Shin Conditioning Drills
1. Kick the Heavy Bag and/or Thai pads. You should kick over 100x's each day. I recommend 500x's, or around that figure.
2. When you start kicking the bag, start kicking lightly at first. Gradually increase the power so that you are kicking full power around your 30th kick.
3. Stop every so often and massage the shins vigorously to get the blood flowing back into them. (One of good massage techniques - place your shin between the middle knuckles of your second and third fingers, and rub vigorously the length of your shin several times) This promotes faster healing of the bruised flesh and any damage to the bone. You might also like to invest in Boxing Liniment (basically it's Ben Gay). Massage your shins with that before and after you kick, if available.
4. Do not "tap" or "beat" your shins with sticks, boards, bottles, etc. This causes bruises, knots, etc to form on the shin. These painful little areas may stick with you for quite some time.
There has been mention of the popular myth that in old age, Thai boxers shins become soft. Believe me, this is NOT TRUE! I have spoken with many older, retired Thai boxers, none of them have experienced any detrimental health issues concerning the conditioning of their shins and legs. I also spoke with a medical professional, and to the best of that person's knowledge, the only likely explanation would be if someone had osteoporosis, where the body leaches calcium from the bones when there is not enough in the diet. (Thailand is still in many ways a third world nation)
The only problem with the above method is that because we don't start training Muay Thai as early in life as the Thai's do, we are playing "catch up". Thai's start training usually by the time they are 12 years old. They kick the bag literally hundreds of times per day. Hell, they often actually live at their camp, so they have the "luxury" to train like that.
For most of us though, we have jobs, school, families, responsibilities... All kinds of distractions that prevent us from training like the Thai's do. That's why some try to find easier and cheaper way and use tools such as rolling pins, Coke bottles, broomsticks... It’s like steroids – one gets faster results but at the cost of one’s health. It’s your health, your life – don’t try to cheat on yourself. THE ONLY CORRECT WAY OF SHIN CONDITIONING IS TRHOUGH KICKING HEAVY BAG AND THAI PADS.