SHINSPLINTS AND HOW I TREAT THEM

Lower Leg Anatomy For Shinsplints - Vital to Understand!

If you really want to overcome shinsplints, its vital you know as much anatomy of the lower leg as possible. Yet another example of how “knowledge is power.” Learn some anatomy and your chances of limiting shinsplints is greatly increased. 

Here I will show you a very important part of the lower leg, the tibialis posterior. This muscle causes so many athletes too much grief! (even if they dont know it.)The more you understand what is going on when you run, you will know how to actually adapt some better running habits. Now I am not a doctor, but I have been able to do this myself with good results. Its in your best interest to learn as much anatomy and physiology as you can.

 Below is a rear view sketch of the tibialis posterior. The main part of the muscle starts up near the back of the knee and comes all the way down behind (posterior) the tibia. Most important is where the tendon inserts - it wraps medially to the ankle and finishes on the inside of the foot. As you will see shortly, this is what defines its role.

Look closely at the muscle tendon that weaves down towards the middle of the foot-close to the arch of the foot. It sits inside the ankle and finishes (inserts) to the small bones of the foot called tarsals. This picture is not the clearest, but if you can get the overall picture that’s enough.

 You would have heard about the foot “rolling in” when you run. This is called INVERSION. The tibialis posterior is the PRIME MOVER of Inversion. If you look again at the anatomy above, it is totally logical for this muscle to control the amount of inversion during any activity. Think of its role as holding the arch of the foot up. This muscle undergoes much stress to keep the right amount of inversion during activity. 

The tibialis posterior in most runners I have seen, have chronic lesions most of the way through it. And while they can feel the pain is “in there somewhere”, most people can not locate it to do anything about it. Instead they might perform some “toe taps” and exercise the tibialis anterior because they think that’s the best thing to do. Why so many people still do this still shocks me. If shinsplints are caused by the stress of “rolling” when running/walking, then shouldn’t the focus be on treating the muscle that controls that movement?

The tibialis anterior is only the focus if the pain is located there-usually in people just getting back into exercise. For long term shin splint sufferers, the approach should be to learn about, locate and treat the tibialis posterior, not the tibialis anterior.

 Now you know exactly where the tibialis posterior is and what it does, your one step ahead of most people who continue to mindlessly do “toe taps” in the hope of something happening. It will not take the strain of the tibialis posterior or alter the amount of inversion when running. If we know the amount of roll is putting much pressure on this area, that should be our only focus in treatment. Sounds simple, yet the majority of people still do not take this approach. This is the kind of approach I take in my guide to treating shinsplints.

In the next entry I will talk about how I take this a step further to do something about the lesions throughout this muscle and get some releif for stabbing shin pain.