General Discussion Triathlon Talk » Shin Splits AND Stress Fractures Rss Feed  
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2013-04-18 8:14 AM

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Subject: Shin Splits AND Stress Fractures

Hey guys, I'm a college athlete, a swimmer, and my shins hurt.  They started to do so right before I entered college and this will be the end of my forth semester.  It started from just picking up running again in the summer before school, and running way too much right away on concrete, after not really having impact on my legs for a few years.

At first my trainer said it was just from having tight calves, then I did some googling and came up with shin splints for my own, and started self treating with heat stretching and then icing after workouts, this was about 3-4 months after starting pain. Didn't really make it go away until I stopped working out after season for about 6-8 weeks.

Then when i start working out again, pain free for about 2 weeks, and started to hurt again while playing basketball. Now this year, I picked up some calve selves, heat stretch ice, but I was sick of it so googled stress fractures, and came up with the jump test, which i fail after one jump.

However, when I went a told my new trainer this, he asked where the pain was, so I pointed at where the pain from the jumping was, and then said sometimes it's spreads up my calf, which stress fractures don't do, so he thinks that it's just shin splints, but could it be both shin splints and stress fractures? I don't see any forum posts about someone having both, but I don't see why not?

Anyhow, thanks for any help/advice you can give, going on 2 years of pretty bad pain, just want to know what's wrong.

-Jared



2013-04-20 2:24 PM
in reply to: #4705194

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Subject: RE: Shin Splits AND Stress Fractures
ace10301 - 2013-04-18 8:14 AM

Hey guys, I'm a college athlete, a swimmer, and my shins hurt.  They started to do so right before I entered college and this will be the end of my forth semester.  It started from just picking up running again in the summer before school, and running way too much right away on concrete, after not really having impact on my legs for a few years.

At first my trainer said it was just from having tight calves, then I did some googling and came up with shin splints for my own, and started self treating with heat stretching and then icing after workouts, this was about 3-4 months after starting pain. Didn't really make it go away until I stopped working out after season for about 6-8 weeks.

Then when i start working out again, pain free for about 2 weeks, and started to hurt again while playing basketball. Now this year, I picked up some calve selves, heat stretch ice, but I was sick of it so googled stress fractures, and came up with the jump test, which i fail after one jump.

However, when I went a told my new trainer this, he asked where the pain was, so I pointed at where the pain from the jumping was, and then said sometimes it's spreads up my calf, which stress fractures don't do, so he thinks that it's just shin splints, but could it be both shin splints and stress fractures? I don't see any forum posts about someone having both, but I don't see why not?

Anyhow, thanks for any help/advice you can give, going on 2 years of pretty bad pain, just want to know what's wrong.

-Jared

Stress fractures often occur after a bout with shin splints.  Basically the bone becomes overloaded and can't repair itself fast enough so it breaks.   Shin splints in the sports med literature is actually quite ill defined in its causes as there are many.  See if you can get an apt with your teams doctor.  Certainly with sympmtos as long as you have had deserves further workup

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