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Anyone interested in this question should also read the discussion of injuries in Is hitting hard objects really effective in making bones harder? – mattm Dec 8 '15 at 17:08
up vote 3 down vote accepted



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Joint damage can be understood in 3 factors:

Too much stress, bad applied


Slow grind




Muscle stabilization and tendon strengthening




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My knees think so.


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I am a professional martial arts instructor. I can tell you that Tae Kwon Do emphasizes speed and power while minimizing damage to the joints. We learn to shift our weight and deliver blows with minimal impact ending up on our joints. We distribute the force throughout the body; i.e. we twist the bottom leg torso and focus on snap which is to say you do your kick then immediately bend your legs back to absorb the impact onto other parts of the body.

Joints and cartilage heal faster with proper circulation of the blood and martial arts can help with this. This is the concept of acupuncture. It improves circulation by channelling energy and distributing heat for enhanced circulation of the blood and heat to heal areas of the body faster. Also strengthening of the core muscles and the muscles around your joints minimizes the impact on your joints. When we punch, for example, we have our elbows slightly bent (but never 'locked' straight) which allows me to punch as hard as I can without worrying about the impact on my joint.

I have been training for 35 years and I do not have any joint problems. My instructor is 78 years old and has no joint problems.

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I teach (ITF) TKD and a snap-kick is brought back quickly to ensure your leg can't be trapped, not to spread the impact. The impact has already happened when the leg starts moving backwards. – Mike P Dec 8 '15 at 10:53
Maybe it's a terminology thing, but I would disagree with several of your assertions. A bent elbow while punching is not to avoid impact directly on the joint - it's to avoid hyperextension and to maintain control and focus (there's minimal or no benefit in letting the fist travel that 1/2 inch further). Also bending your legs and absorbing the kick force will lead to sloppy weak kicks - force you "absorb back" isn't going in to your opponent. Like I said, maybe it's just a terminology thing. – slugster Dec 8 '15 at 11:48
Not a TDK practitioner, but I don't see why there is an the issue with this answer's discussion of leg recoil to reduce injury to the leg. Physics analyzes collisions in terms of elasticity: elastic with recoil, inelastic without. If you allow recoil, there is less energy that needs to dissipate somewhere else (your joints, possibly). Sure this may make your kick less damaging to the recipient, but it will also make it less damaging to you. – mattm Dec 8 '15 at 16:58
@matt I think that physiology and physics are getting all mixed up. Recoiling as the kick lands is bad from both a physics and physiology POV - you've got force/momentum going everywhere as you recoil, which will also mean you're off balance and/or twisted. If there is recoil down the leg then that is energy that is not dissipating through the opponent. Retracting the leg after impact is not recoiling, hence my comment about terminology. In any case I think concentrating on just the knee/elbow is wrong - they don't take anywhere near the same impact as the knuckles (which are a joint). – slugster Dec 8 '15 at 22:05

The answer is generally joint wise minimal. However, there is a big caveat on that. It's minimal only if you get it right, which can be harder than it sounds.

Your movements might look right enough to an instructor of a class who can't tell exactly where your weight is on your foot and how you're balanced and bone angles... It may not be spot on and by repeated action over time it can then put a lot of strain on something, which doesn't when you do it right.

What can then really make it worse are kumite injuries. Anyone who spots a weakness and prays on it, which let's face it would be the right thing to do, may be adding to the complications.

It's important to reflect internally a lot in doing slow actions to be sure you have got them right, that the angle in your stances is right, that the weight is where it should be, that angles in ankles and wrists for strikes are spot on, or else the impact will make it much worse.

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