Press:

Treadmill runners who suffer painful shin splints can heal them quicker with gait training in the great outdoors in combination with physical therapy exercises say researchers, including UVA Health sports medicine expert Dr. David Hryvniak.

Affecting approximately 40% of all runners, shin splints typically begin as tenderness in the lower leg that goes away after exercising. But for regular runners, this pain can worsen and become persistent. In severe cases, shin splints can even lead to stress fractures.

Researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial and found that four weeks of gait training outdoors combined with home exercises often prescribed for shin splints led to improved running biomechanics even when runners were using a treadmill.

These improvements included decreasing the time the runners’ feet were in contact with the ground or treadmill, a recently identified contributor to shin splints.

“This is an important finding for clinicians, as this gives us a tool to use to help these runners,” said Dr. Hryvniak. “These gait-training cues can be an easy thing to add into a rehab program to help patients improve running mechanics that can underlie many common running injuries.”

To read the entire article from UVAToday, please follow this link. You can read more about the study it originated from and it’s findings here.