OHH Shin Splints!

Train EVERYTHING, that means your feet too!

During high school lacrosse and cross country I suffered from shin splints.
I did my best to ignore them. I attempted to help myself by wearing leggings or knee highs with the uniform, but once I started running in cleats or for longer than 20 minutes my shins would begin to BURN!

In high school you really do not care about preventing injuries, at least taking responsibility for the process of preventative measures. As I've matured through injuries and in life in general, I have become incredibly serious about ways to keep the body in one comfortable condition!

These are some of my tricks that I have picked up over the years that have helped me continue to train and keep me injury free. I do have some mishaps from time to time, but for the most part I truly believe that all of this has become a huge benefit to my health and fitness.

This post is inspired by my roomie Jenn and her 5-finger shoes and my recent "uh-oh" with my knee from a run!
Not only is barefoot training a new excitement for many athlete's, it is outstanding for your muscles from your toes to your back! The training will help develop and strengthen the muscles in your toes, feet, ankles, knees, hips and back. If you aren't into switching from regular running shoes to the barefoot training or 5-finger shoe, immediately after a run take off your shoes and let your feet do the work!

• Calf raises - an old school workout that can be quickly forgotten but immediately reenacted. Start off doing 10-12 on flat ground, improve to 15-20 and then move to a step so you get a deeper dip.
• Balancing - start on one foot, hold yourself on the one then switch. It's surprising how many muscles you are actually using!
• Toe Curls - take a small towel or a dry washcloth and put it flat on the floor, spread out. Step on it with one foot and begin to gather the cloth under your toes. Repeat it 2-4 times. Your muscles in your toes and shins will feel this the first few times you do this!
• ABC Cursive Style - Since my first ballet class I have pointed my toes to write the alphabet in cursive. Going through all 26 characters once with each point foot is a wonderful workout for your shins!
• Spider Toes - I'm really not the biggest fan of feet, especially long toes... but this is a great exercise. Find a bunch of tiny objects (or buy a small pack of erasers or something from the dollar store). Placed on the floor, pick up each object, one-by-one, with your toes and place them over towards the other foot. Then repeat the exercise with the other foot!
• Jumpies - Rowers know this workout way too well. In a squat position spring off of the balls of your feet to about an inch off of the ground and land back on the balls of your feet then center your balance as you drop on your heels. Repeat the jump from the squat 12-15 times with 2 reps.

The purpose of all of this is to prevent injuries to your feet, ankles, Achilles, shins, knees, hips and back! You want to be at the top of your game, your best fitness possible - well it is NOT going to happen if all you do is run or go to the gym and get a "great" set in - PREVENT INJURIES! I can promise you one thing, 5-10 minutes a day with a combination of anything posted above will save hundreds to thousands of dollars and weeks, months or even years that an injury can easily take away from you. Don't be a victim of yourself.