Shin Splints

TwistedTorque · Post by **TwistedTorque** » 12 Mar 2005 23:57

I thought this deserved its own topic. Let's hear what people say helps them and what hurts them. To get the ball rolling:

Helps: Ellis's Excercises, New Balances, Good Insoles, Deep Calf Stretches and Shin Stretches.

Hurts: Cement, Symposium, Fast Flat Footed Plants, Bursts of skill increase

King Monkey · Post by **King Monkey** » 13 Mar 2005 04:30

I had shin splints for over a year but now have been free of them for about hmmm 8 months or so?
I think its caused by an imbalance between the muscles in the front of your leg, on your shin, and the calf muscle. So one gets stronger than the other, and pulls against the other muscle, causing irritation and inflammation along the shin.
I found that the best thing is to strengthen the muscles, and play as much as you can with the pain, but not overdoing it. But the most important thing is to do stretches before, during and after playing. Calf stretches, toe raises, ankle stretches all help alot. Toe raises probably are the best stretch though. stretching every day and playing (but maybe not full on), will improve your leg muscle strength and shin splints will be subside.

Perhaps a good bet with playing on the shin splints would be to play on carpet, that way you are still exercising and strengthening the muscles, whilst reducing the stress of impact on your playing surface. Thats what i did alot, playing indoors.

Using an icepack for 10 min or so after shredding, when there is pain, is also good i feel.

B_Man · Post by **B_Man** » 13 Mar 2005 11:21

Evan, I was curious as to what you meant be deep calf stretches? Also, if you have any way of explaining/showing these certain stretches I would be very interested in learning them.

Thanks!

Jas · Post by **Jas** » 13 Mar 2005 22:29

ive got a right leg shin splint, kind of hurts when i bounce on it. I got it because ive been trying to step on my strongside, so its always continuous jumping...
aw well

habitat · Post by **habitat** » 14 Mar 2005 00:22

damn, thanks for the info as I never have checked the flipsider info section out that much, those toe shin stretches kick ass!

Reid · Post by **Reid** » 15 Mar 2005 08:04

Good insoles in your lavers, I found also that the part on the laver that wears out the most for me is in the toe so i figured thats probably where a lot of the impact is coming through, so i put an extra layer of rubber under the toe. But saying this you don´t want to play flat footed, because that will probably increase your chances of shinsplints ijust find that the extra padding reduces the inpact a bit.

kenny_wunder · Post by **kenny_wunder** » 15 Mar 2005 09:11

lon told me to make sure to push off of my toe when i walk, extending my foot to a point with every step. this hurt at first, as it seems to work the very muscle that is injured. i was hesitant, but persisted. within about a week of walking like a dork, my pain had completely gone and hasn't yet come back.

kenny_wunder · Post by **kenny_wunder** » 15 Mar 2005 09:14

also, listen to whatever evan says about stretching, it would seem that he really knows what he's talking about. he can get into yoga positions that make him look more like a dismembered corpse shoved into a small box

StyleeRiley · Post by **StyleeRiley** » 11 Oct 2005 14:46

So, I've known I've had shin splints for years. It all started back in High School. I never gave it much though until yesterday when I had an X-ray of my leg taken. As it turns out, I've got a nice little fracture on the front of my tibia. It makes sense, after all I do have flat feet, I love the symposium concept and I hate stretching. Serves me right, I guess...

Bander87 · Post by **Bander87** » 11 Oct 2005 14:53

I have flat feet too and had shin splints also for a year. Turns out I needed insoles and once I got arch support I've never had shin splints since.

There are 3 majior reasons why shin splints happen, for long periods anyways:

1. No arch support (like what I had)
2. Weak calf muscles
3. Bone fracture

Chim-Chim · Post by **Chim-Chim** » 11 Oct 2005 19:10

King Monkey, what is a toe raise?

Bander can fractures on your tibia lead to any problems? I have arch supports and stretch my calves/shins (it gets rid of the pain for sure), but after about 60 minutes I get shin splints on both legs; stretching or no stretching. One of these days I bet they're just going to snap in two

sniikeri · Post by **sniikeri** » 12 Oct 2005 08:30

Jake Raye wrote:King Monkey, what is a toe raise?

Get on your toes I guess.

(For flat feet there's an own topic.)

Blackend · Post by **Blackend** » 12 Oct 2005 12:54

StyleeRiley wrote:So, I've known I've had shin splints for years. It all started back in High School. I never gave it much though until yesterday when I had an X-ray of my leg taken. As it turns out, I've got a nice little fracture on the front of my tibia. It makes sense, after all I do have flat feet, I love the symposium concept and I hate stretching. Serves me right, I guess...

The B-5000 better not be injured...or else!

