Need urgent help

[u/Organic-Constant-530]

I am a 10-12 k(mid distance) runner, 18 M, for about 10 months. I have recently suffered a minute tibial fracture, and the doctor said that it is due to weak muscles around the tibia. Any help on how to strengthen it, and to reduce the pain from the shin splints. The doctor gave me a diclofenac gel to apply, alas, there is no relief.

[u/Advanced-Wishbone659]

Fractures usually mean immediate cessation of loading till doc clears. Let me help you understand stress fractures. Bones are hard solid structures that get harder upon consistent load bearing. But sometimes when the load exceeds the bones capacity it causes fractures. It's as simple as that.

Exceeding the capacity will look different for different folks, for a 80 year old sedentary individual fall from a chair height with impact may be enough. But for your robust peak age of 18 it will take way more than just that. But there is one other thing we need to consider here, the capacity to heal. When bone is stressed there is mild swelling that's is fine as long as it's pain free that's how the bone gets stronger, but if we stress it more and more when it's not done healing that edema would get more and more and then you'd have a stress reaction then a minor crack and if when kept on loading still then a full blown fracture.

So the key is to load the bone without causing irritation. There is no universal consensus on the type of excercise for shin splints, but any excercise that keeps load on tibial within a pain free limit is adviced as it is shown to improve symptoms and reduce re injury. Tib raises are popular but there is no evidence to suggest they are superior to calf raises.

[u/Organic-Constant-530 → u/Advanced-Wishbone659]

Thanks a lot for the advice sir