According to the dictionary (1), shin splints is a term used loosely to describe an "over-use injury characterized by dull aching pain, associated with exercise, felt along the shins, either to the inside or outside of the main shin-bone ("tibia"). Shin splints in medical terms are called: "posterior and anterior tibial bone strain and fibular bone strain"(2).

With some sense of humor T. Noakes in his book "Running Injuries"(2) wrote:" In the 1900s, before the running revolution, there was really one running injury. As long as you were a runner, and you hurt somewhere between the big toes and the hip, you had shin splints."

"Today, however, - professor Noakes continued, - shin splints, now more accurately referred to as "tibial" or "fibular bone strain", is a diagnosis reserved for one specific and curable injury - a bone injury localized to one or both of the calf bones. …"Bone strain" seems most apt because it locates the tissue that is more likely to be the site of pain."

Further he noticed that "this is an injury of bone or, less commonly, periosteum (fibrous membrane covering the surface of bone) and is probably related to excessive muscular actions caused by excessive ankle pronation, perhaps related to an increase Q angle or to exposure to excessive activity of the medial soleus muscle."

T.Noakes (2) considers that "three mechanisms appear to be the main contributors to this injury: overstriding, excessive muscle action due to inordinate ankle pronation, and poor shock absorption." There is nothing against assumption that poor shock absorption is among the causes of this problem. Actually overstriding, if it is related with poor shock absorption, could be in the same category. But I can't accept pronation and excessive muscle action as a cause of shin splints, because there is no logical base for it. I saw hundreds of runners with excessive pronation without the shin splints. If it were the cause, they could be in constant shin splints pain, but they weren't. The same thing could be said about overstriding, as well. There are millions over-striders without shin splints. So there is something else there, hidden from our sights.

Some light at the end of the tunnel appears when you read about the fact that "bone strain is most common among three groups of athletes: middle-distance high school track athletes (at the beginning of the season particularly), novice joggers, and army recruits"(2). In a word, among groups of low skill athletes who are pounding the ground mercilessly to make their way to "success".

So this is the case. Shin splints is a consequence of a low skill of running, and to be more exact, of not skillful interaction with the ground. From the Pose Method point of view, shin splints happen due to too much active landing, when the foot is moved down to the ground faster than the GCM (general center of mass) falls down. This forceful "action" creates an impact, which is absorbed by shins, which are constantly vibrated and shaken.

This situation is worsened by landing on the heels, ahead of the body (over striding), with stiff joints and tense muscles. All the above mentioned groups of runners have the same common base - low skill of interacting with the ground: rushing to put the feet on the ground with no perception of the body weight location on the feet, with no proper feet position on landing, etc.

Therefore, correcting all of these errors is a treatment of shin splints, which was successfully implemented with our students who learnt the Pose Method. Usually it took about two lessons to get rid of this problem with no comeback, if they continue running with the Pose Method. We didn't use any medicine or physiotherapy to enhance the effect; it was purely a treatment by proper movement.

Dr.Romanov Pose Website

Related Articles

·  RUNNER'S KNEE