My grandad was pretty battered by his late 50’s (WW2 and Muscular Dystrophy took their toll I think!) and he used to make mad noises getting up and down from his seat.
I make similar noises in his honour 
2 Likes
Any advice on relieving/ recovering shin splints? Had a constant shinner feeling for 3 days
Calf stretches/and strengthening every day is key and unfortunately rest/time away from whatever is making it flare up… Shin splints if they are prolonged and really painful often lead to stress fractures in the lower leg then you will be rocking a boot… Rest up.
1 Like
Posting this here as I think it might help a few of us.
Over the many years I’ve suffered back pain, the most improvement I’ve felt has been recently through gradual strengthening and mobility exercises. Stretching isn’t bad but it isn’t a cure from what I’ve seen and felt. Just like hot rubs help but they’re not something for long term relief.
Start lying on your back
Pull a knee to your chest and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat other side.
Pull one leg towards you and grip behind your thigh. Straighten your leg by raising your foot upwards. This should stretch your hamstrings, glutes and calves. Repeat 10 times each leg.
Knees up, cross left leg over the right thigh. It should look a bit like a figure four. Slowly raise the right leg to a point where you feel the stretch in your glute/thigh. Again on a scale of 1-10, the feeling should be bearable. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat the other side. Straighten each leg out afterwards.
Knees up again, feet apart slightly wider than your hips, arms out to your sides about 45 degrees. Swing your knees side to side ten times with your head turning the opposite way each time.
Reposition arms straight out to the sides. Straighten left leg out. Bend right leg and swing it over to the left side, head looking right. Try and hold this for 10-15 seconds. Only swing over as far is comfortable. Repeat on the other side.
Return to lying flat and relax for 10 seconds.
Arms out to your sides 45 degrees again. Bring your knees up, feel close to buttocks. Breathe in and hold for a couple of seconds. When you breathe in, focus on pushing out your lower back, not your belly. To check if you’re doing it right, place your hands beneath your lower back and you should feel them squeezed on the inhale. Repeat 10 times. This exercise is teaching your body to tighten and strengthen your core.
Brace your core again then exhale and push your hips upwards (hip thrust). Try and make sure to keep your hips, chest and shoulders in line. Don’t arch your back. Repeat the hip thrusts 10 times without returning to a full lying position. In other words stop a centimeter above the ground. On the last thrust, hold it in the top position for a count of 10 seconds.
Lie down, relax for 10 seconds.
Roll over and get on your hands and knees. Child pose: shift your weight backwards to sit on your feet, arms reaching forwards. You might need to open your knees a bit to get lower. Hold for 8 seconds.
Come back on to all fours. Breath in slowly lifting your chin upwards and letting your belly pull downwards, arching your back. Breath out inverting the position, tucking your chin into your chest and arching your back upwards. Repeat in-out 4 times. Child pose.
Back on all fours, keeping neck and spine in line, reach forwards with your right arm and backwards with your left leg. Then bring arm and leg in trying to touch right elbow and left knee in front of your belly. Repeat this back and forth stretch 10 times. On the last stretch out, hold for 10 seconds then return to all fours. Repeat with left arm and right leg. Child pose.
Reposition into push up position with hands planted slightly wider than your shoulders. 10 push ups rising on the exhale. Child pose.
Hold a plank for 20 seconds.
Hold a side plank, if necessary plant your outer leg into the floor bending your knee for extra support. Hold for 20 seconds and repeat other side. Child pose.
Lie face down. Arms along your sides. Lift he’s and shoulders off the ground. Hold for 10 seconds. Relax. Repeat but this time try and swing your arms ever so slightly by your sides a bit like a penguin. Relax then repeat the first one again.
Finally place your hands and forearms as if you were in a “Hands up” sort of T position. Raise your head and chest off the floor by supporting on your forearms. This is called a sphinx position and looks like you’ve frozen mid breakdance caterpillar. Try and relax your glutes and hips. Hold this position for 30 seconds. Child pose.
Overall this sequence should take 10-15 minutes. Repetition and regularity is key. Once every other day is best. If you’re struggling with the times repetitions listed then do shorter or fewer. Speak to a professional about them.
My back will still hurt from time to time but not half as much as it used to. A bonus thing to do which I think helps is stop drinking any sodas or acidic drinks. Those acids have to go through your system so trigger inflamed muscles.
Another thing to keep in mind is movement. If your back hurts a lot or constantly, it’s best to take a rest but otherwise try and keep moving as you would normally. A lot of trouble starts when back pain has you avoiding day to day movements, over compensating elsewhere and losing a lot of mobility.
6 Likes
Went for my first blood plasma treatment for my knee a couple days ago. AKA PRP (Platelet-rich plasma) injections.
Basically what happens is they take a vial of blood from your arm and put it in a centrifuge and whizz it up for 5 mins. Blood sits at bottom, other stuff (fat?) in the middle, with white blood cell rich juice at the top (my actual blood pictured, you can see the yelllow-y stuff at the top).
They get a syringe, suck out the yellow-y stuff and inject it directly into your knee. Theory is the area gets a big shot of healing plasma/white blood cells and heals up.
I have osteoarthritis (grade 4 - it’s bad) and knees are crumbling. Add to that cartilage is virtually gone. So it’s hard for me to for example kneel down, or get up off the floor. But also my knee started clicking a lot when bending/getting out of bed.
