Nothing relieves stress better than a workout session. Whether it’s going for a run, hitting the gym, or even a brisk walk, you love sweating off your daily worries. But lately, you’ve been experiencing pain in your lower leg.
In fact, it’s become so bad you can barely work out anymore. It’s like you’ve got shin splints, or what the doctor would call ‘medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS).
Listen To Your Body
Shin splints are quite common for those who play impact-heavy sports: basketball, tennis, soccer, and running. It’s a cumulative stress disorder, where the repeated pounding of the legs causes little cracks in your bones. Your body repairs those cracks over time, but it needs time to rest.
It’s essential to listen to your body when you’re afflicted with shin splints. However, while there’s no scientific consensus on what makes shin splints heal quickest, there’s more you can do than just rest.
Apply a Pain Relief Product
If you’ve experienced shin splints before, you know how painful they can be. Your leg can swell and become inflamed, while your feet can feel weak and numb. If it’s too painful to bear, it might be worth looking into a topical pain relief product. Nowadays different companies provide natural organic anti-inflammatory CBD-based products developed with a revolutionary technology that offers long-lasting pain relief aimed specifically at athletes’ pains of muscles and joints.
Use Ice
Athletes have used ice to speed up their recovery for decades. If your leg feels inflamed, wrap some ice around a towel or take a cold compress and apply it to the affected area. Leave it on for 15 to 20 minutes. Particularly, in the beginning, apply ice often. Every four hours, if you can. The inflammation will reduce, and it will help alleviate the pain.
Tape Your Leg
Although it’s important to rest, you can’t simply stay in bed for days on end. You need to get out and at least do the groceries! It’s also not good to stay still for prolonged periods. Some gentle movement will help with blood flow and will help cure your shin splints faster. But if you do walk around, there’s no reason to do so without protection. Taping shin splints either with a fitting neoprene sleeve, compression socks, or an elastic bandage will compress the afflicted area and reduce muscle movement, which will prevent further inflammation and should help ease the pain a bit.
Try Foam Rolling or a Massage
You can either go to a physiotherapist to massage your shins and calves, or you can massage your muscles yourself with a foam roller. Experts consider it an effective way to deal with shin splints, as it releases the tightness between the muscles and the fascia, which is the sheet that separates the muscle from other internal organs.
Foam rolling can be painful and feel very tight at first, but that’s a good sign since that means it’s working. If the pain is too intense, apply a pain relief product. Rolling your shins and calves in four sets of 30 to 60 seconds will improve blood circulation, increase mobility, and reduce muscle tension.
Think About an Athletic Insole
Many shin splints happen because runners overpronate or supinate. This means you put too much weight either on the inside or on the outside of your feet. An athletic insole can help correct this. It will also soften the blow of feet on hard surfaces, reducing the chances of you suffering an injury. So it’s well worth doing a gait analysis either at a physician or even a running shop once you got rid of your shin splint.