Shin splints in People Preparing for NYC Marathon

It's that time of year again when people travel from all over the world to partcipate in the NYC Marathon. They invest countless hours training and pushing their bodies to the absolute limit, so suffering an injury can be a major setback. This past week we had several new patients come in with almost indentical symptoms, leg pain or what is best described as shin splints. This is the time of year when people are hitting mile 17-18; the strain can become unbearable under training of that level and that's how injuries happen. Of course, these patients want (or need) to continue training in order to run the NYC Marathon -that's where we come in.

As the New York Marathon approaches, many runners are starting to feel the aches and pains of their stringent training regimens. As runners start to increase the mileage, those nagging repetitive stress/strain injuries are amplified. One of the most common injuries experienced by marathon runners is known as shin splints. The term "shin splints" refers to pain along the tibia (shin bone), the large bone in the front of your lower leg. The pain is caused by an overload on the shinbone and the connective tissues that attach your muscles to the bone. It usually starts out as a dull ache, but can feel like a sharp or burning pain as the training distance or intensity increases. The shin bone may feel tender to touch and swollen muscles may irritate the nerves in your feet, causing them to feel weak or numb.

As a runner continues to train, the pain can become so intense that they may feel they have to skip some workouts. For many runners taking time off to rest is just not an option. Here at Living Well Medical in NYC, through chiropractic and physical therapy techniques, we take a multi-faceted approach to decrease the pain and get runners ready for marathon day.

We have seen excellent results with a combinied approach utilizing The Graston technique, ART (Active Release Technique), Cold laser therapy using the Erchonia laser and Kinesio taping using either Rock tape or KT-tape. A digital gait analysis to determine if there is the need for corrective orthotics is also an important step.

If you are hitting those later miles in your marathon training and are experiencing leg pain that is preventing you from keeping it up, give us a call at (212) 645-8151.

This week alone we have seen four new runners hobble through the doors. There's nothing like seeing these runners/athletes walk out the door without pain after a few treatments, and best of all, they can run pain-free and not cause more serious injuries in the process. Seeing one invest so much time, effort, energy and money and to come so close only to be told they can't run the marathon is a heart-breaker, and that's one of the reasons this is a special time of year for Living Well. So let us help you put your best foot forward when you start the race come November 7.

- Dr. Shoshany, NYC Chiropractor

(If you need a chiropractor in San Francisco, visit my friend, Dr. Eben Davis, at Executive Express Chiropractic)