I've seen muay thai fighters that have been training for over 20 years ramming their knees into very hard heavy bags constantly all year round in training, How is it that they don't suffer from knee troubles, should'nt that be destroying cartilage in the knee joints ?
from what i gather most of the thai guys knees and hips are pretty much clapped out at 30. boranbk would be the guy that knows though.
Bags aren't as hard as maybe you think they are and the knee is tougher than you think it is. The knee cap is nightmare to kick and can do serious damage to shins and ankles if you mis place a low kick and kick a defending knee cap instead! Ouch!!! But to be serious it very much depends on your weight class, the big boyz having the most major troubles with thier knees, but they do with most things anyway. It really depends on your weight, career and what kind of damage you've taken in training and the ring, but most ex fighters tend to have more trouble with toes, knuckles, fingers, ribs ankles hands and if they have knee trouble it mostly comes form too much road work and skipping on hard surfaces with no shoes! Off the top of my head I srtuggle to think of a Thai I know that had problems with their knees from fighting ( there must be some though) but they are little guys remember conditioned from a young age, most of thier injuries are as I said above or due to shoddy cheap medical work done after the fights that has left bad irreapariable damage. If you want a better answer I'm sure I wrote something interesting about long term damage in the Muay Thai/Kickboxer ATG thread. I have knee damage, it's from too many long hill runs. :-( It's an odd queastion so sorry you've got a weird answer. :conf Although, all that being said serious knee damge can be sustained even by the best of em. Check ATG Apidet in this one: See what a perfectly timed kick can do................ [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpGz8lzwRmc[/ame]
I don't think knee hits really do that much damage to ur cartilage. I imagine it's more your hip that suffers the pressure with a properly thrown kick/knee. Getting kick behind the knee, as in above video, is a whole another story though.
No, he was fine afterwards just temporary muscle damage. Sometime in late 60s or 1970s. If your not familier you should check out more of Apidet's fights one of Muay Thais ATGs. ( Although he doesn't look it in that clip!) Your right, when a knee hits it doesn't bother your cartalidge, but it bothers the hell out of the other guys ribs! Got to be honest I've never had hip trouble myself, only tightness or pains in that region from on occasion negelecting flexiblity. The truth is if you train right over time you are body is strong enough to perform all techniques fluidly without any problems. I've never suffered any kind of damage from throwing my own techniques, unless it's made contact with something hard I didn't mean it to, ie elbow, knee cap etc etc or form a lack of flexibility or not warming up correctly.