I had a physio appointment yesterday morning with Tim Sheppard at the Global Clinic.

After taking my general medical and fitness history he watched me walk and run, and prodded my legs around to work out where the problem is.

The diagnosis:
Posterior shin splints– small tears in the leg muscles where they are attached to the shin bone, in this case occurring on the inside of the leg along the tibia. Early on the pain is only felt at the beginning and end of exercising which has been the case for me, as it seems to get better as I get into my workout. This hopefully means it’s not as serious, and indeed I haven’t been told to stop exercising.

The cause:
I seem to have several contributing issues – I’ll  number them below as I myself was finding it difficult to take in everything he was saying!

1. My right foot sticks out at an angle when I walk and run- that’s just how I’m built and there’s no real reason to correct it, as that would then make my knee twisted. But it puts stress on the calf muscle down the inside of my leg…

2. I don’t have one leg longer than the other or a twisted pelvis which sometimes causes the sticking out foot. However, I do lean forward too much when I run and tilt my pelvis backwards which causes my bum to stick out! This is related to the fact that I’m running with my hips rather than knees. It’s a common trait amongst female runners but means that the leg muscles aren’t being used properly…

3. Finally I have flat feet and overpronate which I was told when I got fitted for my running shoes. However, Tim thought that they should have sold me shoes with more arch support than the ones I got- I guess because it’s much more significant on my right leg than left (due to the sticking out right foot).

The treatment:

• Calf stretches

Gastrocnemius (upper calf) stretch

Keep the back leg straight and push the back heel into the ground. Keeping a straight upper body and gently lifting up your hips helps. There shouldn’t be much pressure on the front foot.

Soleus (lower calf) stretch

• Trial a foam arch support, that he made, this week and continue to exercise as normal. Then I’ll phone him on Friday to let him know whether that’s made any difference. Long term I might need to buy/get made some orthotics to offer more permanent support. Probably means that wearing flip-flops for 3 weeks on holiday is not the best for my feet!
• Tim will then give me a plan of what to do whilst I’m in Australia- I shall try and keep running, walking and do some swimming of course 🙂 For the future I might need to cut back on the high impact classes that I do alongside running, and do more cross-training/lower impact sports such as cycling and swimming. This will allow my calves to recover and strengthen, and put less stress on the shinbone and muscle.
• Ice my calf if I get any pain whilst exercising.

I’m glad to be on the road to solving the problem, and then hopefully I can get on with running with no pain 🙂 It’s frustrating to have to progress so slowly, but I think I need to recognise my body’s limitations and not (literally) run before I can walk!

As an extra, which my physio didn’t mention, I’ve also been looking into compression socks/sleeves as many runners have talked about the benefits they’ve had from wearing them. These are similar to the flight socks people are encouraged to wear on long-haul flights. Scientific results are mixed but studies have shown they improve blood flow, reduce muscle vibration and generally decrease muscle soreness and damage both during running and after. Reviews from people with tight calf muscles or calf pain in particular seem to be favourable so I might ask Tim about them on Friday and see whether he think they would be worth investigating.

Has anybody had any experience with running injuries? Or using compression socks? Do you have any tips on how to recover from injury and keep running?

Beki x