Shin Splints

I have been very lucky. The only time I had really bad shin pain was when I took a student to the finals of the YAGP in New York and walked more in the first day than I had in months (nobody walks in LA). My anterior calf muscles were so sore, I couldn't sleep on my stomach because of the pressure on my shins, and I couldn't sleep on my back because the sheets hurt. Side sleeping wasn't much better.

Most dancers have had shin splints at some time. Mostly they're caused by hard landing from jumps, but it's not just the shock of a heavy or hard landing. Shin splints are inflammation of the connective muscle tissue surrounding the tibia. The major repetitive stress for dancers is jumping, but there is a more insidious cause that is part and parcel of jumping, but can aggravate the condition, even if you stop jumping.

If you roll in on your arches, it puts great stress on the same muscle tissue that bad landings affect. If you roll just taking barre, or center without jumping, your shin pain will stick around and could even get worse. I was always very careful about my placement; I never rolled in. I know, that sounds impossible, but I didn't get shin splints dancing, and in 18 years, I never had a knee injury.

Your landings should be soft and quiet, and well placed. For example, if in your garden variety grand jetés, your front leg isn't directly in front of you, when you land, not only will your heel hit the floor hard (your foot isn't really underneath the center of your body) but you'll roll in, compounding the felony. You'll be lucky if all you get are shin splints.

At the barre, you must be extremely diligent about not rolling in, for many reasons, not the least of which is to prevent shin splints and knee injuries. When jumping, you must maintain your placement/turnout in the air, just like at the barre, so that when you land, you won't roll in. If you are like many dancers, when you relevé, you lose a little turnout, mostly because you relax your glutes. Then when you put your heels down, you re-engage your glutes, but the damage is done, and you're twisting your feet back into position. This action is a lot worse if the same thing, or more, happens when you jump. In the air, you lose your turnout, then you try to fix it when you land, when you should be concentrating on going through your feet, and boom, shin splints and/or knee injuries. They are caused by twisting, tibial torsion if you want to get technical, as much as by hard landings.

So, maintain proper placement (which could be the answer to most problems), and you will have a far better chance of avoiding shin splints and other unpleasant things.

We'll get to treatment options, next time.

See you in class.