As we learnt in an earlier post, one of the things that can be a factor in shin splints are weak shin muscles.

The muscles that we are particularly interested in are the tibialis anterior muscles. However, a couple of others are also important here…

Extensor digitorum longus and Peroneus longus

All you really need to know though, is that we are talking about the muscles down the front of your shins. In most recreational runners, these muscles are weak and underused. As such, we tend not to be able to get the range of motion at the ankle that we need for running. This is turn can lead to lots of compensations such as over pronation as well as knee and hip pain.

The movement where your toes and shins come closer together by your foot moving upwards is called dorsiflexion, and this is crucial to running from both a injury prevention perspective and a performance perspective.

Essentially, to run fast and to reduce injuries, your ankles need to move properly. We also talked about it in the following posts:

1.  You are the weakest link

2. Shin Splints – Causes of shin pain in runners

3. Ankle testing for runners

So, how can you get strong shins and improve how your ankles move? Fortunately, it’s really simple and only takes a few minutes each day to do.

This exercise may be the only one you need. It comes from those experts in all things gait Shawn and Ivo, AKA The Gait Guys. Unfortunately their own video is a little old and difficult to view properly, so we’ve created our own.

Doing this simple exercise for two minutes every day, or at least three times per week, for a few weeks, will result in huge gains in shin strength.

Combine strong shins with increased ankle range of motion, and you will reduce your injury risk and get faster!

The post Shin strength exercises for runners appeared first on RunTeach.

In previous posts we’ve looked at ankle mobility and some of the reasons why we get shin splints. Now we’re going to follow those up with a quick way to assess your ankle range of motion, how much you need and how to increase it. So let’s dive right in with how much range of motion you need for running.

According to the available research and expert discussion, arriving at a “normal” range of motion is pretty tricky. Some labs use fancy geometry equipment such goniometers, but there is a simple test that has been proven to be very reliable – and according to some people, more reliable than the fancy equipment. This test also provides us with a easy benchmark for the range of motion we can work towards achieving.

What is the test? It’s a lunge against a wall and the video below shows how easy it is:

Ideally, we want to be able to be 10cm or more from the wall and still keep the heel of our front leg on the ground. However, many of us can only get to 5cm or fewer.

If you can’t get to 10cm or more, the solution is also very simple. You can use the test exercise as the exercise to increase your range of motion. There’s also a variation that you can do, as shown in the following video:

This range of motion is known as “dorsifletion” and is the movement where your toes get closer to your shins.

In addition to the exercises in the last video, you can increase dorsiflexion by:

• Releasing restrictions in the ankles, calf muscles and hamstrings
• Improving the strength of your shin muscles

To release restrictions, you can foam roll, self-massage or see a professional such as a physio or body worker. We’ll have a post up soon to help you increase the strength of your shin muscles, so stay tuned.

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