Shin Splints treatment?

Get fitted for some good running shoes at a running shoe store. Lots of stretching, and draw the alphabet with your toes up in front of you and pointed. It helps strengthen your calves and the front of your legs. Lots of rest, motrin and ice packs. I just got rid of mine, and I totally feel for you because is incredibly painful!!! I walked around my house like a little old man for a couple weeks because it hurt to walk, to sit, to cross my legs, to do ANYTHING!

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You have to rest and ice them until they're better - if you keep doing activities that cause them to hurt, you'll just make them worse. You may be able to find some low impact cardio or other exercise that doesn't hurt, and do that while you're healing?

Once they're better, you can start doing things to strengthen them -- and once you've gotten shin splints, it's more likely that you will be prone to them in the future, so that's a good idea. There are dozens of variations of shin exercises, mostly toe-lift exercises. Someone suggested "drawing" the alphabet with your toes, which is a great one. You can also do seated or standing toe lifts, where you just repeatedly lift and lower your toes, and gradually build up how many you can do. You can also sit on the edge of a table with a bag of books dangling off your foot, and lift and lower your toes. Also, make sure to stretch your calf muscles. Shin splints have been linked to a combination of tight calves in the back and weaker muscles in the front.

Finding shoes with great arch support will most likely help significantly. Alternatively, learning to do your activities barefoot will probably also help. Doing all my cardio barefoot has made a huge difference in how I land on my feet (in the middle, and not using a heel-strike stride, or landing on my toes) and it's worked wonders at keeping shin splints at bay.

Good luck!

I use to get them when I played tennis, the trainer had me ice for 10 mins before and after practice and then tape them up from ankle to knee. It helped with the pain, wasn't real cute in my shorts or skirt, but keeping them iced and taped helped ALOT!!!

When I started walking, I developed terrible shin splints. I went to a proper running shoe store and I had a runner/salesperson help me find a pair of good running shoes. They will ask you questions, and I highly suggest you call them first and ask if they will analyse/help you as a good shop will want to see you walk/jog so they can determine what type of foot support you need. If you are overweight like me and have wide feet, it is good to go in with perhaps a thicker than usual sock as I found that walking with me led to swollen feet as the shoes were "just right" at the store but when your feet pounds the pavement, you might want the extra space. However, after proper foot wear, you have no more excuses, work through the pain, it does get easier.