SHIN’S SPLINT
Shin’s splint is a medical condition characterized by pain in the shin bone itself.
How to avoid shin splint: Use good quality running shoes, be careful about increasing exercise workouts, warm up before exercising, watch your running form, watch your training surface (exercising on hard surfaces like concrete cause overload on shin’s muscles and tendons), and increase exercise intensity gradually, etc.
Exercise modification to relieve shin splint pain: an alternative way of exercising such as cycling, swimming, cross-training, etc.
Physiotherapy treatment for shin’s splint includes:
The physiotherapist will examine your foot arch and recommend you appropriate arch support (customized insole) for your shoes.
the physiotherapist will modify your running form to deal with the shin splint.
Cryotherapy of the shin.
Using a Neoprene sleeve and compression bandage.
The physiotherapist will give you some ergonomic advice like sleeping with elevated legs.
ROM exercises: like sitting toe tap exercise, and you can progress it by doing this exercise against resistance.
Ankle ROM exercise.
Heel walking for 15 to 20 feet or for 30 seconds and you can gradually increase the walk time up to 2 minutes.
Stretching exercise: sit in a long sitting position and point your feet forward and get a good stretch in your anterior leg, hold the stretch for 10-15 seconds and repeat 10 times.
Another way of stretching is sitting on your feet (like vajrasana or thunderbolt pose) and placing your palm on side of your knees now lift yourself up but keep your toes in touch with the ground.
Massaging of tibialis anterior muscle.
Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization of tibialis anterior.
Foam rolling of the shin.
Foam rolling of the calf muscle and Achilles tendon.
The physiotherapist uses therapeutic modalities for shin’s splint such as extracorporeal shockwave therapy, and Ultrasound therapy. And they use some techniques like dry needling and Kinesio taping for pain relief and faster recovery.