Shin splints are terribly painful they can stop you from walking normally they can stop you from
doing your favourite exercise like running which is why in this week's video i'm going to teach
you how to treat a shin splint and also most importantly how to prevent getting one but make
sure to watch the full video because i'm going to teach you my favourite shin splint stretch which
works amazing for myself and all my friends i know now let's begin now before we get stuck into
how to treat shin splints it's really important that we first understand what shin splints are
and why we get them because understanding all of this is going to be really helpful
when we come to how to treat it so shin splints are a painful tender feeling that you get on the
front of your lower leg where you have a bone which is really long and big called the tibia
your bones muscles joints and tendons are normally really good shock absorbers but
when you do high impact activities like jumping running or dancing they need more time to recover
so when your body is struggling to recover from all that high impact activity that you've done
it's gonna send those signals those pain signals from the area that wait a minute i need some time
to recover that's basically what your body's trying to do is try to recover and those pain
signals are sent as a result also you may have not been active for a while and you suddenly get back
into your old routine i don't know you might be a runner you've suddenly got back into that routine
and again it's too much too quick and those pain signals are coming back and more often than not
this is an all too common cause of shin splints which is very preventable by taking things slowly
and slowly building up to your old levels and not jumping straight into the deep end now let's look
at how we can treat those shin splints which you've already got okay so the first thing that
you need to do which is probably the most obvious thing but a lot of people don't do it including
all the runners out there you know who you are and i'm a runner as well i know it's really difficult
to do this but you need to stop you need to stop doing any form of exercise when you have shin
splints you need to rest it's time to give your body some time to rest now hear me out because
if you take time to listen to your body and rest now you will stop your shin splints from getting
worse and prevent any possible permanent damage which you definitely don't want make it a habit
to rest between activities to allow for recovery time in the future too and don't suddenly ramp
up your exercise routine always ease yourself into more challenging exercises slowly so whilst you're
resting there are a few things that you can do to help speed up that recovery time so first of all
increase the blood flow in the area you can easily do this by propping your legs up on some stools
or using some pillows to lift it up this is going to increase the blood flow and help with
recovery another thing that you can do to help reduce the inflammation in the area and again
speed up that recovery process is getting an ice pack some frozen vegetables whatever you
have at hand wrap it in a tea towel place it on the area for about 10 to 15 minutes
usually about two to three times a day make sure you wrap it in that tea towel because because kind
of speak because you can actually damage the area of the skin if it's not covered if you're putting
direct ice on the area it's not actually too good it can cause skin burns and nobody wants that
so now that you're recovering and resting which is great you might still be in pain you might be
thinking to yourself but abraham what about this pain i've got what about these shin splints i
know how painful they are i've had them as well i know exactly how painful they are well you've got
two options really option one is medication so you can take paracetamol and or ibuprofen which
super important before you take any medication that you speak to your healthcare professional
first to make sure that you're safe and suitable to take it and also read that information leaflet
that comes with it again again just to make sure that you're safe and suitable to take it that is
the most important thing because your health is the most important thing now moving on to
option two if the medication route isn't for you that's completely fine another option is
that you can massage the area massage the area gently either use some moisturizing cream for
it or if you want to be really fancy use some essential oils it's just going to give that
relaxing experience there's no evidence that using essential oils or anything like that
is going to help increase the recovery time but massaging the area will help okay so no matter
what you do massage the area it's going to help increase the blood flow to the area and help with
recovery time if you want to be really fancy if you want to spend some money you can get a sports
therapist or a professional to do the massage properly for you which is again even better
but if you just want to be normal like myself just give it a massage now apart from making you feel
great all that massaging is going to help lengthen your muscles so let me explain to you why this is
relevant so when we do exercise when we do any form of activity our muscles contract and get
shorter the more intense that activity is the more they contract and the shorter they get so
imagine your muscles kind of bundling up and becoming less elastic if you think about it
what tends to happen is you don't warm up before an activity or you don't stretch after you're done
so make sure that you do the warm-up and stretch afterwards otherwise everything tightens up
and you'll eventually get shin splints as a result so it's super important to get into the
good habit of doing stretches before exercise and cooling down afterwards also whilst you're
resting right now if you do have a shin splint you can do some gentle stretches around the area
especially around the calves the feet and the achilles tendons this is going to allow more
space between the muscles for capillaries to grow this is then going to allow more blood more oxygen
more nutrients all of the good stuff that we require to help with recovery of the shin splints
