what exactly causes shin splints?

[Bimmer]

when I do parallel squates or leg press I have absolutley no knee problems or shin splints or joint pain, but every now and then I decide Im feeling extra strong and work ass to the ground squates or leg press all the way down touching my chest. Why is it the only when I do the full motion do I get this terrible pain for a week, my knees hurt to the point where I cant squat down to pick somthing up without struggling to get up. Parallel I have no problems. Should I stop doing ass to the ground all together? Iv had months where I only went parrallel but as soon as I go back to full squating Im fucked. Suggestions?

 

[BigRonWannabee]

If you in fact have shin splints, id bet the heavy work sets arent allowing them to heal properly. Id lay off the weight, or choose better exercises if I was you. Now if the pain is JUST below the knee, Id tend to think you are actually straining the tendons (could be ligaments here, i forgot which is which). Could be 100 reasons your having pain, for support id suggest knee wraps and maybe rotate excersizes more often and avoid anything that worsens the injury.

 

[BigRonWannabee]

btw, LP all the way down puts your legs/hips in a terribly unnatural position from my experience. IMO cut those out forever

 

[jes131]

Is it your knees that hurt or your shins? Or is it both? As far as shin splints go, there are basically two types - medial and lateral (or anterior). The first is caused by excessive shock to the heels such as happens when an under-pronator (one whose foot doesn't roll inward enough) runs. The second is caused by excessive stress on the shin muscles (sorry I don't know the medical terminology for them). I had major shin splint problems for a long time and they even developed into tibial stress fractures at one point. This was because I ran a lot, I am an under-pronator, and my achilles tendons and calves are very inflexible and so the shins have to work extra hard just to pull my feet up against a lot of resistance. So my doc had me stretching my hamstrings, calves, and achilles tendons constantly and after a while it made a big difference.

I'm no doctor and I don't want to give you any bad info, so I'm just giving you my experience with shin splints and am letting you draw your own conclusions. I would think that for lifting, they're probably lateral shin splints though. Hope I helped a little.

 

[Bimmer]

I guess Im gonna stick to parrallel for a while. Dougo, your 100% right about the leg press, I dont do them often anyway.