I am new to martial arts, I have been a boxer all my life I just "converted" and started learning a style and have been conditioning myself to kick. I know its normal for your shins to bruise but what about your feet? My right foot does not bruise much but my left foot bruises all the way up to the toes. It doesnt hurt or anything even when I touch it (only on the first day when its swollen), maybe its just my skin color?
My shins used to bruise real bad, and it hurt like hell too. But after about a month, it stopped hurting and no longer bruised when I kick my bag. Don't know about feet though...I rarely kick with my feet, and if I do it's with the heel...and that doesn't hurt/bruise at all. Your shins will definitely become conditioned to it after a while. Just gotta put up with the pain in the meantime.
It just takes time for your shins/legs/feet to adjust to the repeated impact on a heavy bag. As time goes by you will find that you bruise less and less until the point where it's rare to get a bruise. A large part of this is your distance and timing. Wrong distance leads to bruising... too far out and you catch more of the foot and all that power hits the ankle and the bones in the feet and toes. They will swell up and change color if you nail them hard enough. It just takes time to find that distance where you sink your shin right through the bag like a hot knife through butter. Give it some time and play with your distance and timing. You will find that working through the distance with a conscious effort to land the area of the shin from the ankle on up will make a huge difference in how much you bruise your feet.
Yes it is normal to begin with but if you keep conditioning your shins off the bag then it will hurt lessand less
Agree with the above however want to point out you should not be kicking the bag with your feet at all. Sometimes as a matter of practise it will happen from time to time however, try to kick the bag only with your shins. It will feel a litle odd at first but it is a much better surface to be striking with. Much more damaging. All the best with your kicks!
Sidekick n e one? As with all kicks/strikes regardless of what part of your body you are using, continued practice will strengthen and condition the area(s).
I remember I used to bruise up a lot when I first started kicking and would go home after class and massage and ice the area. This would often slow down the bruising. But over time, like mentioned above you condition your body and will hardly bruise at all.
A large part of the reason people bruise so easily at the beginning is because they are kicking out of range. So they are catching an unconditioned leg with a huge amount of leverage and power on the bag. As time goes by you learn distance and timing much better. Most people don't realize they improve this over time as it happens slowly and imperceptably by and large. Learning where to catch the foot/leg/shin on the bag is a big deal that slowly happens and so as you get better your injuries and bruising become less. In addition to the improved conditioning of the leg/shin/foot etc.
