| A lot of Muay Thai fighters look to condition their | | | | heavy bag is a great way to condition your kicks and |
| shins by kicking hard wood or something similar. This | | | | you'll be able to go at it all day. After a while, |
| is not a good way to go about doing this and may | | | | though, you will feel your shins begin to bruise and |
| result in injury. If you want to properly condition | | | | you'll probably want to stop then. I'm not saying |
| your shins, then you'll need to kick something a bit | | | | you should stop because it hurts, but just because it'll |
| softer than a hard wood. Certain soft woods can | | | | slow down your training and make it more difficult to |
| be kicked with moderate intensity, but you still run | | | | condition your shins properly in the long run. |
| the risk of damaging your shin. | | | | So why do your shins get conditioned? Well, the |
| Kicking hard objects damages your shin because, | | | | main reason is that calcium deposits form in the bone |
| frankly, they are usually harder [or at least less | | | | and essentially build it up. This will increase the |
| brittle] than the bone in your shin. This will lead to | | | | strength of the bone and allow it to take more |
| the bone getting a bunch of small fractures that can | | | | damage before becoming damaged. The other |
| culminate in a serious injury or break. This is | | | | reason that your shins get conditioned is because the |
| something you want to avoid when conditioning your | | | | nerves become less sensitive - this means you can |
| shins because it can lead to long term damage that | | | | actually get hurt more and not realize it. This isn't |
| may be irreparable. | | | | particularly safe, but it's useful in a fight because it |
| The correct way to condition your shins is to hit soft | | | | allows you to continue fighting for longer periods of |
| wood at a moderate intensity or to hit bags. A firm | | | | time. |