HOW TO PREVENT SHIN SPLINTS?
Injuries are never fun to deal with. Most of us know how frustrating shin splints can be. When coaching new clients who are just starting out, I always reassure them that there are things they can do to avoid injuries such as shin splints. Prevent is always better than cure.
Shin splints are inflammation in the muscles and tendons along the front of your shin bone, your tibia. They’re completely normal and in fact up to a third of people experience them at some point when participating in some form of intense exercise such as jump rope, especially when starting out for the first time. It affects women more often than men, and those who have a high BMI - but the solution is the same for everyone and actually quite simple.
HOW TO HEAL SHIN SPLINTS?
So how do you get rid of shin splints? Simple. Rest. Just rest. Shin splints are a big sign that you’re overdoing it in some way, and like with any intense exercise (such as weightlifting) the body needs time to recover from that intensity. So let it. It’s understandable that when you first jump rope, you’ll want to spend every last second learning new skills and unlocking new tricks, so much so that time can easily get away from you, but you must rest.
Professional advice is to rest for a minimum of 48 hours and wait for the pain to go away completely before continuing with more, and then gradually reintroduce the activity building up to a volume of jump rope training or level of intensity your body can handle.
HOW TO PREVENT RETURNING SHIN SPLINTS?
Most people are familiar with the concept of pushing through the pain and ‘no pain no gain’, but there’s a big difference between the normal burn in your muscles, ‘the pain’ you get at the gym and actual pain. Pain is your body’s way of telling you something’s not right. Don’t ignore the warning signal and cause yourself to take ten steps back in your jump rope training.
How much and how often you include jump rope in your workout regime will have a huge impact on your likelihood of suffering from shin splints, especially if you're new to jumping rope. I often find that beginners face the simple issue of too much volume. They do too much. Excitement and eagerness to learn and unlock new skills can lead to a 30-minute session becoming a 2-hour session, and this isn’t healthy at the very beginning. Like with all intense exercise, the body requires time to get used to the new stress that jump rope imposes on the joints and muscles.
Hard surfaces such as concrete are not your friend. They increase the impact on your joints and they increase the likelihood of getting shin splints because of this. The ideal surface for jump rope is wooden flooring which has a little spring in it, but for most people, especially if jumping rope at home right now, is a rubber surface such as an exercise mat. If you have to jump on a hard surface like concrete then be mindful of your intensity and make sure you follow the rest of these tips in this blog.
Part of the reason you may get shin splints is tight calves, the bigger stronger muscles on the back of the shin bone. If these muscles are too tight it can cause an imbalance between the calves and shin muscles, which is a recipe for shin splints. If this is the case for you then developmental stretching is the answer. To perform developmental stretches, hold a static stretch as deep as you can for 30 seconds - at that point, the tingling sensation should go away and you can reach deeper into the stretch, find the new maximum depth of your stretch, hold and repeat. Repeat 3 times per stretching session, 2-3x a week for the best results.