If
you are suffering from shin splint, then there is a possibility that
it would take several months or years to recover. If you already have
had this problem, then you are at higher risk of redeveloping this
painful problem later in life. Taking a little time and effort to
avoid it is definitely worth it as the saying goes- “An
ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of cure”.
If
you're worried about suffering from shin splints, or perhaps you've
suffered from them in the past, taking measures now to prevent them
is going to be well worth your effort. It is a very devastating
injury that can keep you out of the game for an extended period of
time if you're not careful. Many runners or those who are involved in
running-type of activities will suffer from shin splints at some
point in their life if they aren't continuously doing things to help
prevent the injury from developing.
Here
are the big things you need to be doing regularly for preventing shin splints
or to stop it in its tracks.
- You should make stretching a part of your daily routine, despite of your anticipated or actual activity level of the day. Most of the people do stretching of calves and hamstrings and avoid stretching smaller muscles and tendons of feet and shins. It will help to prevent many other types of pains and aches as well as improving your ability to walk and run.
- In addition to your other activities, strength training is another important technique for reducing shin pain. In order to strengthen less used muscles in your legs and to develop stamina, try cross-training with different activities such as hiking, swimming, ice-skating or roller-blading thrown into the mix.
- You can also try variants on your current activity like walking backwards or going up and down on inclines such as stairs or hills. You can also use weight belts around your ankles to increase the resistance.
- During high impact activities, it is essential to have proper footwear. The curve of your feet provides impact absorption for every step. This is crucial to protect this function by wearing shoes with good arch support. Sports shoes are also designed to absorb the impact of walking, jumping or running but shoes wear out every 600-900 miles, so you frequently need to change your shoes.
- Finally, the most important step you can take for preventing shin splints is to listen to your body. If your legs or feet are tired, give them a rest. If you start feeling pain, stop and take care of it immediately. It is not the type of injury you can just run off.
Be
it shin splint or any other type of running or cycling injuries,
if you are not getting relief from basic workout, you need to consult
a good physical therapist who will help you with recovery and you
will experience faster healing.
