Shin Splints and your military service?

Question

I am planning on enlisting about a year from now. I am 17 years old with only 3 months left of my Junior year of high school, and at the end of my junior year I plan on entering the DEP (delayed entry program).

I play lacrosse for my school, and the past two years whenever the season starts up I get horrible shin splints. I come home from our 2 hour practices every day after school needing to sit down and rest them for awhile, icing them. They are pretty painful, and with the amount of running I do during lacrosse practice, afterwards they are very painful.

I have been looking for ways to get rid of these shin splints. They went away a little over the summer because of resting for a few months, but when we started preseason conditioning, they began to come back.

I know it is important to try and get rid of them now by strengthening up my shin muscles, but I was wondering if anybody with military experience has had this trouble, and how you coped with it, or got rid of them

Answer 1

Maybe you have to stop playing lacrosse for now and let your body have time to heal itself.

Answer 2

Stop Shin Splints Forever?

Answer 3

I know this is gonna sound weird, but when you practice take two pairs of socks, put the first ones on inside out and the second ones one the right way. Make sure that they cover your shins. The extra compression on your shins should help. The most common reason for shin splints is that the tendons that connect the muscle to the bone become overworked and tear slightly. By holding the muscle close to the bone it take some of the pressure off of the tendon. Anyway good luck with lacrosse and godspeed with the military.

Answer 4

I'm sure you know what shin splints are (small hairline fracures in the bone) and that they can be healed just by giving them rest. Don't worry about it. When I went through basic all the running gave me shin splints for a little bit. It sucked ***, but I dealt with it. Bottom line, you'll be fine.
It'll probably take a while for you to go off to basic anyways because of the AF downsizing and everything. I joined the DEP program and was in it for a year.

Try doing a search on shin splints and methods for helping them (besides just resting them) and maybe also post another question in the heath section.

Good luck

Answer 5

You have a couple of good answers here. As an athlete, shin splints are not uncommon, and the cures are about as varied as recipes for crumb cake.

The first thing on the list is to rest the injury. It may take a substantial amount of time to heal completely. I run marathons, and it (shin splints, high sprains) are a constant threat.

The easiest way to avoid the injury is by proper warm up, and proper equipment. The double sock remedy is a good one (especially in your boots). Get some very specific running socks, and not from Wally World, but from a specialty sports store.

Then there is the shoes. Running shoes are not invincible. They have a limited life expectancy. Make sure you are getting advanced shoes for your running. I am amazed at the techno advances in today's athletic footwear.

Remedies:

Rest, Ice/heat, and limited activity until the tendons heal properly, and completely.

Answer 6

i was 25 when i joined and had a pretty bad injury that still bothers me'. mainly because i didn't run before i joined.you get used to it after awhile and with the continuous workouts you will do every day your body adapts pretty quick. you will also have the luxury of being yelled at and of someone being in your face which gives you some extra "umph" you didn't know you had.i say to keep going at it till you are in good enough shape. and since you are set to join the marines i would say not to join the army but instead focus on making it through the marines boot camp. and you will be in a world of shock if your in fort benning and you try to join the army's infantry thinking its going to be easy. both of the combat units train hard in both branches aside from what you may hear because its what they do. also in the marines you have the added luxury of only deploying for 6 months. in the army you will be in a whole world of hurt when you find yourself in theater for 12-15 months. and if you ever been deployed you will find out that even 3 months sks bad. so in my opinion just the marines and don't worry about what is easier.

Answer 7

sounds a bit like you are not keeping your training up in the off season
there is no off season this is the answer
one of the things you should look into is your diet
do not even think about being a vegetarian
you need protien ,whole protien, red meat.
Take multi vitaminsngo to GNC there is one especiall for active men, Do not bother with grocery store stuff.
add calcium best thing suprisingly is cheap---
tumms
it sounds more like you have muscle issues
the reason calcium helps with cramping is you cant use the magnesium to stop them with a calcium deficiency. Chase with gator aide.
drink lots of water .no other stuff does not count
water.

Answer 8

my daughter's best friend went to boot camp and got them. she was given a discharge soon after. she shouldn't have enlisted in the first place and did not adjust well to the physical demands of basic training.