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Shin splints are miserable! Every step you take is painful. But why do they happen?
Shin splints cause pain at the front of your lower leg by the bone that connects your knee to your ankle. Typically shin splints happen when you start a running or walking program. They can also start when you increase your miles or speed. In short, that burning achy sensation is from your ankles being “overworked’. This can be such a frustrating set back. I was talking to Trish the other day. She started a walking program at the start of the lock down just to get out of the house. Then she was able to get into a good rhythm of working out at night after work. She was feeling good making positive changes: weight loss, increased energy, and feeling more calm over all. She was doing so well she decided to start a running program. Everything was going great. She found her rhythm, getting more miles without stopping. THEN BAM! She started to have pain at the front of her lower leg.
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There’s a brace for basically every body part and injury so they must work, right? In fact, there’s a specific knee brace for patellofemoral syndrome, it helps by preventing your kneecap from leaving its track. Before we talk about whether the brace helps patellofemoral syndrome let’s talk about the symptoms of patellofemoral syndrome. An achy pain on the outside or underneath the kneecap, in addition to, popping or clicking in the knee while walking, running, standing up and sitting down or squatting. Feeling as if you have to bend and straighten your leg to warm up after sitting for longer than 30 minutes. This is not an exhaustive list but those are the common complaints from people with patellofemoral syndrome. 
Why do I feel a constant need to pop my neck?
The short answer is that you have a stability issue. A woman called me concerned about a constant need to pop her neck. She'd been doing it for years, even though EVERYONE told her it was bad ;). She never worried about it before because after the pop she always felt better. However, a few days before our phone call she popped her neck then suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot down her neck into her shoulder. Then she wasn't able to move her neck to the right without severe pain.
"I can't run far because I get short winded." "Why do I get a sharp side pain while I'm running?"
These are things that many people who start running talk about...and for my client Niki this almost derailed her fitness goals. Niki is in her late 30s and was trying to work on her health. She was making changes to her diet and started looking for ways to add exercise. She didn't want to go to a gym so she decided to try running. She downloaded a running program and she was off. She was very excited and proud that she was able to make it through the running schedule hitting each day's goals...that is until about week 3...she just could not catch her breath enough to make it through the scheduled runs. She was feeling like a failure, depressed and concerned that by not progressing with the program she wouldn't achieve the health gains she was so looking forward to. If you’ve had knee pain while you run, I bet you’ve considered running with a brace.
I frequently get asked, “Should I run with a knee brace?” “What if I wrapped my knee up really tight could I run?” “Which brace is a good one?” Rebecca had the same question when I met her. She’d been running with a knee brace for several weeks but found it very concerning that her knee STILL hurt while she was running. She thought she’d bought the wrong type of knee brace. |
WE HELP ACTIVE ADULTS OVERCOME THEIR ACHES AND PAINS TO GET THEM BACK TO THEIR FAVORITE ACTIVITIES WITHOUT MEDICATION, INJECTIONS OR SURGERIES.
Dr. Molly McDonald
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