Shin Conditioning

[Sho Nuff]

Does anyone know about the Shin conditioning techniques used by Muay Thai practitioners particularly, the sequence of conditioning exercises and the salves used during the process?

[Siege]

Use a baseball bat and rub it up and down (firmly) your shin daily. It hurts like hell but it supposedly works.

[Sho Nuff]

Ive heard a rubber plant or rubber tire is the best way to start. I use the plastic base on a wavemaster for training now, but the recovery time between sessions is long. Maybe I should tone back the intensity of my kicks or find a salve to decrease the recovery time..

[Da Munk]

From what I've heard shin conditioning in Muay Thai is mostly just working with the heavy bag and Thai pads.

[Bossnass]

Originally Posted by Siege

Use a baseball bat and rub it up and down (firmly) your shin daily. It hurts like hell but it supposedly works.

Back in the day, my sifu told me that such practices wouldn't work. Granted, he was a kung fu instructor, not muay thai. My hands, elbows, shins, and feet used to be way tougher than they are now, but just though mass repetition on pads and bags. The bags were always filled with grains of some sort (dry beans, wheat, etc).

Other than ice and a little 'chinese ointment' (some sort of methol based liquid that was bought in chinatown, I didn't have much recovery method.

The trees that were kicked way back when were soft banana trees.

[Mongolguy]

Sho Nuff, Do a search for "Dit da jow" it's an ointment used to condition your hands for Iron palm but it works damn good for your shins and elbows too.
If you can find someone who sells the ingredients you can make your own. Just steep them in cheap vodka for a month or so (the darker, the better)
Apply befor and after training.

[Siege]

Originally Posted by Bossnass

Back in the day, my sifu told me that such practices wouldn't work. Granted, he was a kung fu instructor, not muay thai. My hands, elbows, shins, and feet used to be way tougher than they are now, but just though mass repetition on pads and bags. The bags were always filled with grains of some sort (dry beans, wheat, etc).

Hmm, I coulda swore I saw the baseball bat thing on discovery or something. However, although it makes sense to me, I could be wrong as I haven't done it myself.

[Kewpie Dan]

the only thing i do is just work the bags and pads religiously. my shins aren't as tough as they used to be, but that's just because i'm not at the club 5 days a week anymore.

i don't think there are any tricks to toughen up your shins faster. just work at it and it will come.

if you are getting hurt to the point that you can't train again after 2 days you should decrease the intensity and work up to it.

other than that keep up the training, good luck!

[BigTruck1956]

Originally Posted by Siege

Use a baseball bat and rub it up and down (firmly) your shin daily. It hurts like hell but it supposedly works.

This helps for shin-splints, but i dunno how effective it is for general shin toughening. I did this in my track running days, except i used a rolling pin instead of a baseball bat. And yes, when you have shin splints, it hurts like hell.