The doc gave me anaesthetic (syringe) to the knee, this was the most painful bit (which wasn’t actually that bad, just as you expect it to be), and then took the syringe with the juice and got it all up in there, which I didn’t feel at all. I don’t like watching needles go in so was completely oblivious to 2nd injection, I was looking the other way.
Whole process from when I got there to walking out was about 25 mins. No post-care needed, just told to not sauna or have a hot shower, I could drive fine and there was no pain in the area. Felt same tbh.
You’re supposed to have 2 more injections (same procedure), 2 weeks apart each, so 6 weeks in all.
It’s been 2 days now and knee feels ok. Can’t say there’s a massive difference but maybe I’ll update in a couple months.
Injections are 135EUR each, so about 500EUR in total (about £420) per knee.
4 Likes
Sounds similar to this YouTube Yoga video I have saved and has always helped me when my back is cabbaged. (Plus Adrienne is fire!)
3 Likes
I’ve got osteoarthritis, although probably not as serious as yours, as they’ve never given me a ‘grade’ number for it? My knees swell up for no reason once or twice a year, then the swelling goes away but they’re left weaker as a result. It’s been happening since my twenties, I had them drained a couple of times back then (big needle under the kneecap) but the worst thing about that was having to stay in bed for 24 hours afterwards to avoid putting any weight on them.
I went for my annual checkup last week and for the first time the doc has recommended some physio, which I’m really looking forward to because for a while I’ve wanted to know if there was anything I could do about getting some strength back in my knees, I hope it does something because I feel great physically apart from I have the knees of a 80 year old.
I can still skate but I can’t pop or drop off stuff. I did a tuck-knee thing a while ago and then had to limp for about two weeks afterwards. But maybe that’s just because I’m old now.
If this doesn’t work, Joe Rogan knows a stem cell guy south of the border 
Banged my shin skating the other night (must’ve been first time in like 10 years!) and was bleeding everywhere so whacked a big plaster on it so I wouldn’t end up stuck to the duvet.
Filled up with blood and completely forgot to change it for like 2 days.
Wife noticed how bad it smelt and it looked a bit weird so got the plaster off and dried it out. Man it stank. I thought I kept smelling cat shit all day but no, it was my leg.
Have a weird purple/red patch that exactly matches the square of the pad of the plaster around the cut.
We’re at our summer house with friends and wife has been nursing it with her mate. As we don’t have full clip of medical supplies she recommended that “in the old days we used to just soak a bandage in vodka” so have been doing that, changing it every couple hours.
Tl;dr: trying to avoid getting sepsis in countryside, will let you know how it pans out
1 Like
Is that the same leg you had the magic injection in? Is it bleeding too much to air it out?
Yes same leg, did it day before injection.
Not bleeding at all, no pus. A little sore. Am not too worried about it so fingers crossed.
This made me feel weak reading this.
Reminded me of the time I cut my shin on a ledge down to the bone, and I just put some sudacream and a plaster on it
2 Likes
Same. Ended up in hospital having it cleaned out 
I also did that, skating a rainbow-shaped rail that had a weird screw hanging out in Basel, everybody told me to go to the hospital but I was too scared so I took a train to go back home. 4 hours in various trains with a big blood stain on my ripped green cargos. The 20 minute uphill walk from the train station to my father’s place was gnarly. I didn’t tell my dad I got hurt or anything and just waited for it to heal. 27 years later the scar is still there. I suppose I’m pretty lucky I did not get an infection considering how putrid that rail was.
1 Like
Yeah that’s exactly what I did, just left it to heal. Which took like 2 months haha.
Or actually not funny, like you say, could easily have got an infection. Pretty hellride tbh
1 Like
I took a hefty slam on Saturday night and fractured my wrist. I’m pretty stunned as it is the first time in about 30 years of skating I have broken anything. It seems like a small fracture and none of the bones are out of place so all I needed was a cast, which will come off in 5 weeks.
To those who have been through this, how long did it take to regain grip in your fingers and for the pain to receed? Also did you have to avoid driving the entire time or did you get to a point where you could make short journies?
3 Likes
Oof heal quick
1 Like
Physio today for my knee after magic injection. Knee still clicks, no real change tbh.
Septic shin still ok, just healing slow.
1 Like
I’ve got grade IV osteoarthritis in my left knee. I started noticing it 15 years ago and gave up running regularly on it in the hope that it would improve things. I recently had a revelation that not running hasn’t made any difference to the pain so I might as well go for it. I spoke to a really good physio who measured my muscle function. Left leg was putting out 20% less power than my right (good) leg. He’s given me targeted exercises to build the muscles that protect knee function (single-leg calf raise, elevated heel squat, side plank raise; adding up to half my bodyweight load to the squats and calf raises) and it’s been a game changer. I have to do 20 minutes of yoga every morning to get my knees moving, but with those exercises I’ve been able to run seriously for the first time in years.
TLDR; exercises targeting the muscles around the knee can really make a difference.
Here’s a link to the physio. He often posts useful exercises.
4 Likes
Been out for six weeks and counting now, foot is still very sore and slightly swollen. Longest time I’ve had off skateboarding in 21 years
1 Like
