What Are Shin Splints? Part 1
May 16, 2011
by Stephen R. Santangelo
In general terms, shin splints is a mild to severe pain on the front of the lower leg muscle; the tibialis.
Often it is referred to as MTSS or Medial Tibialis Stress Syndrome.
The causes for getting MTSS are infinite and it would literally be a 2 page list as to why it happens. Most doctors and physical therapists will tell you all the reasons why it happens and what ‘ not’ to do.
First of all, as a lifelong athlete I know one thing; don’t tell me what not to do when it comes to my training! Most health care professionals know athletes aren’t going to give up their sport or activities so they suggest taping, wrapping and icing the shins and that is the BIG problem; treating the symptom.
I suffered for years with shin splints throughout my scholastic athletics from grade school into college as well as post collegiate competitions. Throughout the years I followed orthodox methods of treating shin splints with no relief until the early 1980’s.
I met a very progressive thinking chiropractor, Dr. Vickie Voden, who introduced me to a few basic ankle exercises. After 3 weeks of adding these to my training regimen the shin splints vanished! She had me using pieces of cut up inner tubes for resistance.
Remember, this was long before exercise bands were even on the market. So, I began experimenting, although I was limited to inner tubes of all sizes and thicknesses. I was so amazed at the results, I put together an exercise program using bands exclusively for ankle strength and over the decades have created dozens of ankle exercises and developed my own line of resistance bands. How unorthodox was that?
The 2 best exercises were dorsi flexing the ankle while the leg is straight and while the knee is bent at 90 degrees and laterally extending & contracting the ankle. Doing 2-3 sets of 15-25 reps to failure, for each side, was the basic premise for eliminating shin splints and it strengthens the ankles along with the tibialis & soleus muscles. This program must be done 3 times per week and you must train each exercise to failure; this is very important for a speedy recovery.
Try it. It works. No matter how long you have been suffering from shin splints, the correct exercises and consistency will cure the problem. Orthodoxy tells us never to train to failure. You must learn to push yourself into this failure zone when needed. Orthodox thinking also tells us what not to do and treats the symptom. We want to cure the problem through exercise, not by ignoring it, hoping it’ll go away by stopping what we love doing.
Along with proper exercise and rest your shin splints will vanish forever!
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