Tag: Exercise

Injury Prevention

Shin Splints

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What is Shin Splints?

It is inflammation of the muscle attachments and interosseous membranes of the tibia (shin bone) on the front of the lower leg. The symptoms you experience is soreness along the inside of the shin, pain at the beginning of the run, gets better during the run, sore afterwards.

Causes?

There are several things that can cause shin splints. The following would/could contribute to the injury:

  1. Overtraining
  2. Overpronation of the feet
  3. Weak Tibialis Anterior (front of shin)
  4. Old shoes
  5. Running on concrete/asphalt
  6. Tight Achilles tendon

Treatment

In order to combat the pain and train properly, treating the cause of the problem is important. Ou may have to try multiple modalities until you find the culprit!

  1. Strengthening exercises for anterior lower leg muscles (see Exercises Below)
  2. Footwear to correct overpronation, better shock absorption
  3. Run on softer surfaces,
  4. An anti-inflammatory, ice
  5. Stretching of the calf muscle and Achilles Tendon

Exercises to Strengthen Those Muscles

Do these 3 sets, light weight or resistance band, for 12-15reps only; 2-3 times a week

OR

You can walk on your heels around the house for 1 minute at a time 2-3 times a week as well to strengthen the anterior tibialis muscle

Exercise

Breathing 101: Running and Beyond

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I have recently started to train for my StrongFirst Kettlebell Certification with an instructor and I hear her constantly tell me about my “biomechanical breathing” with each exercise. I have been teaching runners for several years, all distances, and one of the early on lectures I give to them is “find a beat with your feet when you run, using your breathing pattern.” I am sure that all my students recall this lecture and running class. The basic premise of breathing should feel like the following:

  • Always Exhale on Exertion
  • Always Inhale on Relaxation

During exercise, two of the important organs of the body come into action: the heart and the lungs. The lungs bring oxygen into the body, to provide energy, and remove carbon dioxide, the waste product created when you produce energy. The heart pumps the oxygen to the muscles that are doing the exercise. When you exercise and your muscles work harder, your body uses more oxygen and produces more carbon dioxide. To offset this extra demand, your breathing has to increase from about 15 times a minute (12 liters of air) when you are resting, up to about 40–60 times a minute (100 liters of air) during exercise. Your circulation will speed up to take the oxygen to the muscles so that they can keep moving. The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle beneath the lungs. When you inhale, it flattens and moves downward, pressing against the abdominal organs so the lungs can expand. This gives you the best “bang for your breath” and it is called, diaphragmatic breathing. If you were to place one hand on your stomach and another on your chest. The majority of the breathing motion should be felt near the stomach, not the upper chest, during everyday life and especially during exercise.

Breathing When You Run

I teach a very simple way to find what is comfortable for you, but reminding yourself to breath. When you begin running, many times you can hear your feet make a beat (ie: Stomp, Stomp, or Stomp-Shuffle, Stomp, etc,) and then once you hear what your feet sound like when you are starting out, match your breathing pattern to that beat with your feet. For example, I do the following, right leg land-breath out shallow, left leg land – breath out shallow, right leg land – long breath in, left leg land – still breathing in….sounds complicated perhaps, but I take one breath for every two foot strikes, which is called 2:2 rhythm.

  • Synchronizing the breath to running cadence will keep the organs from putting unnecessary pressure on the diaphragm, which can impede breathing

Nose or Mouth?

There are studies that support both but what you should really do is teste it out and see what works best for you. Some people have small nasal passages, with enlarged turbinates within the nasal passage, making it difficult to breathe through the nose only. Other people have no issues breathing through the nose, so they can keep their mouth closed. My preference is to breath in my nose and out my mouth. Just make sure you are breathing out on exertion and in on relaxation.

              Quick Points

  • Breathing in through the nose can also help warm the air entering the lungs
  • If cold weather and you can’t breathe well through your nose, stick the tip of your tongue to the top of your palate and allow the air to move around the tongue to help humidify the air and reduce the ‘burn in your lungs”
  • Just BREATHE 😊