Shin bone bruising?Poor genetics? Any hope?

If I go out charging hard for a day blasting through crud and doing some hucking I get massive shin bone pain. None of the tissue hurts. It is the bone only from slamming into my boot. The area that is worse is basically from the bottom of my bottom buckle on the shin up to the bottom of the top buckle. The pain on a 1-10 scale gets up there to about a 9 when I hit a chunk of crud or any change in snow density while mashed against the fronts of my boots. It makes skiiing impossible. I have to literally sideslide of the hill once it gets going full tilt.OUCH!!
I have done many things to try to rememdy this. I have foam liners in my Solly X-wave 9's with booster straps.The fit is like the shoes jimmy hoffa is wearing somewhere in the deep blue no problems with shell fit or foot fit. From there I have cut out the plastic on the tongues where my shin bone lines up at and put extra padding in the cut out area. Also with the help of craig at mso in silverthorne we made some shinguards out of some footbeds by heating them up and placing them over my shins. I took extra precaution by putting in some harder foam padding on the inside of the guard with a notch cut out for my shin bone. The guard is then placed outside the sock right on the shin. The fit is pretty goood and the comfort is quite impressive. After all of this I still cannot last more than a day and a half (about a day longer than before the guards)before the pain gets to the point where I need to shut it down for about 7 days before we start the process all over again.
I have been to a doctor and she didn't think it was a stress fracture (both legs are the same)more an equipment problem combined with my skinny ankles. I can take my hand and wrap them around my ankle and touch my fingers(my hands are not arsenio hall long by no means). Does anybody else have such scrawny chicken legs? Has anybody else had this problem and made a boot switch and it cured the problem? What are my options? This has caused me to miss way to many days for the last 2 years. I have talked to hundreds of ski tech guys and none of them have seen a case as bad as mind. Opinions, taunts anything is welcome for I am at a dead end and have no idea what to do.:mad:

5 shots whiskey + 2 ice packs + ski pole + shins - 2 days skiing = much better

I'm going to suggest search function since I just don't feel like going over this again. One hint, anterior tibialis.

Its not anterior tibialis. That would be a tissue issue from flexing your toes up to try to get out of the backseat. This is a bone issue where the narrowness of my shin bone creates less surface area to absorb pressure from the boot. All of the force is placed on my shinbone which is only about a cm wide at most at its point in the front of the leg. i can do anything except ski or touch the bone. Doesn't hurt to do anything else.
It hurts the worst under the bottom buckle and for this reason i was wondering if switching to say a boot with a heal retention buckle would be better. I know dalbello boots are not my right boot but just wondering if it would help.

Salomon deflection plate screwed to the boot cuff?

You're gonna take this wrong but there is only one solution:

Stop skiing in the back seat and stop hurting. You have shin bang, no more no less.

I'm listening but I've gone out with psia guys who are friends who have told me I'm forward. One of them was actually in ski mags top 100 instructors he is pretty good at breaking down form. They could be wrong I guess.

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Originally Posted by vailcat

I'm listening but I've gone out with psia guys who are friends who have told me I'm forward. One of them was actually in ski mags top 100 instructors he is pretty good at breaking down form. They could be wrong I guess.

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All it takes is one real bad backseat landing, and you will be hurting for quite some time.

I don't ski around backseat, but I have taken a few landings backseat, and it has caused me the exact pain you describe. If you can, adjust your boot for a more upright stance.

top 100 PSIA teachers? Don't mean shit unless he's down with the PMTS.

;)

regardless a search on the words shin bang will yield a gold mine of things that you can try to do and what works for one may not work for another. Some people get relief by softening up their boots or going for a more upright stance others, just the opposite.

For me the combo of more forward lean + boosters - tailgunning (mostly) = no more shinbang.

boots too stiff and too big?

uhmm....squats might help?

I hear booster straps work great for shin bang. They are cheap and probably worth a shot. I haven't tried anything personally but I have a friend who swears by them. He jumps off a lot of cliffs and said that they really help him out on longer trips where fatigue starts to become a problem.

Already have booster straps. Boots right size and well squats..thats not going to change the size of my shin above my ankle but if you are interested in having a one legged squat contest well bring it. Stiffness of the boot is something that I have asked many but they say I flex it enough. Still curious on anymore thoughts on the too stiff bit cuz that is something I have been pondering all along and may seem to make a little sense since I have thoroughly explored most other options. Flex of an x-wave 9 how does it rate?

Ibuprofen should help with inflammation until you dial in a permanent solution.

beef up your shin muscles. I have abnormally pointy shin bones as well, once or twice a season I get what you're referring to. I think having a hollow spot just above the ankle makes it worse too. My heel cuts back a couple cms into the achilles and I have very thin ankles that rapidly expand. I too looked at heel retention boots but it was impossible to find even an approximate fit (wide feet). Nordica beasts 2sizes to small with the foot and toe buckles undone are working better than anything for me now.

I do ski very forward, as a reference I mounted 194 Bsquads about 3-4cm behind the line to be able to ski them properly. Seriously though, if you beef the fuck out of your shin muscles it helps a lot. Then the one or 2 times it still happens ski through it even though it kills you. My shin muscles mid season bow out like my calf muscles, looks kinda weird but almost never get shin bruising and no more shin splints. I used to get killer shin splints which is why I started doing these exercises (ex long dist runner). Not so much from back seating, but from touring, skiing, everything. My toes just never relax even when they're tight in there.

Hope that helps.

