Hardening bones

**devilboy7778** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 7:12am

Does hardening your bones increase your chance in getting arthritis or any other various types of bone deficiency. By hardening I am mostly referring to how Muay Thai fighters kick trees and what not, it seems like there should be some probably with their legs when they are older.:icescream

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 7:21am

http://www.horizonmuaythai.com/history.html

"In the early days Muay Thai training equipment was found from nature. The smooth, slightly spongy nature of the trunk of a banana tree was found suitable for kicking practice."

With other words: banana trees are nature's boxing bags.

**devilboy7778** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 7:49am

Originally Posted by Zendokan

http://www.horizonmuaythai.com/history.html

"In the early days Muay Thai training equipment was found from nature. The smooth, slightly spongy nature of the trunk of a banana tree was found suitable for kicking practice."

With other words: banana trees are nature's boxing bags.

Right but that hardens your bones and when they are hardened could there be problems with those hardened bones in the future.

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 8:00am

Originally Posted by devilboy7778

Right but that hardens your bones and when they are hardened could there be problems with those hardened bones in the future.

No, you are increasing your bones density, not the hardness.
Just kick against a boxing bag without shinguards, the bones will slowly become more dense over a minimum period of 6 months.

The thing that causes problems with legs in Muay Thai isn't this form of conditioning, but sparring at trainings without the shinguards and overflexing the knee joints when kicking.

You fight without shinguards in competition and for conditioning against a boxing bag. At sparring, you use shinguards.

*Edit: I have asked the Moderator to move this thread to the basic striking forum*

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 3:32pm

I think I get what the OP is asking.

Yes, there is some eventual danger to continuous conditioning of the legs. A lot of Thai boxers have ended up with nasty leg problems from long hard careers of fighting, but you're probably not going to reach that stage unless you fight every week without proper nutrition and living conditions.

You can read more about the lives of Thai boxers from Dr. Kitiarsa, who's done lots of research on the subject.
http://sutir.sut.ac.th:8080/sutir/bi.../1/bib53.2.pdf

It doesn't deal specifically with the issue you're asking about, but he does mention the health issues of Thai boxers later in life.

**devilboy7778** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 5:10pm

Originally Posted by Conde Koma

I think I get what the OP is asking.

Yes, there is some eventual danger to continuous conditioning of the legs. A lot of Thai boxers have ended up with nasty leg problems from long hard careers of fighting, but you're probably not going to reach that stage unless you fight every week without proper nutrition and living conditions.

You can read more about the lives of Thai boxers from Dr. Kitiarsa, who's done lots of research on the subject.
http://sutir.sut.ac.th:8080/sutir/bi.../1/bib53.2.pdf

It doesn't deal specifically with the issue you're asking about, but he does mention the health issues of Thai boxers later in life.

Oh thanks for that.
Another question on the subject is like when martial artists punch in like buckets of sand to harden their hands there have been stories of them having arthritis due to that training. All word of mouth but still curious.

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 7:10pm

Hand Conditioning: Iron Palm, Wrapping of the hands, Bag Gloves?? - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

I haven't read the thing, but I'm assuming it should answer some of your questions. The search function is a wonderful thing.

**devilboy7778** · Posted On: 1/18/2010 7:13pm

Originally Posted by Conde Koma

Hand Conditioning: Iron Palm, Wrapping of the hands, Bag Gloves?? - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

I haven't read the thing, but I'm assuming it should answer some of your questions. The search function is a wonderful thing.

Ha agreed. As embarrassing and noobie as it sounds it (search) doesn't work wonders for me.

**MMAMickey** · Posted On: 1/19/2010 5:26am

full contact martial arts **** up your body, this is a fact. When we get old all of us who compete in boxing/MT/Judo/Wrestling are likely to have at least some kind of residual injury, but lifting heavy weights regularly or running also causes damage in the long term.

..what I'm getting at is dont worry about arthiritis, worry about getting good at fighting, and as long as you do things properly you won't be any more fucked up than the rest of us.