Shin Splints – The solution

It’s always frustrating to feel like you missed an opportunity.  One of these instances in my life was when i was playing high school football.  The weird thing about it was that i never realized it was a missed opportunity until i grew older.  The opportunity or potential that i missed was due to severe lower leg pain on the front side of my legs other wise known as shin splints.  Shin splints can often be a chronic nagging injury for most and the biggest problem is that most people don’t get the proper rehab and care to resolve the problem.

Any activity that involves running at any pace can result in the pulling and strain of the muscles of the shin.  The reason for this is mainly thought to be because of tight calves.  Which is true and i agree with, in part.  The calf muscles(on the back of the lower legs) are used primarily during the “step off” part of our run or walk, meaning they are the muscles that help point your toes towards the ground, help you lift off when you jump, or even when you push-off the pedal of your bicycle.  We can typically get a good stretch to those muscles by dorsiflexing(bringing the top of the foot towards the leg).

But why does it hurt at the front of the legs if the calves are the issue?

The answer to that is simple.  Every muscle has what is called its antagonist muscle or another muscle that opposes its movement. I.e. the Triceps straighten the arm and they’re antagonist, the Biceps, bend the arm.  The antagonist to the calves are the shin muscles(anterior tibialis mm, peroneal mm).    The problem is that most people have severely underdeveloped shin muscles.  In order for the muscle to properly oppose its antagonist, its gotta be able to keep up with it!  The calves become much stronger than the shin muscles, constantly forcing the shin muscles into over working beyond their limits.  This leads to muscle spasms in the shin muscles causing all sorts of pain, especially when you walk, run or jump.

When i went to the school’s physical therapist, they gave me shin muscle strengthening exercises, an appropriate remedy to the help balance the muscle tension, the only issue: The muscles i was trying to strengthen were already overactive and worn out!! You cannot build overactive muscles into strong muscles without first rehabilitating the muscle.  When a muscle spasms it creates stagnant blood flow in the muscle.  Blood flow is crucial to normal body function because it is what sends nutrients to areas of our body as well as removes wastes from those same areas.  Just as if you were re-building a house, the blood flow would represent bringing the lumber and other supplies in as well as disposing the used/old supplies.

Before we strengthen we must first reset the muscle’s function.  How do we do this?  We start first and foremost with restoring proper nerve impulse to the muscles and cardiovascular system through chiropractic care.  The nervous system is the master controller of the body including, but not limited to, the musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular system .   Then we retrain the muscles using compressive therapies such as foam rolling techniques, myofascial and trigger point release.  After we accomplished normal flow to the muscles we strengthen the appropriate muscles to achieve true balance and tension within the lower legs as well as the rest of the body.  If that imbalance is being caused by improper running form (true for most people suffering from shin splints) then…GET COACHED!! Yes, there is a LOT of technique associated with running and if you’re putting all your weight on your heels then you will engage some muscles(calves/anterior tibialis) more than others.   Also, you will be putting up to 3x your body weight worth of stress on your heels.

Using this protocol, you will RESOLVE the problem and feel long-lasting results allowing you to be more concerned with progressing your skills as opposed to frantically “dealing with pain”.  If you are in the East San Francisco Bay area and would like more info, visit us at http://www.functionalhealthspecialists.com or give us a call at 925-289-8011.

Move Better, Feel Better, Live Life!!

Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar Fasciitis(PF) is a prime issue people come into our office looking to resolve.  It’s such a simple problem with a rather simple solution.  The solution takes work but is simple nonetheless.  First off lets explore the plantar fascia and try to understand its purpose.  This will give us a better idea of how it gets injured and how to rehab the area properly.

The plantar fascia has an embryological connection to the Achilles tendon which in turn arises from the gastrocnemius (calf muscles).  The plantar fascia runs from the heel bone(calcaneus) and spans out like a fan to the bottom of all the metatarsals of the foot(the bones right before you get to the toes).  The primary function of the plantar fascia is to help aid the arch of the foot when we stand, walk, run etc.  It is mainly connective tissue, which means it has some stretch(elasticity) to it, but like all tissues, has its limiting range of motion, or its max stretch.

