Photo of Expert Runner and Personal Running coach in Austin Texas, Erik, on a distance run in Buena Vista Colorado



Ever had shin splints and not know how they happened? Shin splints can be frustrating because you can't get long sexy legs when your legs hurt too much to workout.  Shin splints occur when the muscle and tendons develop microscopic tears in the front of the shin where they attach to the bone and the tears cause pain when the foot is flexed. Several years ago, Houston and The Woodlands Personal Trainer Melissa had a female client who, in addition to the weight training workouts, walked every day several miles to lose weight and she developed shin splints. This client was already conditioned for the normal walk and had been doing it regularly but at some point, began to develop a painful condition on the front inside of the shin (tibia), called shin splints. Often this injury is an overuse condition but in this case, after reviewing the history, it was determined that walking a friend's dog was the culprit.

The dog, a large breed that required a daily walk while the owner was away for a week, was very excited and pulled hard on the leash the whole time during the walk. This individual was smaller than the owner, and had to lean back on the leash against the lunging dog to keep it in check causing her feet to slap against the walkway. This constant pounding of the feet against the concrete sidewalk for a week was enough to cause microscopic tears in the lower leg which caused the pain. By correctly determining the problem causing the pain, the individual was able to protect from further injury and was advised to get her husband to walk the dog for her while her friend was out of town next time, and to stop walking for a week until the pain was gone. Once the pain is gone, the attachmets of the muscles to the shins can be strengthened by walking backwards on the heels only with the toes pointed up in  a flexed position for several minutes according to Running expert Erik He also recommends getting good running shoes and keeping them properly fitted by experts like those at ROGUE SPORTS in austin Texas. Another strengthening move is to flex the foot with a weight on it for three to five sets of twelve flexions.

If the injured client had mistakenly thought that just the walking was the problem, she might have stopped an otherwise useful Houston workout for keeping long sexy legs! When dealing with an overuse injury it is also helpful to cross train to a different cardio workout such as kickboxing, or spinning so the injured area can rest.  Bottom line though is to look for changes in the routine that might have contributed to an injury before ditching a workout routine. Rest is most important in helping an injury heal. Photo of sexy legs of Houston personal trainer Melissa.

POOL WORKOUT CAN HELP MAINTAIN CONDITIONING FOR CLIENTS WITH IT BAND INJURY, SHIN SPLINTS, TENDONITIS and other INJURIES during hot summer months.




Workouts with the pool can be a perfect cross training workout tool for women or men who have low tolerance to heat in the summer or for people who are significantly overweight or for people who have injuries such as shin splints or IT BAND injuries or even achilles tendonitis. Houston Personal Trainer Melissa loves her pool and even though she herself does not do many pool workouts, she has many personal training tips for making the time in the pool an effective workout (and she loves to wear the sexy bikini). Here is her Free workout for maintaining fitness when injured or cross training.

First of all the workout should begin with some Ball wall squats leaning against a ball which is against the wall making sure knees are over ankles . Do this near the pool because that will get the muscles warmed up before getting into the cold water. Three sets of twenty wall squats with a ball should be a good warm up.

Once in the pool Melissa recommends doing flutter kicks across the pool holding on to a kick board for ten minutes to twenty minutes without stopping as this further warms up the body and adjusts it to the water temperature. The flutter kicks should be done rapidly and they work the glutes, and quads and the kicking needs to be done with SMALL kicks that are done as rapidly as possible with foot remaining flexible like a dolphin fin.

Above photo of tan personal trainer Melissa in bikini by her pool.
After the flutter kicks, the Houston POOL workout goes to the upper body where Houston Personal Trainer Melissa recommends that the person swim the freestyle or do any arm paddling motion  and do not use the legs at all. Do this across the pool holding a buoy with the knees to keep the lower body from assisting with the workout for ten  to twenty minutes.
This is a basic workout and will take up to fourty minutes but will keep conditioning movement going when an injury or hot weather would prevent someone from working out otherwise..