Shin splints are a runner’s worst nightmare.  It’s a catch-all term that most commonly refers to runners suffering from pain along the medial tibia.  It can also progress into stress reactions as well as afflict runners along the antero-lateral portion of the tibia.  Commonly, rehab focuses on modalities to calm the pain, strengthening exercises for the lower leg and hips, and stretching.  Many patient’s see symptom reduction, but many also see a return when they begin to increase their mileage again.  It’s frustrating for the therapist and even more so for the runner.

I want to focus on a small change you can make to runners that pays huge dividends when they are experiencing pain along the antero-lateral tibia.  To effectively treat this, you need to understand a basic premise, the tibialis anterior is typically working too hard during the gait cycle and we need to change that.

Let’s take a look at a runner and the exact...

Treating runners can be a difficult task.  There are many types of injuries and they originate from a number of different areas. Is it a running form error? Is it weakness? Maybe something is too stiff?  The number of possibilities is partially why so many runners struggle to return to activity.  We discuss this throughout our running courses as look at the ACE Running Readiness Assessment to identify the “weak link(s)”.

Here, I wanted to talk about the Unilateral Hip Bridge Endurance Test¹ and its amazing utility in runners with knee pain, back pain, and many other issues.  If you’re not familiar with the test, you can watch me explain it below.  On the surface, the test appears to be a simple test of the glute max, but as you look deeper, the knowledge you can gain from this is extraordinary.

The first step of the test is to perform a bilateral bridge.  At this point you gain a few points...