A guide to shin splints
Shin splints is characterised by pain and tenderness along the front of your lower leg (shin). Shin splints is a type of shin pain, usually caused by exercise like running. Shin splints usually get better within a few weeks.
If you have shin splints you may be able to assist yourself by:
- put an ice pack (or bag of frozen peas) in a towel on your shin for up to 20 minutes every 2 to 3 hours
- switch to gentle exercise such as yoga while healing
- you can remain active by exercising with non-weight-bearing exercises like swimming or biking if it doesn’t cause pain
- exercise on soft ground, if you can, when you’re feeling better
- warm up before exercise and stretch after exercise
- make sure your trainers or shoes support your feet properly
Shin splints are a repetitive stress injury and caused by overdoing an activity e.g. running. They can be prevented by:
- Progressively working your way into a new workout or routine
- Gradually increasing physical activity, intensity and mileage
- Wearing proper footwear
- Adding arch supports or insoles designed to absorb more shock or impact
- Bringing cross-training and strength workouts to a training regimen
If you’re suffering from shin splint pain, massage therapy can help with pain relief. The deep tissue strokes release built-up tension, resulting in pain release and the prevention of scar tissue accumulation.
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Why do your muscles hurt?
The most common reason for booking a treatment with Vitality Therapy is muscle pain due to your"knots". So what do we mean by "knots"? Technically speaking they are either Trigger points (or Myofascial Trigger Points to give them their correct name) or hypertonic muscles. There are six key elements that cause acute or chronic muscle pain:
- Ischemia: the lack of blood flow to soft tissues that causes hypersensitivity to touch.
- Hypertonic muscles: very tense muscles or muscle spasms.
- Trigger points: highly irritated points and bands in the muscles that refer pain to other parts of the body.
- Nerve entrapment/compression: pressure on a never by soft tissue, cartilage or bone.
- Postural distortions: imbalance of the musculoskeletal system resulting from poor posture while siting at a desk.
- Bio-mechanical distortions: imbalance of the musculoskeletal system resulting in faulty movement patterns e.g. poor sports techniques.
Headaches Treatment & Prevention – Part 3
Having looked at how to describe and classify headaches & migraines in my introduction, I then moved on to look at how massage can help sufferers in part 1. Then in part 2 I looked at how nutrition and Bowen technique could help. I want to continue to explore the impact of complementary therapies on headaches. Cranio-Sacral Therapy Cranio-sacral therapy is a system of alternative medicine intended to relieve pain and tension by gentle manipulations of the skull regarded as harmonizing with a natural rhythm in the central nervous system. Cranio-sacral therapists suspect the occipito-atlanteal junction at the top of the neck may contribute to the cause of headaches especially migraines. If the first vertebrae and the occipital condyles at the base of the skull become jammed together or fixed, which effects the vagus nerves, throwing the parasympathetic nervous system into dysfunction. Cranio-sacral therapists report releasing the occipital condyles nearly always results in the reduction of migraines patterns in clients. Acupuncture Acupuncture is a treatment derived from ancient Chinese medicine in which fine needles are inserted at certain sites in the body for therapeutic or preventative purposes. There is some scientific evidence acupuncture has a beneficial effect on headaches and migraines (see >> http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Acupuncture/Pages/Evidence.aspx)
