This is a good self massage technique for shin splints using a lacrosse ball to mobilize the front and outside shin muscles. Can be easily done by yourself and works really well at breaking down thickening and adhesions that often form with overuse and injury. This problem is very common in runners and can often be quite debilitating. Make sure you rule out stress fractures and other issues before doing this mobilization technique.

Tweetables:

Massage Therapy for Shin Splints  [Click To Tweet]

If You’re Affected by Shin Splints, Massage Can Help [Click To Tweet]

How to Treat and Prevent Shin Splints [Click To Tweet]

Transcript: 

Hey guys, this is Manu Kalia, physical therapist and herbalist. So in this video I’m going to show you a self-mobilization technique using a lacrosse ball to improve the mobility of your muscles in the front part of your lower leg or shin, so especially your anterior tibialis and some of the other muscles that get often bound up and tightened up, and if they get adhesions that form due to injury or due to repetitive strain such as in running or other athletic activities, it would restrict tissue glide. So not only are they tight, they might have knots or sticky spots and you’re trying to get them mobilized. So of course you can use your hands and you can get at spots, but there’s another tool you can use, a lacrosse ball, to really get at those spots and improve the mobility of those tissues.

So one way to do that is we’re going to place this here and what we’re going to is I’m going to look for…so this is going to be right around here and I can control how much pressure I place on it because most of my weight is on my arms and my other leg. So I can decide and I can look for those spots as I oscillate and I search and I go down the entire length of that tissue and I’m going back and forth.

Now, once I find a spot, I can hang out there; I can go in circular movements; I can put pressure on it like an acupressure, sustained pressure; I can oscillate back and forth; and I can glide back and forth over the whole length of that tissue also, so going all along that length of that tissue to see where I want to improve mobility and also where the sticky spots are. It’s a really good way to work at improving the mobility of those tissues.

And you’re not limited to going just through the front, you can also go along the side, too, so it’s depending on where you’re tight. So I could do out here also as I work my way and I look at those spots, and I can search and I can apply pressure, oscillate back and forth, this position all along the whole length of that tissue as I’m slowly and steadily mobilizing those tissues.

Now, you can also use your hands. I could do the same thing, can stabilize here and I can go back and forth. I can search and go all along the length of that tissue and I can work at mobilizing those. So just be careful not to apply too much pressure on certain areas. You have some acupressure/acupuncture points here, so be cautious and slowly and steadily work through this region and improve the mobility of that tissue. Spend about five, seven minutes working throughout those stiff areas, and you can increase the time if you’re trying to get the whole lower leg. Very effective.

And this is a lacrosse ball. Tends to be harder. If this is too hard for you, use a racquet ball, which is a little softer and it’s a little bit smaller, so you can also target some of those tissues and areas.

If you have any questions, leave a comment. Hope this was helpful for you. And check out the site, there’s lots of information there, and subscribe to the channel. Thanks, guys.