also i am going to leave more information in the description below on all of these stretches and
everything that we talk about in this video so if you ever want more information just click on that
description below although rest and stretching will help your shin splints sometimes your shoes
might be causing the shin splints in the first place make sure to replace your shoes if they are
worn out as your shoes will lose their ability to cushion your feet over time you could also think
about visiting a podiatrist and getting some insoles if needed but it's also important to
remember there's only so much protection that your shoes can give you you need to try and avoid doing
exercise on hard surfaces all the time so instead of running on tarmac or on concrete or whatever
try and switch it up a little try and do it on grass on sand this kind of surface is more
forgiving also you need to do some strengthening exercises look if you want to prevent shin splints
from coming back and becoming this repetitive injury you need to start doing some strengthening
exercises so you're probably now thinking well what are these exercises well not to
worry because i'm going to tell you so a few good exercises that you can do which are both gentle
and they will help build up the strength include swimming or yoga very good exercises another good
idea is to speak to your personal trainer or a sports therapist to help build up a plan which
is going to help prevent you from getting shin splints so you're going to build your plan to help
strengthen those muscles this is really important another good idea is they might even be able to
check your foot for you or to speak to your health care professional about it because you might be
flat-footed and being flat-footed that can also increase your chances of getting shin splints
they may also be able to watch you run this is a really good idea because they're going to see what
you might be doing wrong you might be landing incorrectly which is causing the shin splints
by the way if you do have flat feet there are insoles available that can help for this
but it's always best to speak to your healthcare professional about it so they can recommend the
right one for you and before we move on to my shin splint stretches which i mentioned at the start of
the video i just want to say one last thing please make sure you wear the right footwear don't wear
your converses that you wear when you're going out to a restaurant or for some food or for a coffee
these sort trainers are not the right trainers that are going to support you when you're running
or doing high impact exercises you need to buy the right footwear to prevent you from
getting shin splints and protecting your feet and legs and all your muscles it's really important
right guys so can you see me there i'm just going to run right now taking a quick break i'm going
to show you the stretch it's epic once you do it you're going to love it everyone i've shown so far
absolutely love this so once you finish your run when you're doing the cooldown you need to do this
stretch if you get shin split if you're prone to them this is really going to help so it's like a
dorsiflexion so when you pull this up and all the muscles around the chin around the tibia are going
to get stretched it's like this if you're walking on the heel of your foot it looks very funny
i'm sure people are seeing this think it's coming so but when you do it
do it for a couple of minutes after cooling down walk around your garden walk around
your house wherever it is make sure you do it and i promise you you will see the benefits i
usually do it before i run and then after i run that's my cooldown um i want to start doing it
if that's gonna be really good a bit out of breath i'm gonna go back to my run now
sending awesome vibes let's carry on now okay so i hope you're finding this information useful so far
the next thing that i want to talk about is when to seek medical advice please remember that with
shin splints patience is a key okay so you should start to see an improvement with your symptoms
within the first two weeks and then you can sort of gradually return to normal activities but
please do remember that shin splints can take up to six months to recover for some individuals so
once once again i'm going to say again patience is the key to shin splints but remember if you
feel like your shin splints are not getting any better after one or two weeks then you might need
to see a healthcare professional don't leave it too long as you could be setting yourself up for
some permanent damage to your shins also please remember if you have any bruising or swelling
in the leg area you need to speak to your healthcare professional and as well as that
if you get any shooting pain down the leg or if you get sudden onset pain then again please speak
to your healthcare professional and lastly please remember that if you're taking painkillers and the
pain is not going away it's not touching it or the area is red and inflamed and swollen at all
it could be something else so again you need to speak to your healthcare professional about it
please remember it's never too late to speak to your healthcare professional so if you've left it
one or two weeks or you've been having it for two to three months don't keep thinking to yourself oh
it's going to go away oh it's going to go away speak to your healthcare professional they're
always there to help you and it could be something more serious which needs investigating this is
really important because as always your health comes first and that's the most important thing
okay so it looks like we've come to the end of this week's video you should now be a shin splint
pro so you now know all about shin splints you know all about how they come where they come you
know all about his treatments you know all about the stretches you know all about prevention you're
shin splint pro so tell your friends tell your family tell your loved ones and also if you have
any of your own tips please leave a comment below because i'd love to read it and i'm sure everyone
else watching this video would love to read it too that's it for this week's video always remember
that you're awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video
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