Simply put, I’ve had shin splints since February and they just won’t go away. Have not done any workouts because of them. I’ve tried ice, heat, stretching, ems , massage, ultrasound, physical therapy, arch supports, new shoes, light activity, foam rolling, pretty much everything I guess. They just won’t fkin go away. I’m about ready to say F-it and begin training again.
Any advice on this situation?
maybe you should consider how your program is organized. why is your training causing you injury instead of making you more injury proof? obviously the tissue cant handle the forces impposed on it.
I haven’t trained all year pretty much…I’ve just not gotten better. Ok I’ll admit…the first symptoms of shin splints I had I just blew those off and trained through that session…the next session it got worse but still trained through it. The third one was the final one where I realized I needed to stop being retarded. That was back in February. I haven’t trained since.
Basically, my warmups blew and I devoted no time to developing and maintaining flexibility, and didn’t consider the importance of recovery.
Still…I haven’t worked out in half a year…that is way too long damnit. =/
I’m only 17…
Do seated calve raises. By strengthening them you will also make the front side of your leg stronger (Organism Strength). You can also work the muscles in front of and around your shin Tibialis Anterior by doing Dorsiflexion exercises. The protocols for this are listed on the forum somewhere.
This is how I cope w/ shin splits:
After workouts - ICE, Anti-inflam, REST
Orthotics help -
Get a strengthening rubber band, rap around your foot and pull the band towards you. Make figure 8s with your foot. That helps SO much especially for the shinsplints on the inside of your shin.
Try getting your massage therapist to do a deep massage behind the tibia. Go from the soleus up. should help.
I dunno…just a few days ago the shins were feelin pretty damn good…and now theyre feeling a bit worse again…it doesnt make sense to me
How often would I do the seated calf raises and resistance band pulls or any other “workouts” ? How heavy and how much volume? In phys therapy for 3 weeks I was doing both of those…and I’m still here with pain =/
If I get the DARD, would it reaaaalllyy be worth the money? I’ve already spent a lot of money trying to relieve myself
My experience with shin splints has been a long one as i get chronic shin splints. So my take to first recover for myself there was a lot of scar tissue on the inside of the tibula bone. Feel the bone, just right beside it youll feel dead spots thats scar tissue, get a massage therapists or some other qualified therapist to work that out. After you do that, your shins should feel a lot better, then comes the strengthening, there are some physio exercises that can be done that have helped me a lot. Find some and perform them, but dont forget to take some time off after the theapist has removed the scar tissue and then strengthen and then after some more time get back into running.
There’s pretty much no chance of going to any good massage therapist for me. I’ve already gone to one…and it’ll just be a big hassle to even consider going to somebody else. I appreciate it, but its not gonna happen man
Seated calve raises, heavy 3-4 sets at 85-100% intensity. If that hurts to much then start at 75%. If you can’t do that due to pain then due what you can.
Dard probably would be worth the money. Or you can goto the gym and replicate the exercise by going to the seated row and using a different attachment to hook onto your feet and while seated, pull/curl your foot towards your knee. Dorsiflexion.
Since you are in the off season why not just take off 3 weeks and then do the prescribed exercises above?
Don’t use foam rollers! Use a beer bottle instead and roll the bottle up and down the shin!
I’m gonna give the beer bottle idea a try then. I’ll be on my knees/floor pretty much while rolling though right?
Thanks for the seated calf raise advice. Yeah…I was only going about 20% in phys therapy haha. How many days a week you recommend for the calf raises and DARD?
Bump. Also…should I do the rolling on the bottle everyday? Because my shin muscle is very sore from rolling on the bottle yesterday.
…bump…
Dunno what to make of this…but on the seated calf raise i’m up to 475x8 and its still not thaaat hard…i can do so much more. However I’m using a power rack, barbell(squat pad in middle for cushioning) and blocks to elevate my feet.
Maybe all of my sprinting and PLing(even tho i never directly trained calves…theyre only 14" lol) have strengthened my calves a lot more than the front of my shin? I don’t know honestly…I just don’t want to make the problem worse by strengthening the wrong thing i guess…
?
bump…insight please
cmon…seriously in need of advice here…seated Calf raises up to 630x4 but only got feet parallel with the blocks…
I seriously am doubting this is a calf issue now…I’ve also been stretching my calves diligently for well over a month, so they cant be the tight muscle. I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOO
Is there not a seated calf raise machine (freewt) in your gym. I understand that you are improvising but try to find that at a local gym. The most I did seated I think was 1x540 on that freeweight machine. The machine can be described as something you sit down on put your knees under the pad and then lift up. The benefits of the machine are; first you can go lower (dorsiflexion) on the machine then you can with just using a barbell, secondly it is freeweight (you keep on stacking 45lb plates). My take is, is that by strengthening the calves you will strengthen the whole lower leg (organism strength).
To balance out the musculature (I never did but hey you might need to) you can do the exercise I mentioned before, sit at the seated cable row machine and use an attachment so that your feet can hook onto and then lift heavy.
Hold on a minute, if your using blocks then I guess your improvising is good. A dard is a great tool but not necessary if you do the seated cable row for the tibialis anterior (shin) muscle like I mentioned above.
I.E
start by doing 10x55
Wk 2
10x65
Wk 3
10x75
Wk 4
10x85
eventually lower the reps to strength training
Wk 8
5x 135
WK 9
2x155
The same protocol for the calve raises. Sorry I forgot to mention that you want to gradually increase the intensity and volume not to jump up there in 1 fell swoop. Also, this maybe best accomplished in the off season when your not sprinting. By doing it in the off season, first your not creating the problem by sprinting, second you can affectively treat your problem before it begins (during the season).
You should be in the off season, no?
As for the bottle do that after each track session when you get home. I didn’t roll on it the way you did. I would be sitting down on the couch and rolling the bottle hard up and down my shin, but your way seems way better. Seems like a good way to release some of that scar tissue.
Well, the way I’m improvising I think let’s me attain a full range of motion. I’m using 3 or 4 wooden boards totalling 6-8" in height, so I figured I was getting a full ROM anyways. (well…when I’m using proper weight). Doing these seated btw, with the bar on my legs
I know what the machine is, but it’s not at my gym. I doubt any other gym around here is gonna let me use their seated calf raise machine for free.
Sorry if I’m sounding dumb here, but can you go a little more into the seated cable row thing? Because my gym does have that…
Also, there pretty much is no on/off season for me. I need to heal these shins up before I consider any sprinting at all. =/
Edit: I think I was doing the rolling too much though. They were like sore for days even after I stopped doing it…still slightly feeling it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though is it?
Appreciate your post very much.