Body conditioning when alone?

[Kevin Guse]

some schools role the barbell up and down their shins sitting down by dorsi flexing and plantar flexing the ankles.

Question: At what point do we start or risk damaging our body and not just conditioning? After all like my Sensei always reminds us "Karate is supposed to build your body up not break it down."

[Chris Hess]

To answer "when to risk injury or damage?" ...DON'T. A body can be coaxed not forced to adapt. "Train don't strain." Rolling barbells on the shins, for me is out. Shin kicks to a heavy bag work. Parts of the body, mainly the hands can be toughened up quite a bit. I've never seen calloses on anyones shins. Arms, legs & midsections need to be acustomed to some shock so you don't get taken out by shock to those areas during combat. The best defense is a good offense. The idea being to put the bad guy on the defensive and take them out. You know those homeade videos where one fighter dominates another? Its because they pour on the offense. It's about a positive and aggressive midset coupled with solid training. Don't forget to include a couple days off a week to recuperate.

[mickpappas]

It's difficult not to get bruised at first, enthusiasm and even a little of the dreaded macho syndrome creep in. Apart from the obvious, avoid bruisng, eventually you'll know what level of pounding will cause it and won't be shy to speak up.

Hits to the head are problematic and I really don't want to start conditioning mine - I use it for other things (honestly). I guess having conditioned arms helps cover up or block and when doing so we can totally forget about our iron clad torsoe .

It's surprising how little force is needed to break a rib which is left to "stand alone". I think that whist this can be improved by "closing" it's still a weak area.