Shin Splints & Plantar Fasciitis Rehabilitation Video

This video shows shin splints, plantar fasciitis rehabilitation .  While on your back, use a strap or belt around the ball of your foot to perform stretch in video. Perform stretch for 5 minutes on each leg 1 to 2 times per day. Foot Massage: Using a massage roller or racket ball or tennis ball on the floor, roll the ball across the length of your foot and over your heel. Apply as much weight as needed to feel pressure but not pain. Do this for 5 minutes each day on both feet. Just click this link to know more about shin splints and other muscle injury.

Navicular Stress Fracture

In many sports, the foot can take quite a beating, and over time, this can lead to a stress fracture. The navicular, a bone in the foot that sits atop the heel bone, can be vulnerable to stress fracture, and this injury is rather common among athletes who do a lot of jumping and running.

Sports that particularly increase the risk of navicular stress fracture include track and field, ballet, football, basketball, rugby and gymnastics. Common symptoms of the injury include swelling in the midfoot and pain that may last for months. This pain may fade away with rest, but tends to return when you resume activity. In addition, pressing on the so-called “N spot” between the foot’s arch and the heel on the bottom of the foot causes tenderness if a navicular stress fracture is present.

If you think you might have a navicular stress fracture, you should consult a medical injury specialist as soon as possible. That’s because letting this injury go untreated can cause long-term foot pain; early treatment is crucial. The specialist may use a bone scan or magnetic resonance image (MRI) to look at your bone and see whether it has the tiny cracks characteristic of a stress fracture.

If you do have a stress fracture, you likely will need a cast for at least six weeks, or until the tenderness in your foot is gone. Your sports medicine specialist might recommend physical therapy and rehabilitation and strengthening exercises to strengthen the foot and regain range-of-motion.

To prevent a recurrence of your navicular stress fracture (or to prevent it in the first place), make sure your equipment and footwear fit properly, and increase training and mileage gradually. Shock-absorbing inserts for your shoes can also protect the bones of your foot from the stress of your own body weight.

Stress Fracture

Sometimes, gravity can be an athlete’s worst enemy—especially in the case of stress fractures.

This overuse injury occurs most commonly among athletes who run and jump a lot, repeatedly putting a significant amount of weight on the legs and feet. That’s why most stress fractures occur in the bones of the foot and lower leg (they can also occur in the spine in a condition known as spondylolysis).

In a stress fracture, the bone does not completely break in half; instead, tiny cracks form, and these grow into stress fractures. The condition can cause intense pain when you put weight on the bone and when you touch the fractured area. Swelling also can accompany the pain, and you may find the pain worsens with each workout.

If you have lower leg pain, and taking some time off from weight-bearing activities doesn’t relieve it, you may have a stress fracture—and because a stress fracture that heals improperly can cause chronic pain, it’s crucial to treat the condition.

Sports that most often cause stress fractures are those in which the legs and feet pound the ground repeatedly, such as in gymnastics, running, ballet dancing, basketball and soccer. However, anyone who has suddenly increased his or her activity level can develop a stress fracture.

There are a number of tests your doctor can perform to diagnose a stress fracture. These tests include magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, on the affected bone, along with taking an X-ray or a bone scan, in which a radioactive tracer is tracked through the bone.

To help your stress fracture heal, it’s important to minimize the weight you put on the affected bone. To do this, you may need to use crutches, a splint, or, if the fracture is in your foot, a supportive boot. In very serious cases, surgery may be necessary to heal a stress fracture.