Shin Splints

Everyone is going to tell you make sure you've been properly fitted for good shoes so I'll skip that lecture.

In addition to that, my friend linked me to her blog with the exercises she got at the doc's office:

http://zumbatohalfmarathon.blogspot.com/2011/11/898-ill-see-your-inhaler-and-raise-you.html


I do those 3 exercises for 30 seconds each during my warm up, then repeat for a total 3 minutes. I do them again after I run. They help me


To deal with the pain ibuprofin and icing helps too. I've heard you're supposed to pro-actively ice a few times a day but haven't quite worked out the details yet - those exercises plus ibuprofin and ice when there -is- pain have helped me a lot.

Bumping to keep. Great info here. I've never ran in my life, because every time I try I get these stupid Shin Splints. I want to run so we will see.

I am the shin splint queen. I've gotten them from just walking around the mall! I've gotten them so bad that it hurt just to drive (pushing the pedal or switching from the brake to the gas was excruciating). The first time I got them it was from running 1 mile on 1 day. That's it. I was out of commission for weeks in pain.

What I've found that finally worked for me is barefoot shoes, proper form, and proper pace.

SHOES: I use vibram 5 fingers, but there are several brands out there. They give you NO support, so your feet are forced to build up the muscles within the tarsals that they should naturally have. Shoes with lots of support actually keep your feet from building these muscles. Now that I've worn vibrams for about a year, I have superb balance, strong toes, and can spread my toes out individually like fingers. This youtube video compares how you run barefoot vs. with shoes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9itkEkcQ8WM

FORM: Also, barefoot shoes MAKE you run with proper form. If you run without proper form in barefoot shoes, you will know within 2 or 3 strides. <b>Running is natural and should be painless.</b> After watching this video on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrOgDCZ4GUo) comparing proper and improper form, I changed a few things, and am doing great now. I feel like Forest Gump breaking out of his leg braces when I run. But, since I am still new to running properly, if I go too long and get tired, I start to lose my form and slip into bad habits. Maybe you're losing form when you push yourself to run farther/longer/faster, and that is causing the shin splints.

PACE: Also something I learned while researching proper form- the natural stride pace for ANY speed is 180 steps (90 with each foot) per minute. The stride pace and stride length do not make you go faster, only how hard your heel kicks up to your butt influences speed. If you're landing with your foot out in front of you, trying to increase your stride to go faster, all it does is cause your shin and knee to take all the shock of the landing. So make sure your running at 180 steps per minute and your feet land directly under your hips, between the middle and ball of your foot, not your heal. I put a metronome app on my iphone so I could test this. Of course when I get tired I get off pace so that's another contributing factor to pain coming back.

I hope that helped!

Great tips from everyone. Also you can buy kinesology tape. Stuff you see a lot of athletes wearing, and tape up your arches.