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.
The term "strength" comes with many images and stereotypes. The most common stereotype usually includes intimidating men who look like action figures, in spaces that look like iron jungles. Strength is associated with mass gain, limb girth increases, muscle hypertrophy and maximal force production against an external load. With regard to lower body strength, we speak in terms of multiples of bodyweight (BW), with the ratio of 2x BW historically viewed as necessary and desirable. We have historically trained in terms of 1 RM. There has been a trend recently to adopt a VBT (velocity based training) approach, as we know 1 RM changes on a daily basis and technology now allows us to more finely tune things with velocity as the target within each set. These things can be helpful as we initially learn to measure and document progress. But I think it is important to step back from this narrow outlook, because this view of strength does not serve all of us well, in either the rehab or...
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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!