Exercising with shin splints

zombieyoshi

What are some good exercises (including cardio) and stretches I can do with shin splints? Any advice on how to avoid getting them again once they go away?

dbmata

What are some good exercises (including cardio) and stretches I can do with shin splints? Any advice on how to avoid getting them again once they go away?

For me, what got rid of them was running longer distances with a different gate.

There isn't really anything you can do to get rid of them, other than work on your conditioning for running. You may want to think about gait, because if you're heel striking, and getting shin splints, it shouldn't be too hard to fix by moving to a mid or forefoot strike.

Krista916

Ice your shins after rune. I agree it's probably your gait when running. You may possibly need to cut back on your speed a little and take 2 rest days between runs. For me, they just all of a sudden wen away one day. I just kept plugging along and running and i think my shins finally decided to just give up because I wasn't quitting.

bobbystrongarm

Stretching while you have them is not advised. You'll be yanking on an already tightened area, this will further aggravate it. The pain is caused by your connective tissues being pulled away.

Best thing to do is to lay off whatever directly causes you to feel more pain.

Rolling your shins out, or kneading your shin like its pizza dough, can really help. Ice after it flares up too.

Best thing to avoid occurrence is strengthening your shins, this will come with training or you can do lower leg weight training. Squats, leg press, calf raises, dead lifts. Weight training where your leg needs stability will help. Wait to do this until the pain has subsided.

As far as activity you can do, this varies person to person. You can ask 10 people and you'll likely get 10 conflicting answers. For me, walking a brisk pace instead of jogging/running helps. I can also use the elliptical, just need to make sure to keep my feet flat and not stand on my toes like I naturally want to do at higher resistances.

Like strengthening any muscle, make sure you eat a lot of protein and all your macros are in check. Keep your water consumption high. You want your body to be in prime condition for fast recovery. Even eating a large deficit will slow this process down quite a bit. That's why its so much harder to make strength gains at a deficit, your body needs energy to recover.

lynnlc

Ugh, I had those in college and it was no fun! Sorry you're dealing with that right now.

I found that rotating my ankles to stretch my shins helped quite a lot. Ice and and aleve helps with the pain. Try to go easy on the impact exercises- mine would flare up if I overdid it and it just took longer to heal. I tried to do some light/slow jogging once/twice per week, but stopped if it hurt too much. Any lower impact exercise should be okay -- yoga, biking, weightlifting.

Now I won't go running unless I stretch out and warm up my shins beforehand. Not sure if that's why, but I haven't had problems since! Good luck.

darrensurrey

Have a look at this pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/238127899020784543/

Basically, you need to work the muscles that run up the front of the leg IYSWIM. I suffered shin splints when I took up tennis. Bear in mind I've been doing a full range of strength training and HIIT including cleans, power snatches, hack squats, sumo squats, bulgarian squats and deadlifts for 18 months. None of these really hit the area that shin splints appear - it comes from the mechanics of running and stopping yourself from falling too far forward (and in the case of tennis, sprinting followed by quick deceleration with some running backwards repeatedly for 2+ hours).

89nunu

My sports therapist friend told me not to run or do high impact cardio for at least a week or two.
You can however massage them out, just Google massage chin splints or use s foam roller.

Exercise during. Either just walk or search on YouTube for some low impact cardio vids, beware most of them are made for old ladies, you could also just do some normal ones and leave the jumping.

Then after every workout switch between 5 min hot, 5 min cold pack for 20 min total. And take ibuprofen 3 times a day.

And once hey are a bit better you can jog slowly again, but best on grass.

emczech5

My husband has always had a lot of problems with shin splints. We've been running 5Ks lately and he recently switched his shoes to viibram five fingers. He hasn't gotten shin splints one while using these shoes. The reason this has helped is that with the switch he no longer strikes with his heels. So I definitely agree with the people who say you should check how you are striking your foot on the ground.

melly_fluous

Ahhh...you too? I have shin splints really bad. I also do not run, cause I have crap knees and weak ankles prone to twisting. I walk. Alot. Sometimes I just have to slow down and it gets better. Sometimes I have to stop completely and rest & stretch. For most of my cardio, I use the Gazelle Edge at home (like a cheap ski machine). This is the only thing that does not hurt my knees and shins.

Everyone is a bit different. I've read somewhere that people (like me) who get them just from walking tend to feel better when running. Maybe one day I'll be back in decent enough shape where I can actually run and try this. :ohwell:

dbmata

My husband has always had a lot of problems with shin splints. We've been running 5Ks lately and he recently switched his shoes to viibram five fingers. He hasn't gotten shin splints one while using these shoes. The reason this has helped is that with the switch he no longer strikes with his heels. So I definitely agree with the people who say you should check how you are striking your foot on the ground.

This is exactly how I fixed mine. Started with KSOs.

CouleeRunner

I used to get shin splints a lot. I mentioned it to my chiropractor. He did something with my feet and ankles (I kid you not), and I’ve not had them since.

I do use a foam roller now every day so that could be helping...

bobbystrongarm

I've always wanted to try those five finger shoes, but I have very high arches like to the point it was of concern to my doctor as a child. Even just an unsupportive shoe will absolutely kill my feet/shins. All the ones I've seen have jack squat for arch support, then again I haven't looked in a long time. Has this changed?

jeffrodgers1

Shin splints happen for a few reasons. These reasons include the terrible too's, bad footwear and bad form. The terrible too's of course refer to doing too much, too soon, or too intense. Bad footwear often comes from wearing worn out shoes or the wrong shoes. Shoes do wear out and typically only offer adequate support for 300-500 miles. Bad form speaks for itself.

Couple of things I'd suggest that seem to help most people (myself included)

1. Single leg calf raises
2. Walk on your heels with your toes crunched up like little fists.
3. Get a bucket of those little green army men... practice picking them up with your toes and putting them back in the bucket.
4. Calf stretches that focus on the gastronemus and soleus muscles (basic calf stretch with a straight leg and bent leg)
5. Examine your shoes and get a gait analysis done by a professional. This helps tell you what shoes you should be wearing and will point our any mechanical deficiencies in the way you run. We aren't talking about a shoe store clerk, but about a trained physiotherapist or podiatrist.
6. Cut back your mileage to a less painful level.
7. RICE Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation.
8. Replace worn out shoes... frankly bad shoes are worse than running barefoot as they trick the body into running with bad form. I have yet to see anyone run with poor form while running barefoot.

Often injuries happen due to an inherent weakness in a particular area. We can mask the symptoms and slap a bandaid on it, but until you address the root cause, the injury will just keep coming back.

Hope this makes sense and helps.

Good luck

zombieyoshi

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the advice