Shin Splints & Bowen Therapy
A personal message about Shin Splints from Lorna Mair
Shin Splints Symptoms
Shin splints is a general term used to describe pain between your knee and ankle, and is felt most on the front or the inner shin bone. shin splints normally affect people involved in strenuous exercise or physical activity.
It is extremely important not to run through the pain as shin splints could be a sign of an injury to the bone or surrounding tissue.
You are at risk of getting shin splints if you:
➢ Have been running for less than 5 years
➢ Run on hard surfaces or slopes.
➢ wear poorly fitting or worn-out trainers that don’t cushion and support your feet properly
➢ are overweight, as this places extra stress on your legs
➢ have flat feet or your feet roll inwards, as this puts more pressure on your lower legs
➢ have weak ankles or a tight Achilles tendon (the band of tissue connecting the heel bone to the calf muscle)
➢ have tight calf muscles
Shin Splints Treatment with Bowen Therapy
Treatment for Shin splints will differ than other therapies you may have tried, both due to the gentle pain-free technique, and the speed in which we practitioners expect to see results. If there were no changes within 3 sessions, practitioners worldwide would suggest further investigation, as they would be pretty confident that your condition was not just soft tissue related.
“If there were no changes within 3 sessions, practitioners worldwide would suggest further investigation”
Recent studies show that 80% of our aches and pains are related to soft tissue tension and/or damage, and this would co-inside with the results I see in the clinic, although in my opinion, I would rate that percentage higher.
Using Bowen therapy for Shin splints seems to produce more immediate relief than other therapies such as chiropractic or physiotherapy, as the therapy reduces the pressure around the area as it relaxes the surrounding soft tissue.
Depending on the severity of your symptoms I may also prescribe those I feel may be deficient, transdermal application of Magnesium Oil, to specific parts of their body. I tend to leave this until at least the second session, however, as I like to observe how the body has responded between treatments from receiving Bowen alone.
Shin Splints Treatment
The sequence of pain is tough to break. You may be caught in this cycle of anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxants and pain killers. Bowen Therapy is a non-intrusive therapy where you may notice immediate reactions to the light rolling moves applied to very specific areas of your body.
Typical Shin Splints Session
A typical session lasts from 45 minutes to one hour, with your Bowen Therapist using gentle rolling motions on very specific muscles, tendons and ligaments. Some patients feel immediate tension release and/or decrease in pain.
“A typical Bowen Treatment session lasts from 45 minutes to one hour”
Others can feel a shift in the tension to another part of the body as the body is realigning itself and attending to underlying imbalances. Most patients see significant pain reduction or even elimination after just 3 sessions.
Shin Splints
Shin splints pain can be crippling at times and can have training programs put on hold, sometimes for months at a time. Like Plantar Fasciitis and Heel Spurs, nine out of ten people I treat I find the original source of the issue is being caused by pulls within the soft tissue, further up the body.
“The curse of many a broken dream of making the finish line, shin splints is a condition more common in those who run or are very heavily active in sports. I rarely see many presenting with such conditions who do not partake in frequent exercise.
Shin Splints, medically known as medial tibial stress syndrome, describes pain on the front of your shins and lower legs and usually presents in athletes. Those who are increasing their training load, adjusting their footfall, or even changing running shoes are more susceptible to Shin splints.
It [Shin splints] can affect one or both legs and is often felt more severely during training, and more stress load on the legs.
Shin splints usually gives us warning signs prior to it becoming troublesome and these should not be ignored.
Unresolved knee issues, the feeling of tightness in your shins, hip pain and foot pain are examples of these signs, and you should seek assistance if you are experiencing any of these, especially if you intend to increase your training load.
These are all usually indicators that the fascia network of soft tissue is gathering and thickening somewhere within the body, subsequently causing a pulling effect.
Shin splints usually occur with an increase in training load, changing to a new style of running shoe, or by the individual trying to adjust their foot fallduring training. Unlike other therapies, I would never suggest the use of ice on the area as I want the body’s blood circulation and lymphatic flow to work as efficiently as possible, and freezing the area will slow these processes down.
“never suggest the use of ice on the area as I want the body’s blood circulation and lymphatic flow to work as efficiently as possible, and freezing the area will slow these processes down.”
A high percentage of those I treat for Shin splints have one buttock higher than the other while they lie in the position to receive Bowen. Lying face down with your feet hanging off the end of a bed, and your face to either side is a good home check to see if your pelvis is being pulled out of alignment.
Commonly caused by tension in the fascia soft tissue matrix, noticing one buttock higher than another is a cue to book in for a Bowen Treatment for your pelvis before symptoms start to rear their head more frequently and severely. Prevention is better than cure!
Dehydration and underlying emotional issues can also be the underlying cause of chronic pain, so during your consultation I may also asked a few other questions, such as water intake and stress levels, sleeping patterns, lifestyle.
Bowen Procedures specific areas of the body to target, which should best help reduce your symptoms.”
Lorna J Mair Dip.BT MFHT