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Originally Posted by vailcat

Its not anterior tibialis. That would be a tissue issue from flexing your toes up to try to get out of the backseat. This is a bone issue where the narrowness of my shin bone creates less surface area to absorb pressure from the boot. All of the force is placed on my shinbone which is only about a cm wide at most at its point in the front of the leg. i can do anything except ski or touch the bone. Doesn't hurt to do anything else.
It hurts the worst under the bottom buckle and for this reason i was wondering if switching to say a boot with a heal retention buckle would be better. I know dalbello boots are not my right boot but just wondering if it would help.

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You'd be surprised what it can feel like. Not just a backseat issue, low ankle flexion, excessive pronation can be definite contributers. Also as mentioned too big a boot, too stiff a boot, simply ankle joint not aligned with boot pivot point (wrong boot).

A few seasons back I had contusions form on both shins. I figured sort of like you're saying my point of contact was too small and pressure too localized. I could see it when flexing into the shell without the liner. I bevelled the top of the shell and put a slight dish in so when I flexed into it contact was dispersed more. Contusions went away.

It was also a bit too big a boot and since the cuffs generally change every 2 shell sizes it was 2 shell sizes too high a cuff. Managed to wedge my foot in the next size down with some mods and everything worked better. Ankle movement, stiffness....

i have had a major problem with shinbang in the past and a lot this season with all the shitty conditions. i went into and orthopedic doc. and he gave me 2 pills, 1) a pain pill that isnt that strong but enough to do the trick, and 2) an anti inflamatory. the combo of these two is amazing! i also bought some booster straps as well like you, but i tighten the straps as high as i can on my liner so it is almost cutting off circulation. then i tighten the shell over it and can get a VERY snug fit.

That reminds me of a simple trick. Just using the stock power strap on your boot do it up FIRST around the liner tongue and then close the shell over top of it. Softens the boot slightly and keeps the tongue in contact so you don't get the gap and then bang effect.

Not sure this would be ideal for skiing but......

I've had shin bang at various times in various boots throughout the years, and I've always wondered about performing the Muay Thai boxing trick on my shins. If you've ever seen Muay Thai, you know that part of their game invovles kicking the other guy's legs, usually with their shins, and very hard. To desensitize their shins, they take pieces of bamboo (though I'm sure a broom handle would work) and rub them up and down the fronts of their shins. I'm sure it hurts, but over time your shins become desensitized to pain. Anyone tried this?

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Originally Posted by SponsoredByDuctTape

Not sure this would be ideal for skiing but......

I've had shin bang at various times in various boots throughout the years, and I've always wondered about performing the Muay Thai boxing trick on my shins. If you've ever seen Muay Thai, you know that part of their game invovles kicking the other guy's legs, usually with their shins, and very hard. To desensitize their shins, they take pieces of bamboo (though I'm sure a broom handle would work) and rub them up and down the fronts of their shins. I'm sure it hurts, but over time your shins become desensitized to pain. Anyone tried this?

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I used to be a fighter from Kyokushin, then kickboxing (Seidokaikan/k-1 rules). There are a lot of tricks to kill the nerves in your shins. The one I found worked best was freezing plaastic coke bottles and lightly rap your shins for a set number of times. Rest a day and repeat the the next day but hit harder. Eventually, you will feel nothing in your shins and be able to push them to extremes. The downside is that pain is there for a reason and your new shins will feel invincible but will not be so. A number of people I know broke their legs kicking other people...

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Originally Posted by SponsoredByDuctTape

To desensitize their shins, they take pieces of bamboo (though I'm sure a broom handle would work) and rub them up and down the fronts of their shins. I'm sure it hurts, but over time your shins become desensitized to pain. Anyone tried this?

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I used to roll a 2" piece of galvanised tube up and down my shins. Loaded up with a couple of 2.5lb weights, a couple of 1.5lb collars and a couple of 5lb collars I think the total weight was around 25lb. 9 sets of 20 rolls IIRC, once a week. It worked wonders at desensitizing the shins but I gave it up because I don't fight competitively and the irregular payoff wasn't worth the torture of the regular rolling IMHO.

If I were combatting shin splints I'd personally rather do exercises to build up the shin muscle vs. exercises to desensitize the shins.

Just checking: you've got your booster straps installed UNDER the shell of the boot in front, not OVER the plastic like the stock power straps were, right?

Booster straps are under the shell. Have a super snug fit. They pull the tongue in so it is tight to my shins all the way to the top.

Sometimes its just the boot. I had a Salomon X-Wave that I just couldn't deal with for this reason. Finally had to just give up on the boot. For a while I went back to the old TNT Explosion 8s and finally got the Nordica Hot Rod. Anyway, what has been your experienece in other boots before the X-Wave 9? Has this been a problem in every boot you ever owned, or might it be time to try something else?

place guard inside sock.

ski.

make better guard from Plastazote, heat forming to shin & anklets.

place guard #2 inside sock after removing guard #1.

ski.

I tried the guards in the sock but I got some blistering around the guard. Have to place it just outside thin sock.
As far as beefing up my shin muscles to provide more cushion like addict stated I have been doing excercises the last month for that reason.
I have heard a few people with this problem just as circuerider said he had to. I too ski with the bottom buckles undone and the tops atap.
For the most part I have not had this problem with my old langes. Every now and then I would get some pain but not near to the point where it is these days.

beefing up the shin muscles is for next season, right next to finding new boots.

lube the guard and put it in the sock.

I'll give'r a shot. Lube; Check. sock; check. Now where's my dirty hooker:FIREdevil