And another Aha! moment

Another mystery of life at least semi-solved with an Aha! moment.

My last two ultimate seasons have been plagued with shin splints. I'd work at preventing them with this exercise and that exercise, but had little luck. I started taking Advil before practice so that I could play, progressing to more and more to keep playing. At one point, I was taking small doses of Vicodin, usually a half pill, so that I could keep playing. I stopped when I realized how badly it was affecting my reaction times. The bottle of Advil was still my bestest friend.

The biggest problem I had with them was that they weren't normal shin splints, with the pain along the front of my shins. Instead, they were strangely deep pains, along the back of my shin bones. Unusual in shin splits, unheard by some (mostly because it implied the front shin muscles were stronger than my calf muscles, which, well, isn't true).

I, once again, managed to confuse the doctors with my bizarre pains.

While sitting in Hawaii, reading a magazine, this past weekend, I pulled my leg up as normal so that the outside of my left shin rested on my right knee (plus or minus a few inches adjustment in what you just imagined). I've been sitting this way for years, ever even. I can't stand sitting daintily with my legs crossed in an oh-so-proper-lady-like fashion, drives me nuts. Instead, my knee is sticking up and my mother is cringing when I sit that way with a dress on (yes, tragically, I've done that unthinkingly, only to have my friends stand in a strategic spot to whistle and cheer until I notice that, yes, they can see straight up my dress).

This time, however, for the first time, I noticed my leg begin to hurt when I sat that way. It hurt in the way very much like my shin splints. Why, exactly like my shin splints! Holy crap! This is the cause of my shin splints!

So, I've adjusted, yet again, how I sit. So many rules to remember when sitting now (sit on your sit-bones, pull my chin in, balance the spine, don't pull my leg up, stop bouncing the legs, okay, don't stop bouncing the legs).

Hopefully with these adjustments, I'll be able to stop worrying about my shins.