Active Release for Shin Splints

It is estimated that about one in five runners will suffer from shin splints at some point in their running careers.  Many other athletes such as tennis players, soccer players, or anyone else involved in a sport that involves a lot of running, are subject to shin splints.  Traditional treatment focuses on getting rid of the symptoms of shin splints, which of course are pain and inflammation in the leg, especially when in the act of running.  Ice, stretching, and rest will usually resolve shin splints, but only temporarily.  This is the problem, shin splints tend to recur and flare up with a lot of heavy use of the legs (such as in running).  This indicates that the underlying problem has not been fixed.

With Active Release Techniques, we can not only eliminate the pain associated with shin splints quite quickly, but we can also eliminate the underlying problem permanently.  What is the underlying problem?  Shin splints are a repetitive over use pain syndrome.  When the muscles that attach to the shin are subject to injury, the fibers in the muscle will actually tear slightly at their attachments to the shin bone (tibia).   As a result of this tear, the body will lay down dense, tough, inflexible fibrous scar tissue near the area that was injured.  This tissue is not easily lengthened (not flexible), and now every time you try and use the leg to run, the area will tear a little more, and  then a little more until finally there is enough inflammation in the muscle and tissues to cause pain.

Using Active Release we can manually break up the scar tissue and restrictions that have built up around the injured muscles in the leg, while also making sure the muscle returns to its proper length and flexibility.  Usually it only takes about 4-8 treatments of ART to completely resolve shin splints.