How to Toughen Shins for Martial Arts

Fighters in Muy Thai and other martial arts need tough shins to spar or fight effectively. You can strengthen this overlooked body part with dedicated, consistent exercise.

Instructions

1. Protect your shins with a thin pad or cloth wrap. Employ successively thinned pads or wraps until you're working with your bare shins.

2. Kick a heavy bag repeatedly with your shins. Work out for ten minutes with each leg. This takes strong conditioning: you may need to alternate legs many times or take breaks as you train. Don't overdo it, especially at the beginning.

3. Work up to harder materials as your shins toughen. Train with the heavy bag until your shins no longer hurt after ten minutes of kicking. Then fill a bag with sand and kick that. Once the sand bag doesn't hurt your, you can train with a board wrapped in cloth.

4. Move from the bag to live practice. Train with a martial arts partner. Kick each others' shins lightly at first, then kick progressively harder as they toughen up.

Tips & Warnings

• If you experience pain that doesn't go away, something apart from normal soreness, curtail your training until it disappears. If it doesn't, see a doctor.