Back to the physio
After a few weeks of discomfort in my lower left leg I finally managed to arrange an appointment with my physio. It was only six weeks ago that I was there asking about a problem with my upper right leg! The treatment and exercises prescribed soon sorted out my hip flexor strain and nerve damage and I was hoping for a equally fast recovery this time.
The problem I've experienced has been a sharp pain down the inside of my shin bone. It seems worse when I am at rest than when I run and I have felt less confident planting my left leg causing me to overcompensate at times. I have applied the RICE technique but it has made very little difference. My fear has been that it may be a fracture which would be devastating.
As usual I had battled with myself over whether to stop running or continue to run through it. The advice given in magazines, blogs, websites and from people is conflicting. Some advocate stopping as soon as you feel any pain, others that you keep running until you can't stand. Probably neither extreme is helpful and I opted to keep going as I had missed four weeks running earlier in the year when the doctor told me to rest only to be told by the physio that I could have continued.
I arrived at ATR Sportstherapy to see Stuart and he soon got to work identifying the problem. After a number of different tests including the use of a tuning fork he was confident enough to rule out a fracture. I was so relieved. A friend who had a fracture in May is only now starting to run again and I dreaded being unable to run for months at a time.
The final diagnosis was Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS) more commonly known as Shin Splints. Not good but not unexpected for someone who has put their body through what I have over the last 6 months. While investigating he also discovered the cause. Due to my left glute not activating properly I have been using my left calf to power my whole leg. Usually the glutes and hamstrings take a share of the effort but my poor calf muscle has been working alone - no wonder it is stressed!
We spent a little time working on the glute activation and I have been given a full set of exercises for the next week during which I have been advised to refrain from running. I then experienced the joys of Dry Needling. This is similar to acupuncture but the needles are pushed into the muscle itself. I won't lie, this is incredibly painful and uncomfortable. As the needle enters the tight muscle the brain tells it to tighten even more, when this doesn't solve the problem the brain then suggests that the muscle relaxes which is the goal.
The result is a twitching sensation and sharp pain in each area where a needle is stuck. I had about 7 of them throbbing away. Once they had been removed three more were then placed in the deep muscle tissue where the pain was located along the inside of my tibia. I promised myself a big glass of red wine when I got home to get me through it.
I left with a painful calf muscle and the frustration of knowing I couldn't run for a week but at the same time deeply relieved that a stress fracture had been ruled out and I was on the mend. I'll need to be disciplined with the exercises and will use cycling and swimming to keep up my cardio work. All being well I'll be on the start line in Newcastle along with Mo and 55,000 other runners.
