Hi Chris! Being a former gymnast I know exactly what you daughter is going through plus anxiety of not wanting to take time off. I have some good news to shed light on the topic. More and more research is showing that it might be better for an athlete to ice their way to recovery rather than take a period of time off, or take anti inflammatory meds, or worse yet consider cortisone injections. I'm certainly no doctor but I will share with you what I have heard and perhaps she'll want to try what some experts believe to be a better way to heal.
Do the following for seven days and see if you notice a difference: If so, continue until you recover.
1) Complete submersion of the lower leg into ice.
After each workout, submerge your leg(s) into a deep bucket of ice water from the knee(s) down, (must be from the knee down and no less). The bucket of ice water
MUST BE so cold that you can barely stand it for 10 seconds. Thankfully 10 seconds is all your leg has to stay in there for. After you submerge your leg for 10 seconds, pull it out and dry it off and walk around for 5 minutes. Repeat this complete process of dip, dry, walk, wait 5 minutes and repeat for a total of 10 times.
NO SHORT CUTS!!!!
2) In addition to the ice submersion, you need to
freeze lots of 4 ounce dixie cups filled with water. Four times per day you will take one cup out of the freezer
and massage it onto your shin splints (one dixie cup per shin) until all the ice melts (or until the area becomes too numb). Apply circular pressure with the ice on the tender areas. Keep moving the ice around, don't hold it still on one particular area. Keep peeling the paper back as the ice continues to melt away.
Both of the above methods will circulate the blood and bring fresh blood and nutrients to the sore area to encourage healing.
3) In addition to this your daughter may also want to
take a magnesium supplement. I will attach a link to the article we posted in our blog that addresses tendinitis (shin splints are a form of tendinitis). We have seen and heard of individuals who have taken this supplement and saw a huge improvement in as soon as 7 to 10 days. This article will go into more detail on the benefits and dosage.
http://cathe.com/a-simple-solution-for-tendonitis
I wish your daughter the best of luck in her recovery as well as in her competitions!
Hi Cathe,
My daughter is a competitive gymnast. She is a level 8 gymnast. She has bad shin splints. She will not take time off for she has worked so hard to get skills. Her competitive season starts in January. Any thoughts?
