Shin Splints?

You don’t think about your shins until they hurt. And by then, you could be looking at some major downtime. A recent study found that it takes, on average, 71 days to rehab shin splints. Shin splints (the term for pain that occurs on the front outside part of the lower leg) often occurs when your legs are overworked. That's sometimes from a jump in mileage. And sometimes because your shins pick up the slack for body parts that are weak, says Susan Joy, M.D., a sports and exercise medicine physician with Cleveland Clinic Sports Health. Protect yourself by strengthening your feet, ankles, calves, and hips, which support your shins. Do two to three sets of 10 to 15 reps daily (but not before a run):

Toe Curls
Stand with feet hip-width apart at the edge of a towel. With the toes of your left foot, gather the towel and slowly pull it toward you. Return to start and repeat with the other foot.

Monster Walks
With feet shoulder-width apart, place a resistance band around your thighs and step forward and toward the right with your right leg. Bring your left leg up to meet your right, then step out toward the left. Then walk backward in the same way to return to the start. Repeat.

Heel Drop
Stand on your toes on the edge of a step. Shift your weight to your right leg, take your left foot off the step, and lower your right heel down. Return to start, and then repeat with your left leg.

One-Legged Bridges
Lie on your back with your arms out to the sides, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor. Squeeze your glutes to lift your hips up off the floor. Extend your left leg out and hold for 30 seconds (work up to 60-second holds), then lower it. Repeat with your other leg.


Here are some tips that will help alleviate your shin pain:

Massage with Ice
Freeze a paper cup filled with water, tear off the top edge of the cup, and massage with comfortable pressure along the inside of the shinbone for 10 to 15 minutes after running to reduce inflammation.

Add Arch Support
By "lifting" the arch with insoles, you take stress off of your lower legs. You don't need to use these forever if you do strength work–think of insoles like a splint for your foot and remove them once you're fully recovered. Try different options available at running specialty stores.

Stretch & Rest
Loosen up tight calves and Achilles tendons–both can contribute to shin splints. Reduce running mileage and do low-impact cross-training (biking, swimming, elliptical) instead. When you resume your training, ease in gradually. Too much too soon could cause a relapse.

The advice tinaree2525 gave is widely published on sites like runner's world etc and is pretty solid. I just would add that in my experience and based on advice from physical therapist and doctor, recovery time for shin splits is about 5 to 6 weeks, but you can crosstrain with cycling, swimming etc.

When I first started running I suffered a lot from shin splints. They got so bad that I too was afraid I was suffering from stress fractures.

In the end I went to see a sports doctor and while I didn't have a stress fracture, over time I had had so many events that he could feel little bumps along my shin bone which he said were little "calcifications". Turns out the actual cause was flat arches in my feet so my shins were bearing all the impact from running. I had tried the arches you get at running specialty stores but they did nothing to alleviate the problems. So I had custom orthotics made for my running shoes which I have to replace after I reach a certain mileage. I have been running completely pain free ever since. They are expensive but soo worth it.

Definitely see a doctor and good luck!

Work on strengthening your anterior tibialis. ( resisted dorsiflexion )

Yeah I had always thought I had shin splints too. However it turned out to be something different that ended up with surgery and I have been better ever since. The muscle on the outside was always tender. Go see your doctor. Do the physical therapy, stretching, etc.

mudmonkeyonwheels wrote: »

OK so I think I am developing shin splints again. I have been running 3 times a week since the new year and have been gradually building up my mileage and speed. My shoes are relatively new and I had them fitted by a specialist.

I am now getting a lot of pain on the inside edge of my lower leg. It usually feels like a dull ache when running but gets pretty tender afterwards and is also painful to walk on. It started as a little niggle but has been getting worse. Does this sound like shin splits?

After running I have been trying to ice my leg and put my feet up for a bit. I have also brought a compression bandage to help support my leg as I heard this can help it heal while still allowing you to run. I have just been working on maintaining my mileage since it started and have not done any speed/hill work. Is there anything else that might help?

I would hate to have to stop running altogether as it is a massive stress release and I am finally starting to get my fitness back. I am also trying to integrate more cross training (riding my bike 2x per week).

Sorry for the long post. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

What you're describing is exactly what I have been dealing with since January. Stop running. Please. I had exactly the same pain in the same spot and kept running. It got worse and started to move into my upper calf. I kept running. Then it was my entire calf all the way into my achilles. I kept running. Eventually the pain was in the front of my shin, into my ankle. Basically, from the knee down on my right leg hurt. I tried everything; ice, compression sleeve/socks, ibuprofen, checking with my chiropractor, biofreeze, KT tape, checking to see if my running shoes were appropriate for my feet (they were). I finally stopped running when I couldn't walk without limping. I took 3 weeks off and while I know i'm not fully healed, I am back to running. I'm not sure what caused my shin splints but I know i wasn't stretching enough. Maybe it was the treadmill, either way, i knew i was done running when i couldn't walk, or go down stairs, or run with out limping. Most of the things i listed above are great for prevention, but once the damage has been done, the only thing you can do is rest your leg.

Trust me I know how hard it is to stop. I'm running a 25K in May.. not running for 3 weeks was the LAST thing I wanted.. but maybe if you stop now you won't have to be off for as long as I was. Hope this helps...