Please help with shin splints!

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Yep I've had shin splints for about 14 months now. Not fun at all! Here's what I can tell ya
~You can tape your arches at practice which is the same as wearing shoes. I found that this made my feet cramp up really badly though and I didn't like it.

~I got to the point that I was filling up a huge container with ice and water up to my knees and I would stay there for 10 minutes. Then 10 minutes out, and another 10 minutes in. The last 10 will feel like it's killing you.

~Tape will support more than a wrap, but it can be really hard on your skin since you really can't put prewrap under the tape when it's on your shins.

~There's a couple ways to tape them. I liked two strips at the bottom of the calf and two near the top. You can also get knesio (sp?) tape and leave it taped for 2-3 days and that can help support even while you're not in the gym.

~If your shin splints are hurting in one specific spot, like you can put your finger on the spot that hurts that's a big red fire blazing flag that it might be a stress fracture; very bad news.

~STRENGTHEN the muscle in the front of your leg by doing toe tappers and stop doing toe raisers as that will just make your calf muscles tighter.

~STRETCH your calves

~I used these ss1185 ten.o shin splint support and they worked wonders for me, but I do know people who have tried others that didn't help at all.

Good luck! When you find a cure let me know, because I finished with gymnastics 5 months ago and I had to ice today after running around all weekend.
 
1. You need to minimize how much tumbling you do on the harder surfaces like sprung floors. Just do it. They need to heal. This is priority one.

2. Advil is only taking the pain away and quite possibly slowing healing.

3. There are 2 types of ankles raises you need to do:

Stand on heels, move the rest of the foot up and down. This is the midfoot and toes moving up and down.

The other is standing on the forefoot, moving the heels up and down.

I prefer to do these on a beam, to incorporate balance training as well (for boys, it's minimal but something). One's foot will go below the part of the beam you are standing on for a big range of motion.

Other drills would be walking on the heels or forefoot on floor or beam (preferably hard). You can also practice walking on the outside or inside of the foot.

Try 2-5 passes on floor and 50-100 ankle raises of each.

It's better to take some rest now and minimize volume instead of compounding the problem.
 

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