ExRx.net

ok, so i try to keep the bar as close to my body/legs that i can. a few years ago i had an injury to my left leg and i have a lot of messed nerves along my shin. when i scrape it up my leg, it feels REALLY uncomfortable....almost painful. is it OK to have it close, just not touching? usually once i get to my knees i'm touching my leg.

I think it needs to touch, or you'll forever be at a lower weight than you can actually handle. Is it possible to pad up your shins in some way? Tape the bar, wear long pants, etc?

i have to wear something. i had two pretty traumatic silly injuries to my leg. today i scraped up the leg and completely opened up this one scar that never heals because it's a really deep one.

i think taping the bar would only cause it to not scratch myself. i thought about rigging something but i think it would need to be something on my leg. like some sort of shin padding.

how much do the collars weigh? i used them this week for all my dead lift sets. went up with dead lifts but i'm not sure by how much because i don't usually use collars. they felt like they were the same as the 2.5lbs plates.

Depends on the collars. Try weighing them!

You might look and feel silly with shin guards, but if they allow you to pull heavier without pain and injury, I'd do it. I used to do lunges on concrete, and I wore my MMA knee guards. Silly? Maybe, but banged up knees are more than silly. Same with torn-up shins if you've got an old injury.

You can tape the bar AND tape your shins. I run 2 strips of tape from just under the edge of my socks to my knees, and tape about 1 1/2 inches of the knurling on each side.

i'm going to try taping my leg up first, before i try the shin pads. i think the tape might be too thin, but i'm going to give it a go.

If the knurling on the bar is sharp it will tear the tape. If your shins aren't already torn up, taping the bar only may be sufficient. If my shins are already torn up, I need to do both.

i think it's more the dead nerve endings that really mess me up.

i fell 7 years ago on a raises side walk. the edge hit the top of my shin. the next day i couldn't put any weight on my leg and i had a bruise so bad it looked like i had a second knee cap. should have went to the dr but was dumb back then. it's super sensitive. the scar that got reopened was because i fell on top of an acorn, pointed side up. the scar is deep! should have went to the dr then too but it was the same, young and dumb.

Well, try and see what works for you.

If you have your own bar, you can use a file to smooth a little bit of the the knurling. There are some bars that have a wider smooth area, but I haven't been able to find one.

I've thought of making a sleeve of some sort of smooth cloth, maybe something a little bit stretchy, large enough to slide over the bar, smooth enough so slide around the bar when it rubs on your shins. I would just carry it in my gym bag and put it on whatever bar I was using at the moment. Just an idea.

doc, i thought of doing something like that, but with a velcro closure type of deal. my boss suggested wearing really high socks. i'm going to try a few different things.

what would make a great invention, would be a separate sleeve built into the bar the rotated so you could roll it up your legs.

use your legs and butt to get the bar up. Don't try and use your arms. shoulders are down and relaxed. All your shoulders and grip is doing is stabilizing the bar. thats it. When I catch myself in the deadlift not using my glutes/legs, I can easily tell when the bar goes against my shin. especially if the weight is too heavy and I try.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Of course you use your legs and butt, not your arms. But that doesn't help the old scraping-the-shins problem. The bar should be in contact with the skin of the shin from the start of the pull until it clears the knees. That allows it to be centered over the foot, and centered under the middle of the scapulae.