Shin Splints/Stress Fracture

Pita0224

Calling all those that have experienced shin splints or a stress fracture. About 3 weeks ago I was working and felt some mild pain on the inner lower right leg. Figured it was from adjusting to different flooring material at work as others were sore too. I went running the next day and felt fine during the run but at the end it was unbearable to even keep walking. Came home, did the elevation, ice and ibuprofen and have stayed off it since except for work and a few games on the Kinect. Well it still hurts. How long are shin splints supposed to last? I'm worried it might be a stress fracture however since I have no real experience with shin splints and the fact that I refuse to take 6 weeks off in the chance it is a fx have kept me from going to the doctor. It doesn't always hurt, just some of the time. Ibuprofen isn't strong enough for the pain, but the pain isn't bad enough to warrant a narcotic. Any advice?!

Sparren

a good strengthening exercise is to do ankle rotations, or spell the alphabet with your feet. when i started Zumba i had minor shin splints - since I also refused to take time off to heal, I made sure I did the strengthening exercises, as well as specific stretching before I worked out - have had no problems since. i just googled shin splints, and found the stretches and exercises on there. all the best!

MLgarcia3

I had them bad when I was in the army from running in boots. I found the only thing that helped was stretching them afterwards. I still have my hubby stretch them for me after runs to prevent getting them again. My favorite stretch is just sitting on the floor with your feet extended in front of you and having someone pull the tops of your feet towards the ground. Hope that makes sense!

muth3rluvx2

I had to do a ton of research on this very problem because I felt like I was getting them way too easily. It is primarily muscular and like many muscle injuries, can take anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks to get better. Some things you want to focus on:

shoes - whether you're running, standing or walking
a GOOD warm up
general strengthening & flexibility exercises (as others have pointed out)
frequent rests if standing for long periods of time

Get on WebMD and look up both stress fracture and shin splints adn see which one fits your symptoms best and then decided if you feel like a doctor's visit is warranted. Ultimately, since you're the only one that knows what you're feeling, only you can determine if an xray may be a good idea.

Good luck and hope it gets better soon!

runningroxy

This was happening to me preventing me from running for as long as I wanted to. I read up on how professional track runners run. Their heel never touches the ground, the ball of your foot should hit first then roll to the toe. It helped me tremendously.