✖www.fightorflight.tv

Anybody who trains Muay Thai once knows the importance of having shins that are conditioned. That first training session puts many people in agony and leaves them with painful bruising. Unfortunately, there is no way around the pain and only time with strengthen your shins. Having shins that are strong and less sensitive to kicks is important to every fighter.

A Traditional Method to Avoid
Everybody seems to have advice on shin conditioning properly. Traditionally, fighters in Thailand would repeatedly kick banana trees. I would recommend against this approach, as it’s quite painful, dangerous, and perhaps not the best approach. It’s training ideas like these that cause many pro Muay Thai fighters outside of the U.S. to retire by the time their mid 20s roll around.

Bottles and Rolling Pins
Many practitioners will recommend taking a bottle or an ordinary baker’s rolling pin and rolling it down your shin repeatedly. Repeated use is said to deaden the nerves in the legs over time and strengthen the bone while building callouses. It also acts to toughen the individual up. Nothing raises the pain threshold to an area quicker than repeated striking. There are, however, those that believe that these methods are not the correct way to condition shins, while others swear by it. If you are thinking about conditioning your own, do some research to reach your own conclusions.

The Heavy Bag
Perhaps the safest and most widely used technique is simply the repeated kicking of a heavy bag. Kick it until you can’t kick it anymore. Do this on a daily basis and eventually your legs will be made of stone and you will feel far less pain in your legs. Few people disagree with this method of conditioning and it can be scaled up by beginning with a softer bag and moving to heavier, more dense bags.