Lower leg pains

[PHILBERT]

Last night I was working out at the sports club, The Q, and the 2nd areobics room was available. Well sometimes in the areobics room (especially the 2nd) they have a punching bag. The first was a hanging bag (which was taken down and the room was in use) and the 2nd was those water ones.

So I did some stretching, a little working out, then went into the room and did punching for about 15 minutes to 20 minutes. I did alot of kicking, especially with my right leg. I was kind of ****ed and was releasing anger.

Anyway, after working out, I came home to realize my lower legs were sore as hell. Right below the knees and right above the feet. When I point my foot downwords so my leg goes straight down to my toe, it feels ok. But when I bent my food upwards, it hurts like hell.

What did I do wrong? I wasn't kicking with this part of my leg, I did stretches and I did a few minutes of kicking. I would kick for about 5 minutes, punch for 5, then kick again, then punch. My knuckles were in pain when I was there, but they feel fine now, but my legs hurt. Did I not stretch enough or did I bruise or muscle or just overwork it?

PHILBERT

[Silumkid]

Philbert,

It may possible you strained or over-pulled your tibialis. Did you warm up before you stretched? That could be a contributing factor as well.

A quick fix for tibialis aka shin splints is ice. About 10 minutes on. When it starts to feel better, you can start doing some simple toe tapping to work on the muscle there...you may want to consider adding a very small weight (book, etc) to the top of your foot to strengthen it.

Hope you feel better soon.

Amitabha!

We are trained in wushu; we must protect the Temple!

[Ford Prefect]

Yup. Sounds like shin splits. I get 'em every once in a while. Nothing to sweat, just do as described above.

[BAI HE]

They suck. My shins bark like crazy all the time.
Alot of ice and than some sportscreme in the following days. I also knead the crap out of the muscles with my hands. hell, the samurai used to massage themselves!

[popsider]

A cure for ongoing shin splints is to sit with your legs under you with your feet pointing backwards - effectively sitting on your feet - like you do in a Japanese martial art class.

This was given me by a mate who had professional advice on the problem and it worked for him and me.

A word of warning, one of our soccer team had shin pain during matches for about 6 months, it turned out to be stress fractures of both shins. He was in plaster for 6 months and was told that if he had not had them checked out when he did it could have been worse. The moral is do not train on an injury, and if it persists get it checked out, don't let a doctor fob you off make them refer you to a specialist if you have to.

[PHILBERT]

I did the ice thing and the pain went away within a couple of days. I am able to work out normally again now. Haven't had any leg problems since then.

PHILBERT