We know that walking is one of the best forms of “Low-Impact” exercises you can do. And more and more people that have previously led mostly sedentary lives have decided to get up off their chairs and put on a pair of walking shoes and get themselves moving outside. You know the drill, walking makes an impact on your health when you walk at a brisk pace for at least a 30-minute interval. And as you start off, while you may not be able to walk at that pace for long, you end up, increasing your stamina and endurance as you continue to work yourself up to walking longer and farther distances. That’s because your training your body to do more.
As your walking regimens increase your going to find that your breathing becomes easier and hopefully your experiencing less muscle soreness than when you first started your walking routines. But, for some, that take this method of getting fit close to heart, they may at first over do it before their bodies become used to the new demands your asking of it. You may experience some discomfort that goes beyond just having some sore muscles, aches and pains.
You may become one of the unfortunates that develop “Shin-Splints. Shin splints - The medical term is: (Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome) which is an inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your tibia. Pain typically occurs along the inner border of the tibia, where muscles attach to the bone. Shin splint pain most often occurs on the inside edge of your tibia: The tibia is a large bone located in the lower front portion of the leg. The tibia, also known as the shinbone, and is the second largest bone in the body. There are two bones in the shin area: the tibia and fibula, or calf bone. The fibula is smaller and thinner than the tibia.
The reason people new to walking for fitness is that Shin splints can occur when a person, new to walking, or running drastically increases their workouts or exercises on the pavement. This is actually a common injury when people do not prepare themselves for their new physical sport. There can be additional factors that can cause difficulties and pain in your legs. For example, the wrong shoes, not stretching correctly and running on roads that put a large amount of stress on your legs, like walking or running continuously up hills when you are not really ready to tackle this type of increased pressure/tension on your legs, calf’s and feet. These are all issues that can cause shin splints.
How to Treat for Shin Splints:
Standard treatment for shin splints is to rest the leg to prevent further progression of damage pain. Cold compression is essential to reduce pain, inflammation and swelling around the shin. Protection, Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation (PRICE) is one of the most recommended approaches for the management of a leg injury. The aim is to minimize hemorrhage, swelling, inflammation and pain, to provide the best conditions for healing to take place.
For treating the painful area, now, instead of applying a wet, dripping ice pack there is now available on the market a medically approved treatment for both sprains, muscle pulls and even for treatment of post-surgical areas that would benefit from applying a “Cold Therapy” treatment. This new advancement in medical treatment is called the Physicool Bandage Wrap. .
How It Works:
Physicool is a unique cooling bandage, appoved by the medical industry, which is impregnated with rapidly evaporating alcohols. The alcohols react to the body heat and evaporate when the bandage is worn. This evaporative process draws heat out of the warmest source – local underlying tissue. While the deep tissue is cooling down the compression will modify the inflammatory response, helping, healing and recovery.
Applying a Physicool bandage for 30 minutes several times per day will greatly reduce the inflammation and pain. Physicool will treat the inflammation and pain of anterolateral shin splints and posteromedial shin splints in an easy and convenient way. Cold compression therapy works by interrupting and slowing nerve and cell function in the injured area, reducing swelling in the tibial area. Reducing the swelling is important because once blood vessels are blocked or damaged, they can no longer carry the vital oxygen and nutrients to the tibial tendons and muscles and the tissue cells begin to break-down. One of the advantages of using this type of "Cooling Therapy" is that the Physicool Bandage Wraps are resuable! So your not always having to run out and purchase additional bandages, even if they are worth it. All you need to have on hand is a bottle of the coolant spray, with with to respray the bandage. And they are also machine washable.
By limiting the amount of damage done to your deep crural fascia and tibial tendons along with your muscles, you also reduce the pain and limit the amount of healing that needs to occur. This is a very important step to get rid of shin splints faster and with less pain.
If you do experience pain that is diagnosed as being shin splints. Please follow the advice of your physician and get the proper amount of rest needed for the tendons and muscle groups to heal properly. Then make sure when the time is right you get back out there and continue your walking regimen. But don’t expect to pick up where you left off at the same pace and distance!
Make sure you warm up prior to walking your regular route and make sure you go through at least ten minutes of stretching, which includes stretching your foot tendons as well. Then take it gradually and in no time, you’ll be back up to walking at that same brisk pace you are used to and just be aware of the warning signs of a little stiffness around your calf areas.
Happy Walking!