getting used to getting hit in the legs?

[darkrelevance]

I tend to get hit a lot in the leg area particulary where my quads are. some times i get hit really hard and i cant move my leg anymore, and it becomes sore to walk on for a while. anyway to prevent that from happening?

anybody know how to build up a sort of "immunity" to attacks to the legs?

[Tom Yum]

Leg sparring helps you build your legs a little and get more used to getting kicked on the quads, shins etc but its done somewhat lightly with more of an emphasis on speed & technique.

Kicking the pads and bags are also great ways.

Other than that, try to not get kicked on the legs

[LiQuiD_PaRaDoX]

you just gotta get em more conditioned.

Get em kicked lightly every week for a few rounds. They'll bruise, they'll hurt, but they'll HEAL.

Good luck

[koto_ryu]

Impact conditioning is the best way to go. Stand in a lead-leg stance and let your buddy land a roundhouse (a good shot too, none of the Sally tapping stuff but it doesn't have to be a bonecrusher either), preferably at a 45 degree angle downwards to toughen up your thighs. You can do it up to three times a week, just make sure you have at least 24 hours rest in between, and that you're not running the next day cause you definitely won't feel like it.

As for shins, get that same buddy and stand in front of each other. Simply bang your shins off of each others': inside, outside, front, and back; switching each time for each shin (so left shin inside, right shin inside, left shin outside, etc.) It's gonna hurt, and it's not gonna be a lot of fun, I'll let you know that right now, but you'll see the benefits to it.

[Broadsword2004]

Ya just don't start wacking your thighs with a baseball bat or something, you can do damage if you do too much conditioning.

[koto_ryu]

A good conditioning tool I was taught to make by Sensei Ikemiyagi Masaaki (soke of Meibukan Goju-Ryu, which is basically lots of impact conditioning, street fighting (he hates to call it "self-defense", as it sounds like you're never going to attack), and kata) is this:

Buy about 200 of the thin wire hangers. Cut off the bottoms (strip off any rubber if they have them, some do), and then get two fat rubber bands. Get all the strips of wire in a bundle and rubber band near the bottom of one side, then put the rubber band over the other and roll it down till it's about 2 inches from the other. You now have a wire mesh whisk-looking tool. You can use that to condition your forearms and shins, and as they get tougher (maybe every month or so), you roll the rubber band up about 1/2" as it'll slowly but surely make the wires tighter and tougher. It works pretty well.

[EmptyneSs]

u can also do some kicking drills. i dont recommend u bang bare shins with ur buddy, for u will be in a world of hurt even if its light. u should both get some shinpads, and do kicking drills. for example, have ur buddy lay 2 kicks into u, block em, then counter with 2 kicks. keep going back n forth. also another thing u can do is spar but use legs only, so u are basically throwing kicks at eachotehr back n forth. shinpads are great. getting hit and blocking kicks still hurts with shinpads on, so ur legs will be conditioned, but they wul also save u from real injury and lotsa pain.

[koto_ryu]

u can also do some kicking drills. i dont recommend u bang bare shins with ur buddy, for u will be in a world of hurt even if its light.

Never said it's not going to hurt, but that's the best way. Also it'll toughen you up if you do a shin block because thats the only way you're going to be able to take tougher and tougher kicks.

[Jeremy Lobdell]

Check the kick!

I tend to get hit a lot in the leg area particulary where my quads are. some times i get hit really hard and i cant move my leg anymore, and it becomes sore to walk on for a while. anyway to prevent that from happening?

anybody know how to build up a sort of "immunity" to attacks to the legs?

If your foot is planted to the ground and you take a kick to the outer leg, it's going to hurt like hell. As your experience increases, you will be able to take harder shots, but being a heavy bag for someone else isn't a lot of fun either. What is most commonly taught is to check the kick. This envolves picking the foot up off the ground when the kick comes. Some people just pick up the heel and others pick the entire foot up. You should experiment with it and see what works best for you. You could also ask this question in the kickboxing-thai boxing forum and get some responces from people who have trained in this a lot longer than I have.
Mahalo, Jeremy

[EmptyneSs]

Never said it's not going to hurt, but that's the best way. Also it'll toughen you up if you do a shin block because thats the only way you're going to be able to take tougher and tougher kicks.

i dont reccomend that without shinpads. the bone on bone contact is just way too painful. even light contact will result in excrutiating pain. thats why we use shinpads in muay thai. it takes years of conditioning and heavy bagwork to develope the shins enough to able to take bare bone hits, or block em. ive been doing muay thai for a year now, and even though my shins are tougher now than before, bone on bone contact is still extremely painful. honestly, if u dont use shinpads u just gonna hurt urself and have to take time off training to let ur legs heal. even though i use shinpads when sparring, i still get big bruises on my shins from striking and blocking kicks.

[HtTKar]

Focus

I agree with Jeremy Lobdell. Check your techniques. I would also focus on leg-strengthening excercises.

Focus on Why you keep getting kicked there.

I dare say that you keep getting kicked in the quads because you are allowing them easy access to that region, allowing them to hit you hard, and you show signs of weakness whenever you get hit there. The more it hurts, the more people are going to aim for that same spot, over and over.

[koto_ryu]

i dont reccomend that without shinpads. the bone on bone contact is just way too painful. even light contact will result in excrutiating pain. thats why we use shinpads in muay thai. it takes years of conditioning and heavy bagwork to develope the shins enough to able to take bare bone hits, or block em. ive been doing muay thai for a year now, and even though my shins are tougher now than before, bone on bone contact is still extremely painful. honestly, if u dont use shinpads u just gonna hurt urself and have to take time off training to let ur legs heal. even though i use shinpads when sparring, i still get big bruises on my shins from striking and blocking kicks.

It all depends on how hard you go. I started doing shin conditioning since Day One of my Meibukan Goju-Ryu classes. No matter how conditioned you get, it's still going to hurt, it's just going to hurt significantly less and less as you get tougher and tougher. When I did MT we didn't use shinpads, and we often checked each other's kicks. Yes, it hurts, but if you do it with pads all the time and someone kicks at you for real, you block and get injured, you're done for.