Martial arts question

[arbit]

Is it true some people deliberately break their bones so they rebuild stronger? How do they do the break, and what training do they do while its healing?

[Hamz]

I have heard this rumour, but never seen it for real.
I do know that Thai boxers roll either a glass or rolling pin over their shins to build those.
As for breaking bones, do you really wana do that???

[arbit]

No, I dont wanna break bones, but I had a fracture 3 months ago, and was wondering if I can take advantage of the break, or if I need to nurse it(ie protect from impact) for another couple of months till the mineral deposits in the bone.

[Lee J B]

Never heard of people doing this and I did martial arts for a very long time, shotokan....I do know that my breaks and fractures certainly haven't benefitted me, they've seriously halted how much progress I can make at any given time.

[2Scoops]

As far as I know, when bone heals properly it becomes slightly stronger at the point of fracture. However, the actual improvement is practically insignificant - and limited to only the bone itself and not the surrounding tissues.

The result: it will be more difficult to break that bone in the same place again but there wont be any improvement in the effectiveness of any martial arts move.

After 3 months I think you should be able to reintroduce impact (depending on the severity of the break?) but phase it in gradually. If you haven't done so already, establish full range of motion in the damaged limb and strengthen throughout it.

[Tuga]

I think what you mean is hitting repetitively on the bone like a lot of martials do, like muay thai, kung fu, karate... we call this conditioning...
Its evil by the way... you do get used to the beating. it conditions the bones and the muscles aswell..
this is one of the exercises we do in the style of kung fu I practice

http://www.hungkuen.net/training-dasamsing.htm

[Lee J B]

I've done that one many times, also one where you stand face to face at arms length and in turn do full speed, full power with ki-i (exhale) into your friends abs...you then get about 3 seconds to prepare yourself before he returns the favour...try doing literally 10minutes of that and then your regular lesson for an hour after, I don't do much ab work as a powerlifter...but because of the martial arts they seem to be ok anyway.

[stencil]

We do that same thing pretty much in Goju Ryu Karate. It's called ko kitae. Very painful but effective.

[TriplNipl]

You don't break the bone to build it up, you abuse it to encourage the build up of calcium deposits. Muay thai will kick bags all day or boards wrapped in rope. This actually destroys some of the muscle in the front of the shin so the opponent will feel more bone than shin muscle when kicked. Same goes for knuckles.. Punch a rope-wrapped board a hundred times a day and your knuckles will slowly disappear until you basically have one long, fat knuckle that can take some serious jaw breakin' abuse. That's one of the main reasons board/brick breakers can actually pull off what they do.

[arbit]

One of the top people in our dojo(is like 6th dan takewondo, 4th hapkido, others) discourages hardening knuckles. He says they lead to arthritis later on, and as we are not professional fighters, there is no point.
Anyone know about the undesirable effects?

[Tuga]

Originally Posted by Lee J B

I've done that one many times, also one where you stand face to face at arms length and in turn do full speed, full power with ki-i (exhale) into your friends abs...you then get about 3 seconds to prepare yourself before he returns the favour...try doing literally 10minutes of that and then your regular lesson for an hour after, I don't do much ab work as a powerlifter...but because of the martial arts they seem to be ok anyway.

Yep, we do that too eheh
Conditioning is a part of all martial arts, its just up to a person if he is willing to take the pain, or you can dont condition and get hit in a spar, and get hurt more easily.

[Lee J B]

I remember my first sparr .. not in competition but a small comp that our club had the last friday session of every month, man, that first blow seriously takes you back no matter how prepared you are.