How to Cure Shin Splints.
Shin splints can plague the legs of any keen walker or runner and it is often a misconception as to what causes them or the best way to treat them. The Kilted Coaches take you through the best way to cure shin splints.
Shin splints are usually experienced during and after exercise or when you press on the area. Shin splints can also be referred to as Compartment Syndrome, which basically means that the muscle within the compartment becomes to swollen for the size of the compartment and causes a tension through the muscles. This is very uncomfortable and can actually stop people from performing.
Generally you will get shin splints from when you are walking or running, or in some occasions on the a rowing machine. Any type of exercise that you are required to lift the toe in a continuous way, fast walking for instance, you have to keep lifting the toe to maintain that speed.
What is happening is the muscle at the front of the leg is having to fight against the muscle in your calf. The muscle at the front of the leg is a lot smaller then the calf muscle so fighting against it can be a difficult job.
So some of the common mistakes people make when they have shin splints, firstly is to try and stretch the area where there is pain. Although this might give you some instant relief or may feel like its working, its actually not really going to help you in the long run.
Some of the main causes of shin splints could be that you have the wrong footwear, whether it be they are too flat or too heavy. Even possibly your footfall isn’t quite right which then causes an imbalance in the foot, subsequently causing a tightness in the calf. The tightness in the calf is ultimately what is causing the problem and this tightness is causing the muscle in the front of the leg to be over worked as it is trying to balance out the ankle movement due to the tight calf.
The go to advice for how to cure shin splints is…you need to stretch your calf muscles! Prevention is better then cure, stretching before and after exercise or ideally, on a daily basis. Downward dog is one of out favourite stretches.
A good prescription is to so as much stretching as possible. If you can mange 3-4 stretch sessions per day for about 10-14 days that should loosen up all the lean muscle tissue and should solve your problem and there after keep the calfs supple. A slightly more advance technique for shin splints is to use a foam roller.
So…solving the problem in your calf should solve the problem of your shin splints.