Charlatan

I have been suffering from shin splints...

Is there anything I can do to prevent getting them (i.e. wraps or exercises).

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
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munchen

Stretch. Twice to three times a day, as many leg/ calf stretches as you can find. Shin splints often happens when you take on too much activity to fast, so i suggest you slow down whatever your doing. Something else that can help that is to strenghten your muscles. I have excersei lying around that i used to do for shin splint i'll see if i can dig them up for you

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"Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun" -Matt Groening

Charlatan

Thanks... I've been doing Kendo for the past couple of years, and since I started wearing the armour, I've been getting shin splints... I took about 5 months off last year and got rid of them but have found that, while nowhere near as bad as they were, my shins have been acheing again...

I have been stretching as much as I can but think I need to do some execises to strenghten them... any suggestions would be great.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Seaver

Wrapping has been done, but I felt it didnt do anything for me.

First of all dont run on concrete.
Second get a GOOD pair of insoles for your shoes.
Third chill out with the running for a bit, build up slowly.
And finally stretch, a lot as munchen said.

It's the repetative pounding you recieve that causes the splints, your tendons arent used to it and they're what gets damaged. Running on concrete and without the proper cushin amplify this greatly, and they just break down.

Charlatan

My problem is I have to do Kendo barefoot... While both shins are experiencing some pain it is mostly in my left leg... In the sliding step that we use in Kendo, the left leg is the one we use to propel ourselves forward.

I'm not sure there is anything I can do other than exercise or stretch...

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

munchen

Two-leg and one-leg heel raises - Stand on the floor, next to a table or chair for support. Rise up on the toes of both feet and hold for 2 - 5 seconds. Repeat 10 - 20 times. Do 2 - 3 sets per day and work up to 50 heel raises per set with each leg.

Do the same thing in reverse. Meaning lift your toes of the floor balancing on your heels. This one is harder, at least for me.

Towel gathering exercise - Set the balls of both feet on a towel. Flex the toes to gather the towel under the feet. The heel remains in contact with the floor, and stationary. Progress to doing this exercise 10 times and add a light weight to the towel for added resistance.

Marble pick up - Place a marble, or wadded piece of paper, on the floor. Pick it up with your toes. Repeat 10 - 25 times

There's some good stuff here if you have a thera-band elastic thingy.
http://www.athleticadvisor.com/Injur...in_splints.htm

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"Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun" -Matt Groening

thatoneguy

Shin splints are no good, I get them whenever I try to run on a track or sidewalk or hard surface like that on a regular basis. The only things I've been told to do is there are certain exercises that you can do to help and obviously icing it.

When I was in high school, the trainers for the soccer team always had me do these things involving rotating my foot/ankle. For example, sitting on the floor, with your legs out in front of you, bring your knee up so it is bent, then rest the calf of your other leg on top of it. They told me to then point my toes and spell the alphabet in the air with them, supposedly this is supposed to help the shin splints, and possibly prevent them.

I'm no trainer, so don't necessarily listen to me haha, but that's what I used to have to do, and it seemed to work reasonably well, I don't know if there are better ones out there though.

Charlatan

Thanks guys... Munchen I will give those exercises a try.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

nofnway

Back in the day when I was a skinny high jumper i'd get shin splints. The trainers had me get a 5-10 lb weight dangled from a strap and with my leg hangin over the table and the weight hanging off of my toes...lift the weight in sets of 12-15 reps

it worked pretty well

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