This blog is devoted to physical health and performance for athletes. My primary interest is in athletic development, particularly the appropriate application of resistance training, weight training and weightlifting movements in athletes of all ages and levels of skill.
Joe P. on Shin Splints
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Great post by Joe P. on that thing called shin splints. And the truth shall set us free!
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Anonymous said…
hello tracy, i have a question. are you saying that all "shin pain" is a stress fracture or a possible stress fracture. if that is the case i would have to disagree. thea
No. The main idea, for me, is that one needs to remove the cause of the stress and fix the mechanics. If you don't assess the movement and mechanics issues, then you will be unlikely to prevent further stress to that area of the body. Whether it is or will become a stress fracture is not the main point for me; the main point is that this part of the body is telling us there are issues with force reduction mechanics and the ability of the body to handle the sport tasks. Gotta fix the movement.
Way back in 2002, I scanned these images by Howard Schatz from Sports Illustrated (October 14, 2002). A fascinating array of elite female athlete physiques, heights and weights, eh? These are some of the women featured in his book Athlete --a very cool pictorial essay that celebrates athletic form and function.
ACL injuries do not happen in a void. People sustain injuries when their infrastructure is unable to manage a specific set of physical circumstances. To describe the mechanism of the injury without the context of the person and their level/type of sport, is to miss valuable insight. In sport, we prepare the person, to the best of our understanding, to meet the physical demands of that sport. We do not just work to prevent one particular injury; we prepare athletes to navigate the total sport physical environment. By "we" I mean the coaching and support staff -- specifically the athletic development staff. Athletic development (AD) coaches prepare athletes through the development of physical literacy and movement competencies via movement progressions. It is more than strength, power, agility; it is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors to manage themselves within the entire sporting environment. At the higher levels of sport, AD coaches coordinate wit
The angle of the torso, when squatting, is not a function of whether or not the bar is high or low on the back. The angle of the torso (and thus torque on the spine) is primarily determined by the angle of the shin, a.k.a how much the ankle dorsiflexes. AND IN MY BOOK, THIS IS THE KEY TO BEST BACK TRAINING PRACTICES. GET IT??? MAKE YOUR QUADS, HAMS AND GLUTES DO THE WORK. If your shin is perpendicular to the floor, then your torso will incline forward to keep the CoM over your BoS, regardless of how low the bar is on your back. And your back will be forced to handle higher torque. A good, general rule of thumb, IMHO, is to keep the shins and the torso parallel, from an inclination standpoint. This could change with femur/torso length issues (tight adductors and hips in general can cause issues too), but this method is pretty good to help someone figure out whether or not they have decent ankle flexibility when squatting. And this will minimize torque on the back, as we will d
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are you saying that all "shin pain" is a stress fracture or a possible stress fracture. if that is the case i would have to disagree.
thea
Far be it from me to diagnose any such things!