Recovering From a Shin Injury With Physical Therapy

Causes & Treatments For a Shin Injury

Are you feeling pain in your shin? It can happen for a variety of reasons, including shin splints. After seeing a doctor, they may point you to a Levittown physical therapist to help you recover. It is important to see a professional, especially if the things you tried at home are not working.

Here are some ways that you can recover from a shin injury with physical therapy.

Causes

There are reasons why you could be having this shin injury, The most common one is medial tibial stress syndrome which is also known as either MTSS or shin splints. You usually feel the pain inside your shin, which is in the front part of your leg between your knee and ankle. The location of the pain is why it is known as shin splints.

How does it feel? It can hurt in the middle or bottom third of your shin. It may be tender to the touch, too.

You can get shin splints for several reasons.

• The Arch of Your Foot Is Flattened When Running or Walking
• You Participate in A Sport That Requires a Lot of Repetitive Running or Jumping
• You Have Excessive Hip Motion
• Your BMI is Over 20.2
• You Have Had a Running Injury Before

Various Treatments

When you see a Levittown physical therapist, they will get your medical history and examine you to see what is causing the pain in your shin. They will also have you walk around to see if they can determine if anything you are doing is playing a factor in causing this injury. Then they may use or tell you to do any of the below things.

• Rest – This can help you recover from your injury. They will tell you how long you should rest before attempting to run again.
• Icing – You put ice on the sore area for up to 10 minutes – do this up to three times a day.
• Gentle Exercise –  The physical therapist can show you exercises that will help stretch the area around your shin.
• Taping – Your Rosedale physical therapist may put tape on your leg or your arch to give it support.
• Massage – They may massage the area to help it loosen up and not feel as painful.

Other Things

Your Rosedale physical therapist will want you to get stronger in certain areas of your body. That includes your hips, so that you will have better hip rotation, hip abduction and hip extension. That way, there will be less stress in your lower leg. They will also try to increase the strength of your arch and shin muscles. Overpronation is one reason for shin splints and strengthening those will decrease the likelihood of that happening.

Other exercises may include doing single-leg exercises like squats, reaching, or heel raises. They can show you ways to properly take off and land when you jump and guide you to modify how you control your legs and feet when you walk or run. They can look at your footwear and suggest ones that offer more support for your feet. You may also get orthotics or insoles for your shoes that will keep your feet from flattening.

Stretching plays a big part too and they can show you particular ones that target your calf and foot muscles to keep them loose and limber.

Prevention

Preventative stretches and endurance exercises can play a big part in preventing shin splints. You can do balance exercises too. You may also be given a regimen by your Rosedale physical therapist that will keep you on the right track to keeping shin splints from becoming a long term problem. Your choice of footwear can also offer the best support and try to do exercises on a softer surface than something like hard concrete.

Shin splints are aggravating for many people, but they can be managed over time through exercises and stretching. A physical therapist is an excellent resource and you should use them if your doctor recommends it. Look for ones who have experience in treating shin splints or MTSS. Then you will be able to enjoy sports or exercise again.

Contact New York’s Most Trusted Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Center Today

Do you live in New York and need physical therapy to help you with a shin injury? Phoenix Physical Therapy Rehabilitation PLLC has an office there as well as in Rosedale and Brooklyn. Their staff can work closely with you to help you get back to where you were before you were injured. Make an appointment today by calling: 347-733-1916

 

Phoenix Physical Therapy

Rosedale Location
23520 147th Avenue, Suite 1,
Rosedale, NY, 11422

Brooklyn Location
7510 4th Ave., Suite 3,
Brooklyn, NY, 11209
Phone: (347) 733-1916