Shin Treatment - Are Your Shins a Pain?
Most active people suffer from leg pain at some time.
Often it can be traced back to a stumble on a rough surface, or even a fall, but sometimes there seems to be no reason for the pain.
If the pain is in the back of your lower leg, it may be cramp or insufficient warmup causing the muscle there (gastrocnemius) to go into spasm.
On a cautionary note, if you have unexplained calf pain that lasts more than a few hours and does not go away when you rest, you need to see a doctor PDQ (Pretty Damn Quick!), as you may have an undiagnosed DVT or blood clot.
I'm not trying to scare you to death here, but you don't need to fly long-haul to get a blood-clot, and it's always worth checking out.
I once had a therapy client who informed me, just as I was about to begin a sports massage, that she'd got back from a car journey yesterday and had this peculiar pain in her leg.
I froze; hands an inch from her left calf.
If I carried on with treatment and she had a DVT, I was likely to kill her.
Not good for business.
I abandoned the treatment and told her to see her doctor immediately.
She was really annoyed and never came back - I may have saved her life, but I'd wasted her time! Despite this tale, I've never heard of front of shin symptoms that were linked to anything sinister.
Everyone who has come to me for shin treatment has a fairly similar story - pain in the shins when running or after high-impact aerobics or dance.
A quick examination of the lower leg usually reveals the lurking presence of a shin splint - feels like a squashy lump at the edge of the shinbone (tibia).
The other tell-tale sign is that the client leaps a foot in the air when I press it - Ouch! Shin splints may go away on their own, but only if you stop the activity that caused them.
They are your body's way of telling you that something is wrong, and if you ignore the warning signs and force yourself to continue, it is possible to cause fractures to the bone.
Shin splints are usually caused by overworking of the muscle on the front of the shin (Tibialis Anterior), which pulls your toes up on each stride.
Your calf muscle brings your heel up for the next stride and is a much stronger muscle than the Tib Ant - which gets overworked and inflamed, swells and becomes painful.
Treatment consists of ice packs 2/3 times a day for max 15 minutes (for the first 3 days), and rest from the activity that caused them.
After 3 days, both heat and ice can be used, and sports massage is very helpful.
The affected muscle should be strengthened with specific exercises, and stretched after every exercise session.
I beg my regular runners to alternate running with low-impact exercise like cycling to give the muscle a break.
Given time and sympathetic treatment, most shin splints settle down and heal perfectly, allowing you to get on with your training, pain-free.
Often it can be traced back to a stumble on a rough surface, or even a fall, but sometimes there seems to be no reason for the pain.
If the pain is in the back of your lower leg, it may be cramp or insufficient warmup causing the muscle there (gastrocnemius) to go into spasm.
On a cautionary note, if you have unexplained calf pain that lasts more than a few hours and does not go away when you rest, you need to see a doctor PDQ (Pretty Damn Quick!), as you may have an undiagnosed DVT or blood clot.
I'm not trying to scare you to death here, but you don't need to fly long-haul to get a blood-clot, and it's always worth checking out.
I once had a therapy client who informed me, just as I was about to begin a sports massage, that she'd got back from a car journey yesterday and had this peculiar pain in her leg.
I froze; hands an inch from her left calf.
If I carried on with treatment and she had a DVT, I was likely to kill her.
Not good for business.
I abandoned the treatment and told her to see her doctor immediately.
She was really annoyed and never came back - I may have saved her life, but I'd wasted her time! Despite this tale, I've never heard of front of shin symptoms that were linked to anything sinister.
Everyone who has come to me for shin treatment has a fairly similar story - pain in the shins when running or after high-impact aerobics or dance.
A quick examination of the lower leg usually reveals the lurking presence of a shin splint - feels like a squashy lump at the edge of the shinbone (tibia).
The other tell-tale sign is that the client leaps a foot in the air when I press it - Ouch! Shin splints may go away on their own, but only if you stop the activity that caused them.
They are your body's way of telling you that something is wrong, and if you ignore the warning signs and force yourself to continue, it is possible to cause fractures to the bone.
Shin splints are usually caused by overworking of the muscle on the front of the shin (Tibialis Anterior), which pulls your toes up on each stride.
Your calf muscle brings your heel up for the next stride and is a much stronger muscle than the Tib Ant - which gets overworked and inflamed, swells and becomes painful.
Treatment consists of ice packs 2/3 times a day for max 15 minutes (for the first 3 days), and rest from the activity that caused them.
After 3 days, both heat and ice can be used, and sports massage is very helpful.
The affected muscle should be strengthened with specific exercises, and stretched after every exercise session.
I beg my regular runners to alternate running with low-impact exercise like cycling to give the muscle a break.
Given time and sympathetic treatment, most shin splints settle down and heal perfectly, allowing you to get on with your training, pain-free.