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 12 Oct 2005 20:26

I used to get bad shin splints but now hardly ever get them and don't get serious ones. The tip that worked for me was just making sure you stretch your calves - especially when any part of that area is sore and doing those exercises. Also trying to build up the muscles in the area. I also worked on my landings for a lot of moves and I think that really helped. I think when I've got very mild shin splints lately it has been because I'm fairly tired and start playing more lazily - not being so good with my landings etc.

Deep heat, red bull and Neurofen plus allowed me to play just as hard as normal when I had bad shin splints but I think that was probably why they lasted for so long....

B_Man · Post by **B_Man** » 12 Oct 2005 23:41

- Take anti-inflammatories and ice the shin to get the swelling down
- Take time off
- Be sure to eat plenty of proteins
- Stretch those muscles every evening before you go to sleep

Blamo, the solution to shin splints

EDIT:

For Impact Stress:

- Anti-inflammatories
- Calcium and Magnesium
- Lots of rest

People often mix up the two, since they both feel fairly similar. Basically, shin splints is when the muscles at the front of your tibia are too weak and are ripped off the bone by your calf, which is working harder to make up for the weak muscle. Ways to prevent this is to strengthen the front of your shin musces by doign toe raises.

Impact stress are tiny hairline fractures that run up along the tibia due to (as you may have guessed) hard impact and your tibia taking most of the shock. Also, playing on surfaces that doesn't absorb shock very well (ie - concrete) can cause this as well. Ways to prevent it are to play on better surfaces, maintain a diet rich in calcium and magnesium, and learn to play lighter (more on your toes).

*rainbow*

The more you know!

busted · Post by **busted** » 25 Nov 2005 11:51

I've had to battle shin splints ever since I got past hitting a MIRAGE. Basically I agree with all the advice given so far, especially the stretching which has been a real shred saver. I like to stretch on steps, personally, with the toe on the step and leaning back into it.

Incidentally, I am also flat footed. Plus I'm 200lbs and 6'4''.

So even though I have my shin splints almost 100% managed, I have a number of questions that perhaps can be answered on this forum.

1. Is my pain really shin splints? I have pain just below the knee, directly in front, neither to the inside or outside. Just below the knee means about an inch below. Is this shin splints? The reason I ask is because I've heard many people describe shin splints as something lower down on the shin, and not centered but on the inside.

(I'm going to continue to use the term shin splints, although I still have some doubt.)

2. The worst of my shin splint problem is quite odd. Whenever I take time off from the game, usually due to travel or a different injury, then I have a very strong pain as if my shin splint has blown out. I don't know how else to describe it, really. Usually repetative stress injuries build up and you don't feel them until you need to take some time off. In this case there is a jump in pain from none/little to "damn I can't kick today". What typically happens is that I take about a week off, and then I can play through the pain, and then over about two weeks, the pain goes away and I can shred like normal. To reiterate, the pain happens the first time I kick after not having shredded for a while.

3. What is the correct form for landing a high impact trick? Jeremy talked about having correct form on the landing. It's not clear to me what the correct landing is: Is it better to land on the toe and then come down to the back, or to land on the entire foot at the same time (back and front at same time.) I would imaging that landing on the toe is better but it is exactly when the toe is stretched and there is pressure that one feels the pain just below the knee.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
-David

Chim-Chim · Post by **Chim-Chim** » 25 Nov 2005 13:26

that doesn't sound like a shin splint.. better watch it that's a knee injury waiting to happen. if you don't already, try biking it might help to strengthen and rehab your knees.

busted · Post by **busted** » 25 Nov 2005 13:42

-Jake Raye

Hi, Why is it a knee injury waiting to happen? (The pain is below my knee, at least an inch) This is something I've been managing for about a year now and I'm pretty sure that I'm not at risk for too much for anything (except taking unwanted injury time off).

Thanks,
-David

sweet_hack · Post by **sweet_hack** » 03 Dec 2005 10:04

So I had shin splints for a while and looked up this thread after making up my own talking about shin splints until soomeone replied about this thread. Anyways I've been drinkin a lot of milk and it seems to work. As well even before I started to footbag I never drank milk, just once in a blus moon(when their wasn't any juice ledt in the fridge). But since I've been footbaggin I'vw only drank water for hydartion and milk for my shin splints. My recommended dose is a pouch a day(canadian) and about 1/3 of a jug(american) and don't know the metric system for europe so sorry.

hakkpakk · Post by **hakkpakk** » 03 Jan 2006 16:23

I have this medical book at my house and this is what it says about strengthening the shin muscles:
- Wrap a towel around the handle of an empty water bucket. Sit on a table or another surface high enough to prevent the feet from touching the floor. Place the bucket handle over the front part of one shoe. Slowly raise the front of the foot by flexing the ankle, then slowly extend the foot by pointing the toe. Repeat 10 times, then rest for a few seconds. Do 2 more sets of 10. To increase resistance, add water to the bucket but not so much that the exercise is painful.

Hopefully this'll help some of you.