I am a highland dancing and i get shin splints ALOT. I go to physio for them but i was wondering if anyone knew some warm ups before i dance to help them for getting worse or reoccuring. Thanks!

I do irish dance, and I get shin splints a lot. My TC told me that doing point and flex a bunch of times helps with shin splints.

Now, if you already have them, here are some ways to treat them (got these from my doctor and a preventing injury course at irish dance camp)

-Taking an anti-inflamitory like ibuprofen or advil
-Using something like Tiger Balm on your legs (it's a herbal muscle rub)
-Wrapping your legs with elastic bandages
-Icing them

Here is a link to the shin splints sticky on the Irish Technique and Training board-
www.dance.net . . .

I used to do athletics (I know it's nothing to do with dancing) but I used to get shin splints quite bad and there is no real cure to them after every session I just used to do the hot and cold method.....10 mins hot water 10 mins cold. It it just something you eventually grow out of but it can be a pain as they can really hurt.

I hope you get rid of them.

x

Here's another link:

www.sportsinjurybulletin.com . . .

It's what I send the XC girls.

Shin splints are usually a symptom of something else - I always get shin splints when I have tight calves, for example (I'm a runner). Could this be the case for you? I find that stretching my calves helps a ton, and sometimes if its sore and I have to run (like in a race) I tape my shins. A physio should be able to show you how to do this.

It would be good to figure out what is causing the pain though.

ice cold water is very good for these not stand in a bucket of ice cold water not much good before but gives great relief afterwards

Do NOT heat them. Heat promotes inflammation. Heat will make your shins sorer, and heat will cause the injury to take longer to heal. NO HEAT!

Look online for a wrapping method that goes under the arch of your foot. It's MUCH more supportive than the traditional method of just wrapping your shin.

I love tiger balm, but for shin splints, you can't beat AsperCreme IMO. Plus it doesn't smell.

Bioskin sleeves and good shoes are really the only things that help mine. Be mindful that shoes that are too old are very bad for your feet and legs.

^ And this goes for your time outside of dance as well. If you are prone to shin splints like this, make sure the shoes you spend the majority of your time wearing are of good quality and have adequate support.

When they heal, spend some time strengthening the tibialis anterior muscle on the front of your lower leg. Point and flex is a good exercise, especially against a Theraband, and so are toe taps (begin with the foot flat on the floor, lift the toes keeping the heel on the floor, lower, repeat ad infinitum - as though tapping your foot impatiently). Don't try strengthening exercises when you have a flare-up; just rest them and use ice and anti-inflammatories.

When I was still dancing I found my shin splints were the worst when my calves were really tight and I didn't warm up enough.

You need to make sure you warm up your muscles first (like a drill to 1 dance with repetitive movements) and then take the time to really stretch your muscles, paying particular attention to shin/achilles. Once I worked out a warm up routine that worked for me I didn't have any injuries in over 2 years, which is fantastic!

Proper warming up does wonders.

I've had pretty severe shin splints from Irish dancing. Physio basically told me ice, rest, stretch, ice, rest stretch.

At one point I was pretty much icing every hour that I was home for 10-20 minutes at a time. The best thing by FAR I have found is filling a polystyrene cup with water and putting it in the freezer. Then you just peel off a little bit of the rim and ice massage directly onto the skin. It's so much more effective than an ice pack of any description. Yes, it's cold, but ice directly onto the skin is unbeatable

Stretches my physio gave me were all for calves so a quick google search for calf stretches will do the trick.

Other than that make sure you see a physio. I honestly can't recommend this highly enough. The massage they do is very, very painful for sore shins but a couple of days later you'll be glad you did it.

Hi!

Just a q, have you had a look at your shoes? - one of my friends that started highland with me used to get a lot of shin spints, until I asked her about her shoes. Her shoes were too loose, which caused her to get shin splints, and I was dancing in new ones that also caused shin splints, reason being I wasn't accustomed to the make.

Otherwise, an anti-inflamatory, stretching (like point and flex) combined with little heat will do wonders.

^No heat. Ice.