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Comment by rqtwteye | Hacker News Reader

Totally agree. But a long time ago I saw a take kwon do guy break stones like you find in a river bed with his fist. I remember later on I saw his hands and they were almost crippled. They were huge and didn’t seem to have too much movement left. I think he broke them many times and would grow a lot of bone that way. Same way some muay Thai fighters have super solid shins.

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we had a guy at our studio seriously into this. you have to train a lot: hit bags of rice, then beans, then sand, then steel shot. eventually yes it tends to cripple your hands though that can be somewhat mitigated by rigorous mobility exercises and basically PT. still do not advise.

note that almost any fighters knuckles will be more solid as the lattice structure of the bone gradually fills in. that doesn’t cause as many mobility issues, it’s when you get new growth on the outside that problems start.

This reminds me of a clip I saw of an older martial arts practitioner, like heavy-duty, far east, everything was translated. He had spent decades punching harder and harder things until he had to hit opponents at a small fraction of his strength, as his forearms on up were mineralized clubs on the inside. A full strike could kill.

I watched closely and his hands didn't seem to be much use for anything else.

I'm not a medic, but conditioning the shins presumably doesn't cost you mobility later in life, as it isn't a joint.

There are two shin bones and if they fuse there is a lack of mobility. A lot of muay Thai fighters have problems with their legs later on. That in addition to the obvious which is brain damage and a lot of scar tissue in the face.

Huh, I had never even thought of the tibia and fibula fusing, does this really happen often in Muay Thai? I coincidentally just got back from training at my Muay Thai gym just now. The first few weeks or months of training there’s definitely a lot of welting on the legs, but the shins adapt quickly. I hadn’t heard of the shin bones fusing.

Interesting, thanks.

Can you point to a solid source on this? Googling tibia fibula synostosis muay thai, and similar, doesn't turn up anything relevant to conditioning.

I knew some fighters. One of them was a low kick specialist and his shin felt like one solid piece of concrete. Not sure if it was fused but he couldn’t do certain movements , but he could kick with unbelievable force. I have no idea how his opponents could block this with their own shins. Many years later I still have some sensitive spots on my shins from trying to train with them. It was impossible.

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