How To Prevent And Cure Shin Splints

I have just been suffering from shin splints and thought it would be a good idea to share my knowledge and experience of how to prevent it happening and how to cure it if you do suffer.

The first time I experienced this injury for myself must have been about 1976. I was only a teenager at the time and I had heard some of the older runners at my club talking about your shin bone actually splintering and the pain being the splinters of bone sticking into your muscles. I know it feels like that, but I could not believe it. Stress fractures of this sort do happen, though not very often and only if you are doing extremely long and hard training. Shin splints is caused by overworking the muscles, either by running or walking, but it is usually not as serious as this.

I went to see Mr Woolley, a physiotherapist I had seen before. He knew instantly where it hurt an pressed his fingers in the relevant places just to confirm it! You usually get a pain in the muscle on the front of your shin. He also found one just below my knee on the outside of my leg in the muscle that runs just behind the shin bone. Try it yourself, probe around deeply with your fingers and find the hard, painful spots.

The treatment was ultra sound to break down the hard muscle, massage to relax the rest of the muscles and exercises to stop it happening again. Since then I have hardly suffered from shin splints. When I feel it coming on I know what to do to stop it getting worse and make it go away.

This is what he told me. When you overwork a muscle it shortens and hardens. This shortening in the muscles of your lower leg causes your ankle joint and the joints in your foot bones to close so they hurt when moved. That is why you often feel pain in your foot as well. The cure and prevention is to stop the muscles from closing up your joints. Resting can and will help, but remember that when you start exercising again, you will cause the same reaction in your muscles. You need to do stretching exercises. As the muscles on the back and front of your leg are pulling the joint closed, they both need to be stretched. So incorporate these stretching exercises into your routine to prevent the injury happening in the first place, and whenever you feel a tightness in your ankle joint or on the top o
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f your foot, do more of them.

The first exercise is like the yoga position called the fish. Kneel down on the floor and sit between your heels. This may cause your knees and ankles to crack. This is what we want! Then lean back and try to put the top of your head on the floor, keeping your knees together as much as possible. This is a very powerful exercise and could be difficult if you have not done much stretching before, so be careful, take it slowly and even have someone at hand to help you if you are not confident you can get into this position.

Next, go into the dog position. From kneeling, put your hands on the floor in front of you and straighten your legs. Your aim is to keep your heels on the ground with straight legs. You can move your hands forward or back and push yourself backwards to increase the stretch down the back of your legs and in your calf muscles. You have now stretched both sides of your ankle joint.

Other exercises you can do: Standing on one leg, lift the other leg behind you and hold onto your foot and pull it into your buttock. Try to keep your knees together. Depending on how supple you are you can then lean forward and pull your leg up behind you until your body and raised leg are parallel to the ground, or you can just pull harder and arch your back to increase the stretch. You might feel your ankle joint crack. It feels good if it does! Then, standing a way from a wall, lean forwards with your hands on the wall, keeping your heels on the ground, and stretch the backs of your legs , or touch your toes while they are on a small step about one or two inches high. Remember to stretch the front and back of your leg. While you are sitting relaxing you can rotate your foot in both directions, stretching as far as possible all round.

You can also relax and concentrate your attention on the affected area. Make yourself conscious of where the pain is and how it feels. Feel the tightness in your muscles and joint and consciously try to relax the pain away. Being aware of your body and how it feels is important. Through regular relaxation exercises you can examine all of your body and find parts that are a little tight or painful, and by consciously relaxing them you can prevent any further trouble from developing. You will also become aware of your body when you are training, and by listening to what it is saying, you can stop injuries from happening in the first place. It might seem weird to some of you, but I have been doing this for thirty years now. And my latest shin splint lasted for one run. I concentrated on it when I got back and when I went to bed, and the next day it was gone. Of course, I was doing the stretching exercises as well.

By: Steven Booth

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Steven Booth has been running since 1972. Over the years the sport has increased in popularity. Through his articles and websites it is his aim to help all runners to gain some of the essential information to enable them to become better runners and happier people.

If you are interested in learning how to run faster, take a look at www.how2runfaster.com. There are other resources and articles about running and general well being at www.harrystevens.com

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