Shin Conditioning

So you want to start training in Muay Thai?  I have one word for you: Conditioning.

I’m on my 6th month of training in Muay Thai and I can tell you one thing for certain. I do not know if my shins will ever be conditioned enough.  At this point I’ve heard it and felt it almost every week since I’ve started. I have noticed some improvement. I’m probably at 20% in my journey for strong shins… and it’s going to be a long one.

Yes… this is my leg.

As I write this, both of my shins are so swollen I can feel the impact of walking vibrate up them. If you have no idea what I mean, you probably have not taken a Muay Thai class.  You see, in Muay Thai, every day is leg day and every day after leg day is recovery-from-hell day.  If you are training to fight or just taking Muay Thai for kicks I can offer some advice for surviving the swollen limbs.

1. Do not stop in your training. Do not get discouraged.  Do not stop during sparring, continue the fight.  If you are going to fight competitively you damn well better be ready to fight through the pain.
2. Elevate your legs. As soon as you get home, cleaned up and fed… get on your couch.  Get your legs up on the back of the couch far above your heart level and grab a nice book. Or watch TV. Or read blogs about Muay Thai advice.  Give yourself a night off and rest up before bedtime to help get the swelling out of your legs.
3. Ice. Ice those legs while you elevate. Ice them at work while you are stuck at a desk. Ice them when you can.  Ice will help increase blood flow to the area (in your bodies effort to warm you) and this will help break down the swelling.
4. Vitamin D. Take a daily vitamin D pill with at least 5,000 units.  Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption, which guess what? Helps rebuild bones.  Since your shins are getting microfractured every time you ‘condition’ them, you need to rebuild them. Vitamin D also helps with bruising and swelling, which is a bonus since it’s going to feel like that’s how your live your life anymore.
5. Get enough sleep.  The average adult requires between 7 or 8 hours of sleep per night. Sleep is imperative every night in order to keep your body functioning at it’s best. Sleep is also when your body has the most time to work on your aches, pains and bruises to heal you.  Sleep is the best weapon you have to keep you training and walking and is the most underappreciated time we spend on ourselves.

So there’s my recovery advice although to be honest some bruises seem to never recover. These are the deep tissue, a.k.a. ‘bone bruises’ that are common in Muay Thai. These hurt and they can last for months. I have one myself, on my right shin and I might as well name it at this point.  Just keep kicking, wince if you have to, and get through it. As they say; No Pain, No Gain.

Peanut Butter Protein Cookies

It’s Valentine’s Day, which means we are once again bombarded by sweets.  Every holiday seems to be a day to indulge in sweets.  I’m not one to say we shouldn’t, either.  Sweets every once in awhile, among the many days of healthy eating you stick to, can actually be good for the longevity of your new healthy eating lifestyle.  For one, it’s a lifestyle not a diet and there is almost no humanly way to avoid sweets the rest of your life.

So you want to have sweets without feeling guilty or like you fell off the wagon so hard you might as well light it on fire.  Here is my solution.  Make these peanut butter protein cookies.  For one, they have protein so at least you are getting something out of it and not just junk.  Also, (depending on the protein powder and peanut butter you use) they qualify as clean eating.  What is clean eating?  Well to put it simply, it’s where you eat the food around the store and not in the processed middle aisles.  It’s food you can identify and know where it comes from.  No hidden chemical shit-storm, just real food.

Here’s the best part… these are ridiculously easy to make.

1. Mix together: 1 cup peanut butter, 1 egg, 1 cup sugar and 1 scoop protein powder.
2. Take dough and roll balls about an inch thick in your hands.  Place on cookie sheet and press them flat with a fork.
3. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 7 minutes.  Take out, let cool and enjoy!

To be honest, these come out to about 223 each small cookie.  They have about 8 grams of protein in each of them and 13 grams of carbs.  So these are not carb free or low calorie… in my opinion, though, if I was about to eat a chocolate cake at least these have protein and are portion controlled.

Life is what you make it and the holidays are too.  If you want the sweets, eat the damn sweets! You deserve it if you live most days of the year eating clean/healthy as possible.  If a small peanut butter cookie can keep you from inhaling a box of Dove chocolates and you’ll feel better about it in the end of the day, they I suggest you do it.