Dear @Derek_Miles
I used to be a Karate practitioner. From a few years ago, I experience a sharp pain in front of my mid-shin when I do any kick. This also happens if I do a hamstring curl with machines. The pain goes away if I wrap my knee with a band or something. I made visits to some doctors and they didn’t provide me with any useful information. I was wondering if you could help me.
When you say “kicking” do you mean when striking a bag/opponent or even when doing kata? Where on your shin is it and can you describe the sensation? If it is transient it would not be something I would consider that needs rushed to look at, but if it has been going on for years there is likely something with which we can address what you are feeling.
It is absolutely fine when I strike something like a bag or an opponent. It happens when I do shadows, katas or miss the target when I want to return the kick and if the kick is higher than a typical low-kick and is only on the right shin. The sensation can be described as follows: I feel something like a tight rope in the upper part of my shin that prevents me from flexing back my knee and hip after I extended them in a kick, and it is like a sudden burning. Mild but enough to make me not to kick. There is no other thing than the hamstring curl that I have the same feeling. I have never experienced any discomfort during squats, deadlifts and etc. It has been there for 8 years.
What did the physicians you saw perform as far as testing goes? There is not a lot that would be worrisome for me with anterior shin pain that you feel more with unweighted (non contact) activity. From what you’re describing it almost sounds more like a cramp. Would you consider that an accurate description of the sensation? Sometimes you can get some exertional pain with increased activity. What does your training look like as far as weight lifting and martial arts?
One physician examined my knee and tried to find a way to reporduce the pain, but no pain was reproduced, so he prescribed me an MRI which I didn’t do. I thought the whole thing doesn’t worth an MRI. Another one told me there is nothing in that spot and dismissed me. I am unsure about the cramp, but It sounds like that after you mentioned. This happened after I did a months of high-impact HIIT full of jumps and kicks. After that I actually quit doing any serious training for few years, and then I started lifting with SS and then switched to HLM. Right now I am doing the Bridge, and I like to reintroduce some martial arts practices one or two day per week. The pain doesn’t hurt me in any other way, but I was almost a descent kicker and I feel like I have lost a skill that I have worked on for few years.
If you were performing months of high-impact HIIT that can lead to occasional symptoms of what could classify as exertional symptoms. You should be fine to start getting back into martial arts programming but I would grade back into it and not immediately go straight to HIIT style workouts.
Thanks. I will start doing them with low reps in GPP or off days and see what happens. I guess it might also be useful to implement the concept of RPE for them, like kicking for @7 AMRAP in 7 minutes.
Dear @Derek_Miles I started with 7 minutes of front kicks after 30 minutes of cardio, and I didn’t experince anything harmful :)
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Excellent!