What's the Latest Thinking on Shin Conditioning?

[sanjuro_ronin]

two things happen when you "forge" anything, be it shins or arm or hands, one is the "deadening" of the nerves so you feel less pain, the other is the increase of bone density from repetitive shock trauma.
Rolling of pins and such works the deadening of nerves part and does nothing for the impact/increase in bone density part.
Hitting a dense/hard HB gives you the repetitive shock trauma part, as does kicking banana trees, padded posts and such.
The issue is, like IP, you have to take into account what you are hitting when you decide HOW to hit.
EX:
Hitting a "soft" target like a HB can be done full force for many kicks over a long period of time, although typically, all those kicks IF done full force will be done over the span of the WHOLE workout ( BH, Pads and such), or they well be done at a more moderate pace for a few rounds.
When you are kicking or hitting your shines with a harder medium like a iron shot filled bag, padded post, old lady at the bus stop, you need to "tap" the shin ( a light strike" and you need to do around 100 or so and then put on the jow.
You do NOT hit a hard medium full force, not in training anyways.

[Hendrik]

One needs to strengthen one's Kidney function before doing those conditioning.

Bone is weak if the Bone marrow is not fill. and to fill Bone marrow, one needs to have a healty kidney. Thus, in the ancient practice, even with a strong kidney, one is request to shut down the reproduction system or sex activity for 3 months for basic conditioning. and limited sex activity after the training for a life time as soon as one want to keep the strenght and high density bone.

These stuffs are no just hit some iron shot or massage with dit Da wine. it is serious stuffs.

With today's eating of massive process food, one has become more and more fragile. Thus, be careful on what you are doing. Dont screw up your body.

[monkey mind]

By the time I finished nearly 2 years of Muay Thai training, most of that in Thailand, I had very hard shins. In my opinion, kicking a heavy bag provides some conditioning but it will really prepare your shins only for the stress of hitting a relatively soft target. To condition the shins further, so that you can withstand a properly executed knee block for example, something harder is necessary. We used a stack of old car tires. We'd kick the tires every day, but only about 25 times each leg. Starting off with light kicks, over the period of about a year I built up where I could kick the tires with about 80 power and only minor discomfort. At this point, my shins could take a good block with little difficulty. On many occasions I witnessed my teacher kick the steel posts that supported the corners of the ring, and kick them hard. This had to do not only with good conditioning, but with proper technique as well - partly flexing the foot while kicking keeps the foreleg muscles & ankle tendons activated so they can support the bone.

As for deadening nerves, I don't think that was a factor in my conditioning.I often checked by brushing my shins lightly with my fingertips & never had a problem with losing sensation. I think my pain-feedback loop was simply rewired over time, so that when a serious impact was no longer interpreted as a danger, my body no longer initiated the pain response.

I stopped this kind of training a few years ago, but recently got myself a tire stack at home to begin it again. My days in the ring are over, but I do think that if you ever want to be able to use any martial technique in the real world, even just for self-defense, then you'd better condition your body to be ready.

[IronFist]

As for deadening nerves, I don't think that was a factor in my conditioning.I often checked by brushing my shins lightly with my fingertips & never had a problem with losing sensation. I think my pain-feedback loop was simply rewired over time, so that when a serious impact was no longer interpreted as a danger, my body no longer initiated the pain response.

Agreed. When I was using the iron body bags, I could still feel super light touches on my forearms and shins. I would test myself periodically. I could feel a bug crawl across my forearm, or the tickle from a feather, or a very light touch.

And it wasn't just because of the hair that I was feeling it because the daily massaging caused a bit of hair to fall out over time

[SteveLau]

Deadening of the nerves here does not mean make it to the level of not feeling anything. We do not want to become walking corpse. It means feel of dull pain instead of intoreable sharp pain when our shin is being hit. By the way, I had noticeable improvement in my iron shin training last Sunday since I had increased the frequency of training three weeks ago. The same improvement years ago I had in iron arm training when I switched from hitting wood equipment to iron equipment.

P.S. In doing pre-arranged sparring drills with a new partner in April, I did not block his high hook kick properly once. Instead of blocking his shin with both of my forearms, my right forearm got hit first. It resulted in minor injury with dull pain on my right arm for a few days, and no bruise, nothing else. I strongly believe my iron arm training has paid off. Otherwise, the injury would be more severe.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[sanjuro_ronin]

Deadening of the nerves here does not mean make it to the level of not feeling anything. We do not want to become walking corpse. It means feel of dull pain instead of intoreable sharp pain when our shin is being hit. By the way, I had noticeable improvement in my iron shin training last Sunday since I had increased the frequency of training three weeks ago. The same improvement years ago I had in iron arm training when I switched from hitting wood equipment to iron equipment.

P.S. In doing pre-arranged sparring drills with a new partner in April, I did not block his high hook kick properly once. Instead of blocking his shin with both of my forearms, my right forearm got hit first. It resulted in minor injury with dull pain on my right arm for a few days, and no bruise, nothing else. I strongly believe my iron arm training has paid off. Otherwise, the injury would be more severe.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

This is correct.

[SteveLau]

Another thing about iron shin training, there are other methods that I have heard of though the methodology is the same - hit. For instance, one method is hurt and then recover to make the shin bone and skin stronger. However, I do not adopt it because it is unhealthy to me. Besides, such method is too unsafe.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong