Any type of pain in the body can be frustrating. However, having an ache in your legs can make you feel like the only thing you can do is lie down until it goes away on its own. When you feel leg pain when standing, walking or exercising, it can interfere with even the simplest everyday activities. It can be difficult to walk around the grocery store or stand for a long shift at work. A common yet painful condition that can impact the legs is shin splints.
Medial tibial stress syndrome is often referred to as shin splints. It can cause pain along your shinbone, which is the large bone located at the front of your lower leg. It can also cause pain and numbness in the ankle and foot. It can develop as a result of excessive stress on the shinbone and connective tissue. This may lead to minor tears and inflammation of the surrounding soft tissue.
Shin splints are an overuse injury that’s common in athletes who perform repetitive movements, such as jumping and running, and account for up to 15% of running injuries. They are also common in military recruits and dancers. Shin splints may develop if you ramp up your workout suddenly, have flat feet, or wear unsupportive footwear while exercising.
Physical therapy is one of the best courses of action for alleviating shin splint symptoms and working toward recovery. There are many tips that you can learn from a physical therapist that you can practice at home or if the shin splint pain flares up again in the future. We’ll go over a few ways that physical therapists recommend treating shin splints. We’ll also discuss how Back in Motion can help you alleviate the symptoms in our clinic with treatments like ankle exercises and manual therapy.
6 tips from physical therapists to help shin splints
A physical therapist can help you reduce your shin splint pain while also improving the overall quality of the surrounding tissue to reduce the risk of future injury or issues. By learning about their tips and tricks for dealing with shin splints, you can learn to manage the symptoms so that you can return to your everyday activities as comfortably as possible.
Here are six physical therapy tips for dealing with shin splints:
- Rest to reduce the stress on the bone — We understand that it’s not easy to stay completely off your leg for extended periods of time; however, resting your shinbone from activities that place excessive strain on the bone and muscles can start the healing process. This means avoiding the activity or sport that caused the shin splints in the first place for up to a month, as well as repetitive leg activities for one to two weeks.
- Test out compression garments — Compression works to reduce possible swelling from shin splints. Physical therapists often recommend that people with shin splints wear compression socks or wraps to reduce the risk of swelling as you carry out your daily activities. Compression garments can also help reduce tenderness and stiffness in the lower leg that can impact your mobility.
- Consider orthotics — Shin splint symptoms can worsen if the affected bone and muscles don’t feel supported as you walk throughout the day. You may benefit from searching for different footwear or shoe orthotic inserts that may help. Your physical therapist can make recommendations about which type of support will work best for you. Your feet should have firm support to reduce stress on your lower leg with shock absorption.
- Couple your rest with elevation — One of the best ways to accelerate the body’s recovery process is by elevating the affected area. When you’re resting on a chair or couch, place cushions underneath your shin until it’s above your heart level. Elevating the injured shin promotes circulation, which helps to heal the injured area while also reducing pain and swelling.
- Stay active — Despite the importance of resting while trying to recover from shin splints, too much rest isn’t a good thing either. It can cause pain that flares up each morning and leads to muscle weakness, so it’s important to continue to stay active. Your physical therapist can show you low-impact exercises that help improve the strength, flexibility and range of motion of the affected area while also alleviating pain.
- Adjust your gait — Your gait refers to the position of your body as you walk. It’s possible to have a gait that puts excessive stress on your shinbone as you move, such as the bone rotating too much as you walk. This can lead to your shin splint symptoms worsening or recurring in the future. Your physical therapist can help you make gradual adjustments to your gait to enable your legs to carry out the proper biomechanics of the lower leg.
It’s important to consult with your doctor or physical therapist before treating your shin splints on your own to make sure you’re going about it in the safest way possible, because the wrong treatment can exacerbate the damage.
Get shin splint treatment from physical therapists at Back in Motion
Now that we’ve talked about what a physical therapist may recommend for shin splints as at-home care, let’s talk about what you can expect during a physical therapy session, as there are other common treatments that are performed inside the clinic.
At Back in Motion, a physical therapist will carry out an evaluation in your first appointment so that they can create a personalized treatment plan for the cause and severity of your shin splints, keeping in mind your medical history and physical capabilities.
When it comes to pain management for shin splints, your physical therapist may use their hands for a manual therapy technique called soft tissue mobilization. They can manipulate the affected tissue to release tension that’s contributing to pain and stiffness.
Along with manual therapy, exercises play a pivotal role in nearly any physical therapy treatment. Since shin splints impact the muscles that attach the foot to the shinbone, your physical therapist will likely focus on improving your symptoms through foot and ankle exercises.
Here are three exercise positions that your physical therapist may walk you through as part of your shin splint treatment. Each position allows for a variety of different exercises to improve the strength, function and mobility of your lower leg, ankle and foot. When these foot and ankle positions are properly performed while walking, they can help treat and prevent shin splints.
- Dorsiflexion — Your heel is pushed forward with your toes facing up.
- Plantarflexion — Your knee is kept straight as your toes point forward.
- Eversion/inversion — Your ankle is rotated while your toes stay pointed.
Even though the tips we’ve listed can be helpful for treating your shin splints on a daily basis, regular physical therapy appointments will ensure that you’re healing in a safe and effective manner that will have long-term results.
At Back in Motion Physical Therapy, we aim to not only address and reduce your shin splint symptoms, but to also improve the overall quality and function of your lower leg, ankle and foot. With a personalized treatment plan and support every step of the way, we can help you reduce the risk of future issues, optimize your sports performance if you’re an athlete, and get you back to your everyday activities.
Call us or request an appointment today for shin splint treatment.
