Shin Splints Go Away and Don’t Come Back Another Day

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Shins splints are when your tibialis begins to get small fractures in it from running, jumping and or bounding movements. This process is only sped up when you constantly practice on a hard surface. It is an age old injury that is probably the most annoying injury for many track athletes. It nags you, but not enough to actually not practice, you just keep running on them and running on them. Most of the time you do nothing about it, you just pray that it goes away. First it only hurts when you bound, or run but eventually it gets worse and you can barely even jog, and next thing you know you have a stress fracture and you’re out for 6 weeks.  I am going to break down some simple reasons that cause shin splints to even come, because it is really not that complicated.

1.) Tight calf muscles – Tight calves put more pressure on the shins

2.) Bad ankle mobility and/or ankle strength – Ankles with limited flexibility are hard to run on and put more pressure on the shin

3.) Weak Foot muscles – Put more pressure on the tibia

4.) Small/Weak Tibia Bone – Therefore the tibia can not handle the pressure

5.) Weak tibialis anterior/ shin muscle -  The muscle is not strong enough to help absorb some of the pressure

You get the point, there are many things that can cause them but at the end of the day they all do one thing… PUT MORE PRESSURE ON THE TIBIA. To make shin splints go away the pressure must be taken off. See… not hard at all.

The reason that shins splints usually come back is because the exercises to fix them are not big power exercises like squats or power cleans, they work on the smaller muscles that some tend to not care about. Here are some exercises to fix the problem. I find usually one or 2 exercises work, if you can pinpoint what the cause is.

1.) Tight Calves – Stretch out your calves throughly. Most people with shin splints do not do this. There are many ways to do this, for example, a hamstring stetch and then pulling your toes downward.

2.) Bad Ankle Mobility/Strength – You can do balance exercises standing on one foot and have some one throw a tennis ball at you. If you get good at this you can upgrade to standing on a bosu with one foot. For ankle mobility it is all in the achilles flexibility. This can be done by putting the ball of your foot against the bottom of a wall so your heel is on the ground, and trying to touch your knee to the wall.

3.) Weak Foot Muscles – First start by rolling your feet on a golf ball everyday. This will loosen up some of the tight muscles and bones in your feet and get them working better. Than you need to lie a towel on a smooth surface like tile or a wood floor. Put your foot on it and scrunch it with your toes (especially the big one). To make it harder put something on the towel like a bottle of lotion to add some resistance. This exercise will strengthen many of the muscles at the sole of the foot that are used in running.

4.) Weak Tibia Bone - It has been proven that lifting and making the muscle bigger will mean the bone increases in size and becomes stronger. This is an easy fix, do standing calf raises, and seated calf raises. This will work the 2 major muscles that surround the tibia and therefore make the bone stronger and also since the muscle is stronger it will help take some of the pressure off the bone.

5.) Weak Tibialis Anterior- This is an easy fix with a pretty easy exercise. All you have to do is get some type of resistance to put on your toes so that when you pull them towards your shins (dorsi flexion) it works your tibialis anterior. This can be done with certain dumbbells, thera bands and if you have someone with you they can use their hands as resistance.

Tagged as: Calves, Shins