Thursday, August 30, 2012

Shin Splints

     For me the most debilitating thing in the world is shin splints. It doesn't take long before they flare up either. Maybe 5 minutes into practice and I already know I'm screwed. They start burning and my ankles start locking up and having my perfect luck guess what's on the agenda... 100 laps and 75% speed on the inside line nuts to butts or pyramid of pain. Which ever horrible endurance drill we come across shin splints is a "nothing helps but stopping" kind of pain that no one will understand unless you have had them yourself. 

My 1st or 2nd home team game
4/2011
Sirens VS. Brawlers
     I developed shin splints in my fresh meat period in 2010 and they were Bay Area B.A.D. I thought I was going to die or snap my ankles clear in half. I tried everything from potassium pills to a point of overdosing to having the league's EMT roll out my shins with Bio-Freeze and a PVC pipe (that bringing me to tears). I asked around and everybody had all sorts of different remedies so I tried a majority of them and nothing seemed to work. I was totally discouraged and thought to myself that it would be the end of me but I pushed on and pulled off the track when I needed to stretch even if it was during a drill and I got yelled at. "Faster!" they said. "Pick it up, SINGAPORE!!!" They said when I was skating as fast and as hard as my stupid legs would let me. Fuck it.
     Like I said nothing really worked but there was somethings that I did to take the edge off. Drinking a lot of Gatorade or any type of sports drink and not solely water especially in the kind of heat we have here in the Texas summers. It helps to replace the sodium and potassium in your body which helps with muscle function and cramps. I warm up a bit more slowly if I have the time and stretch thouroughly ESPECIALLY my shins. After a while you get used to the pain as it never really goes away and it doesn't bother you as much. It does come and go so don't get too comfy. Right now for me, it's coming. Also, if your wheels are too grippy it will definitely intensify the pain. Clean your bearings too, dirty. Try some harder wheels than you are used to. Even as a blocker, wheels too grippy can do more damage than good. They may stabilize you more but what good is stability if you can't have the agility to put your ass on a bitch attempting to block your jammer on a power jam??? Exactly.
     Push through if you can but not until you are a hazard to your fellow skaters. It's better to take a second to stretch than end up really inuring yourself and taking weeks/months on the bench or even worse injuring someone else. Listen to your body. You know it better than anyone else. Trust me.

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