict this is anyone knows better. I was advised against doing this because while it deadens the nerves in the shins it does not build up bone density in the shins which kicking the bag does do. Just a little something to add to the mix. Does anyone else know if this is true or not?
Hi Colin, I understand what you are saying, but the Thai guys do bagwork too (In some cases as soon as they are old enough to walk). What I am concerned about is the stories that Shin Trauma can lead to Bone Cancer. Anybody know more on that? Andy
Yikes. I know, in general, any type of cellular trauma has a possibility of causing cancer, but I've never heard any statistics about body toughening in particular. Never thought about that. Any idea if a dit da jow alleviates that?
All I know about shin cancer is that a friend of mine banged his shin in training - and 6 months later he was DEAD! Banging bones with hard objects is plain dumb! Wear shorts & kick the pads & bags - that's plenty conditioning.
I agree with Yoda, hitting your shins on hard objects is likely to do more harm than good. Deadening the nerves seems a pretty dangerous thing to do. It lessens the chance of you knowing if you have an injury. We use mariwaka boards to strengthen our shins. If I'm not mistaken, certain high stances like Neko Ashi Dachi (cat stance) can help as well. Although saying that the philosophy in our dojo is that there's nothing you can do to stop pain, you just have to get used to it.
All I know about shin cancer is that a friend of mine banged his shin in training - and 6 months later he was DEAD! Sorry to bring it up then Dave, and sorry for your loss. Andy
No need to be sorry Andy. If just one person reads it and doesn't do it then that'll be fine by me. There's only one thing you need to condition to take pain - your mind!
From the sounds of you guys you seem to know exactly what your on about.Do any of you have any tips on conditioning yourself against pain. cheers
I agree with Yoda, your mind is the most important thing to condition against pain. You have to be able to partition your mind to in effect temporarily turn the pain off. That will enable you to continue on rather than have physical pain hinder your performance. There is, of course, a limit to how far you can go with this. Depending upon your tolerance level for pain at the beginning and several other factors. Rob
Are there any more effective ways to train against pain than simply doing things that hurt and trying to ignore it?
Whatever you do don't learn to hold your hand in a candle flame. Its been four years and I've still got a scar from that.
Try meditation, being calm and realising what the pain is. Pain is only the body telling you something is happening to it. If you realise what is happening but need to do it anyway then you can exist with the pain and you get this kinda removed feeling from it, like it doesn't matter. I've this happening to a certain degree at the moment and it feels kinda strange when something hurts and the only reason you stop doing it is not the pain but the realisation that you are damaging your body. This is kinda hard to explain but I found meditation/meditative stretching and breathing to help immensly. In the end the pain doesn't matter and if its just the pain in your muscles from fatigue then you can also put a spin on it saying that its good for you to be doing this. I don't have enough control to take this to really big problems without some time - Something has been happening to my hip (it clunks when I raise my knee then put it down again) a few nights ago it went beserk and almost hurt when I walked. It took me a few seconds to get up after a couple of throws but it all seems to be good now for my grading this arvo. Pain is one of the most intense experiences we will ever have and right now some pain is almost enjoyable (well every experience is good because it hasn't happened before therefore it brings happiness, or should anyway).
has any 1 ever tried to re inact that van dam film we he repeatedly kicks the tree? ya could try that. hehehe
hi all, I posted a while back on this post about rolling pin shin conditioning not being good for you. Last night I was discussing this with someone and they were of the opinion that this was actually an OK way to condition the shins. I respect this persons opinion but they're not a doctor so I was wondering....does anyone in the know have an opinion on this method as a conditioning tool. Is it ok or a no-no? I know that its not a replacement for bag work, but is it ok to do alongside bagwork? Colin (who's very confused!)
I would generally agree with most of the posts here which say it's a bad idea 1) to eliminate pain and 2) to bash your shins to bits to get used to it! I don't know a great deal about this area but I would particularly agree with Darzeka in the area of meditation. If it is absolutely necassary to be able to handle pain in a situation I think meditation (although it takes a lot of time) would be the best option. There are many good books on this subject which you can buy. Unfortunately, if you pratice Muay Thai you are going to get banged!