Pre lockdown 1.0 we started writing this blog. Lockdown hit and this put put into archive whilst we dealt with the business being flipped on it’s head. Fast forward a little time, we have blown off the cob webs.
Happy reading!
Just over the weekend a client complaining of sore lower legs had recently been diagnosed with shin splints. Shin splints. OUCH! I remember having them and it was pretty painful.
Shin splints! What does that mean? Well firstly lucky for me I didn’t get any of the splinting shin in my eye but what we did see will start giving us some answers.
Before we dig into this common running complaint let’s start with the definition of Shin Splints. According to the online Oxford dictionary, ‘shin splints is acute pain in the shin and lower leg caused by prolonged running, typically on hard surfaces’.
Further assessments done by his health professional was the knee to wall test (click to view test) to look at flexibility through the ankle, it was suggested a new pair of running shoes, foam rolling, correcting over pronation, skipping, sports taping, calve raises the list goes on.
But why after 2 months is the pain still hanging around?
Is there more to the puzzle?
Is looking at the site and then treating the site the solution?
Was looking beyond the knee beginning assessed?
Was his hips and core are being considered?
Earlier we said, “What we did see will start giving us some answers”
As you can see from the footage his hips aren’t being very kind to his feet / vis versa, add about 4 x body weight (average, studies have shown 3-8 x BW) and you are going to find the injury will worsen with mechanical issues.
What we see in this picture is knees flaring out to the side instead of up and down and foot control looks like he is walking on a bed of coals. Maybe the gym floor was hot! HAHA
His body seemed to be working in parts and not as an orchestra (I used this line from Gray Cook, Podcast ‘Connecting the Dots’, The Movement Podcast)
So we ask!…..What comes first the chicken or the egg!…..Hard surfaces or a mechanical issue through the hips. Is the mechanical issue and the hard running surface causing the shin pain?
I think we could be onto something here!
Traditional I know it makes sense to isolate your calves, glutes, quadriceps and hamstrings with exercises that just focus on those muscles.
I also get you use your legs to run and you need to strengthen them. But putting you on a machine or lifting yourself up and down on a step isolating your leg muscles aint (sorry for the slang) going to help the discrepancy through the hips. Short term it may help your sore shins but long term if you don’t fix the problem it will lead to bigger complaints down the track.
As you can see from the images when our feet strike the ground it sets off a full body explosion of connective patterns all playing and communicating with each other. Just like the orchestra!
Posterior Chain
If isolation was the solution and it does have it’s place…..how do we explain these fascial chain images. These images demonstrate how the body connects and works as a unit and not as individual muscles or parts.
So the question I always ask myself and I definitely asked myself when I blew out my lower limb muscles last year and wasn’t able to weight bare was,
“What can I do better? What can I improve?”
I know this blog will raise some eyebrows and some may even disagree, but all I ask is give it a go. ‘You never know unless you give it a go.’
For this client it was looking further up the chain of the body to see what he could improve. His hips were jammed and lacked movement through his ankles. I believe I described his movement as a ‘Train Wreck’ (with respect).
Improving the efficiency of his running or better still his movement in general was going to take time and patience.
Rome wasn’t built in a day!
All this said and the questions we have raised check out below how you can start improving the efficiency of your running. Yes we are asking you to look beyond the site of pain and look at what more could be ACTUALLY be causing the pain.
BEFORE YOU GO!
The sequel: How I broke my 24 minute 5km barrier!
Look out for the next blog!
How you can start to improve hip mobility for more efficient running!
Getup: Starts to improve the mobility through the hips, lights up the posterior line (lats and glutes). Opening up the generally weak and tight hip flexor not only creates solutions for for another running complaint low back pain but will increase the movement through the hips.
Hip Bridge Lift / Chop: An important aspect to running is how can we start to improve the efficiency of our movement. Connecting the lats and glutes (posterior chain/back of body) together, then adding the lift / chop starts to incorporate the cross pattern and bracing effect through our body.
Deadbug: Brain training, challenging the left and right hemisphere’s of the brain and how they communicate to the rest of our body. Working on again cross patterning and bracing through the body in a fairly stable but challenging position. The deadbug using minibands asks for more control through our lower limbs, hips and core whilst connecting our upper body.
Around the World: After working through the Tall and 1/2 Kneeling Around the World series, a great starting point. We can then start to add advance versions where we integrate our upper and lower body together. This allows us to introduce our feet into the picture whilst working on resisting rotation and creating powerful frontal plane advancements (strengthening our body from dropping at the hip region). Strengthening frontal plane will assist with pelvic strength, therefore improving performance and movement.
Go ahead and take it to the next level and look at advancing your strength and conditioning with our Strength to Improving Running video.
Happy Running, Happy Movement!
Train Smart, Train with Purpose.
Until next time thanks for reading.