The biggest issue we encounter in the world of functional movement is that most people use a variety of “aids” that put their body at a disadvantage.  The disadvantage that causes PF is that most shoes have heel lifts or other “support” that force our feet to work differently than they would when we are bare foot.   These “supports” were meant to make movements like running and hiking easier for us, but in actuality, they end up making the foot a very passive part of the body.  Passive in the sense that they make the feet rely on the shoe and support while typically atrophying certain muscles that give our foot rigidity and the ability to move properly.

Each foot has 26 bones, 33 joints and over 100 ligaments, tendons, and muscles.  We always say in the office “There are no useless parts of the human body, just parts that we do not know what the use is”.  Meaning you have every organ, muscle, tendon, cell for a reason.  When you stop using a part of the body, whether its a brain cell or muscle in the foot, you LOSE it!  We have to actively engage every part of the body in order to stay healthy.  This is the same reason why functional exercises(exercises that use multiple joints of the body) are so efficient in building strong muscles.

Most of the shoes we use today are restricting our feet from proper mechanics by inhibiting certain muscles.  For example, you have a set of muscles that primarily fan out(abduct) the toes a lot like the ones that allow you to spread out your hands.  When you stuff your foot into a shoe with a narrow toe box( the toe box is the part of your shoes that cover the toes) then the foot is constantly being restricted from spreading the toes.  After a number of blisters and sores from rubbing against the inside of the shoe, the brain recognizes that the activation of those toe abductor muscles is being met by an uncomfortable restriction.  The brain is amazingly adaptive and will stop activating those muscles because the result is painful.  Over time those muscles start to atrophy or breakdown, which is a common reason people get bunions at the base of the big toe.

Most people who suffer from bunions will have them shaved down at first.  A bunion is a bone growth at the inside of the base of the big toe.  Bone grows where there is stress and bone is very dynamic.   When the muscle that brings the big toe towards the midline of the body atrophies, it creates a lot of stress over the outside of the joint causing bone to grow there to help stabilize the area.  The most interesting fact about bunions is when most people get them shaved down, the bone regrows in that same area.  Why?  because shaving the bone growth doesn’t fix the CAUSE of the bone growth.  The cause of the bone growth is the muscles have atrophied.  Until the muscle tension in the foot changes, the bunion will continuously grow back.

Back to the topic at hand, When the muscles that are supposed to support the feet begin to atrophy, the foot loses its integrity.  This is why some people’s feet grow a few sizes.  Those intrinsic muscles of the foot help keep the foot in a particular position or posture.  When the posture is lost the foot works more like a pile of puddy play doh instead of a strong, cohesive unit.  The thing to keep in mind is although the foot gets wider and longer when the muscles atrophy, the plantar fascia doesn’t change its length.

Lets say the original length of the fascia is 10 inches.  When the foot is 10 inches long then the fascia can cover that area comfortably.  What happens when you have 10 inches of fascia to cover a newly expanded 12 inches of foot??  Extra stress is put on the plantar fascia causing inflammation around the area and thus: Plantar Fasciitis! Most people with PF go to their podiatrist, get an overly expensive set of foot orthotics and feel a little relief.  Once they take their foot out of the shoe with the custom orthotic they typically feel the same amount of pain as when the issue first started.  The real problem is NOT within the plantar fascia, it’s the lack of proper muscle activation of the foot.  Special shoes and orthotics put your foot in that “perfect” posture but what happens when you don’t have the orthotic?  Do you never walk barefoot again?  The solution to the problem doesn’t lie within a shoe or shoe insert.

“Then How do you solve the PROBLEM?”

When the foot regains the appropriate muscle strength, integrity is regained and that 12in foot goes back to being 10in and the stress is taken off the plantar fascia.  For more info on how to regain that strength, contact us for our foot exercise protocol.  We’ve helped many people regain the ability to walk comfortably using only NON invasive treatment of the neurological system as well as the musculo-skeletal system.  Visit us at http://www.functionalhealthspecialists.com or call us (925) 289-8011 to see if we can help.

The 1st step- Muscle work for the foot muscles is crucial.  This can be done easily with a golf ball or tennis ball.

2.  Use more flexible shoes- the more flexible the shoe the more you have to rely on building the muscles of the feet.  This is a BIG transition so make sure you have your chiropractor on hand to help with any adjusting the feet will need through out this transition.

3. Controlled toe raises, shortfoot exercises and other foot exercises will also help build those atrophied muscles.