Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (Interior Shin Splints) no cure?

[cmdo83]

If want my advise mate:

Go to a physio and get them to test all your muscle groups for strength from shoulders to foot.

Get them to look at your running and walking.

Here is a few simple things you can do to check yourself:


Lay on you left hand side. Bend your left knee (ensure the thigh is in a straight line), and straighten your right leg. Make sure there is a straight line from you head to your right leg and keep your hips pushed forward. Lift your right leg as high as you can making sure you hips stay straight forward and your right leg is still straight. Get a friend to apply pressure on your right leg pushing your leg downwards. If this is done fairly easily it means weak gluts. You can test this at different leg heights. Turn over and do the over leg.

Stand on one leg lift the over leg off the floor. On the leg you are standing on raise yourself on your toes (calf raise) do this going right to the top as many times as possible. If you cant do 50 with ease you have weak calves. Failure on this test occurs when your body starts over compensating for the stress on you calf.

I went to physio every week for 2 months and my physio was doing all sorts of tests on different muscles to find out which were weak and which were strong.

[drfoot]

It sounds that you have tried a number of regimes, with ongoing and unresolved symptoms.
I would suggest you alter your training regime but decreasing to a bear minimum. Given the chronicity of symptoms, try ceasation for 4 weeks. I appreciate your Thailand experience and time constraints, but the longer you look for quick fix answers the longer and more chronic it will become.
You mentioned you attended a Podiatrist and "bought" custom insoles. Were these taken form a corrected cast? Was a full biomechanical performed? As advise given muscle group strength assessments are required to exclude imbalances, as is a functional limb length measurement.
Normally for this case I would expect an everted or valgus rearfoot. With nearly all pronatory complaints such as yours, I would see a Gastroc/Soleal Equinus. So, srtretching the calf mucles individually is paramount. If their is a functional difference greater than 0.5 cm, then a 0.5 cm heel raise should be added to the shorter side. Deep tissue massage is uncomfortable, but your physio and his/her fingers deeply working the Pre Tibial would also benefit.
If the Insoles are NOT Orthotics, then have them reviewed. Again I am not an advocate of Rigid orthotics, but an average male approx 80-85kgs would benefit from a semi flexible 4mm polypropylene orthotic witha soft tissue supplument.
Food for thought..interested were you go from here. But do dramatically knock off the training until or allowing for healing.

[axelator]

Well I'm back from Thailand.. I'm still training alot though because I have a fight in two weeks. My shins were not bothering me for a long time, but now they have come back mainly towards the bottom section of my right shin.

When I got my orthotics the podiatrist only asked me to push my foot into this foam cast sort of thing that left an inprint of my foot. I think it's the increased running and skipping that has lead to the return of the shin splints. It's very tender to the touch on my right shin in about a 2cm long area. The left is a little tender but not too bad.

I did have a 2 month break before Thailand but they just return every time even with stretching and strengthening exercises. Is it worth going back to a podiatrist? It's beggining to sound like the last guy ripped me off with the orthotics.

I don't really have the money to see a podiatrist though. Unless I ask my parents, which I'd prefer not to do.