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NHS Physio = free. seeming her + streching correctly for 6 weeks + no running was shin splints gone for me. cost me nowt. not a penny. cant see the point in chucking a a credit card at someone who is gonna basically going to do the same as what the nhs employed person will do. different folks different strokes i guess.

bird wrote:Im not sure if your a wind up or what..... Running on concrete with shin splints give you stress fractures.

If it helped for you, you didn't have shin splints.

Bird.

OK, basically when running for ages on concrete you shins become stronger, with drinkig Milk the process is better.

Things To Be Thankful For 101.

1. Felias isn't a doctor.
2. Er...
3. That's it.

(Otherwise known as: even with my incredibly limited medical knowledge, I know that a) bones stop growing at the end of puberty around 18-20, thus the idea of shins themselves becoming stronger, aided by calcium-laden milk or not, at the age most people on the forums are at is a little silly, b) even so, shin splints are cured / avoided by strengthening muscle in the legs, so that soft tissue absorbs the strain and impact instead of hard bone, and c) everyone in the entire world knows that it's monumentally stupid to try and cure an injury by, er, doing more and harder of what caused the injury in the first place!)

Sarastro wrote: b) even so, shin splints are cured / avoided by strengthening muscle in the legs, so that soft tissue absorbs the strain and impact instead of hard bone

Yes I was told the main reason behind mine were that my calf muscles were "too tensed" to perform properley, i.e.not stretched properley.
I laughed when I first heard this but I now belive it to be the main cause of mine.

Best thing you can do is keep active, swim, use cross trainer ect and STRETCH. When you pick up running again, run on grass for a month or two and stretch for 5-10 mins before and after.

Felias you can't get rid of shin splints through running on concrete, and i think you have less common sence than a ping pong ball for saying it.

Cheers Bird

Sarastro wrote:Things To Be Thankful For 101.

1. Felias isn't a doctor.
2. Er...
3. That's it.

Any views are mine and are not the official line of militaryforums.co.uk

Thanks for all the replys guys. If Im honest, I never usually stretch before hand, just jump on the runner, I will defo start!!! Whats the best stretch and how do I do it guys?

Also, faddius, thanks for all that mate, a great help, appreciate you taking the time to write it all!

kevo66 wrote:Thanks for all the replys guys. If Im honest, I never usually stretch before hand, just jump on the runner, I will defo start!!! Whats the best stretch and how do I do it guys?

Also, faddius, thanks for all that mate, a great help, appreciate you taking the time to write it all!

There are a couple for the calves that are worth it IMO.
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~athmed/pattendon/calf.html

Those two are the basic ones but there lots of variations. Have a search.I Perform the stretch whilst exhaling, trying to keep heel on floor whilst leaning slightly forward.

Just jumping in here, sorry if I talk sh!te,

Increasing flexibility is a great way to reduce the risk of any injuries. Think about it, if your muscles are natrually more supple, then they are less likely to pull.

I read some interesting concepts on stretching from the 'Evil Russian' Pavel Tsastouline (sp?) Im not to keen on his power to the people! and mother russia rants, but his techniques are simple and solid.

I have some of his books in PDF format if you would like to read them? but I recommend you buy them if you like them since the vids are quite good too, and somewhat amusing

Aye,
Rock

Brill, cheers GGHT, easy enough, even for me!!

Hardrock, I'll check it out mate, can say I'm aware of this guy!

Kevo66,

If you want me to mail them to you, feel free to PM me, the stretching one is only a couple of megs, the whole lot is about 22..

Would recommend it, it helped me a LOT, I used to have the flexibility of a cow, now its more the flexibility of a cow that has done some stretching

Aye,
Rock

http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~athmed/pattendon/calf.html

These two work very well.
In addition try these two simple ones:
1. kneel on the floor with your feet underneath your ass. (hold 30 secs min)
2. Whilst standing with your legs parallel, rotate 1 foot so its sole is touchin the side of the other foot and the out side is touching the floor. Shift balance onto other leg slowly stretching the side of your ankle. (SORRY FOR CR£P DESCRIPTIONS)

Just rotating your ankles 20 times clock wise and anti clockwise twice a day seems to increase foot control and ankle strenght.

In addition to the ones Faddius posted above, physio taught me this stretch: against a wall, flatten your toes to the wall and bring your foot down to the ground so toes and foot are at right angle along wall / floor. Try to keep arch of foot flat to floor. This stretches muscles in feet, ankle, and lower calf.

For shin splints, the stretches / muscle excercises you really want are for the front of the lower leg (the shin, surprisingly enough!). I found this page on exercises, but was from another poster on MF so not sure how kosher they are. Tried them for a while, found the first exercise seemed to have effect, not so sure about the latter ones though. Ask a physio or similar for the real deal!

Brill, thanks again guys! Fingers crossed

Hardrock, you have PM mate

Nice one Sarastro, that is a great link page, loads of super info.