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Shin Splints/Pain!!

windwords7

Well-known member
What in the world can you do when your having serious shin pain while running?? Is there any way to improve or heal the situation??

Thanks for your feedback all!

WW7
 
I had them so bad in the academy I could barely walk. I coldn't play in my summer softball league either. I di everything imagineable, from wrap, to shoe inserts, spent $100 on running shoes, ice after running, EVERYTHING. Nothing worked. It would get so bad while running my feet would go numb. I'm sure that at that point I had stress fractures, there's no way I couldn't have in that much pain.
 
The number one cause of shin splints........

Overuse -- muscles that originate along inner side of leg (Tibia) are injured or inflamed.
These muscles (posterior Tibia) help maintain the arch of the foot.
Flat feet or dropped arch (Pronation) can stretch these muscles and may slightly tear them away from the side of the Tibia.

Its a great idea to take a break from whatever it is your doing, jogging or sprinting. I know it sucks but there really is no perfect cure for this.
I stopped running both inside (tread mill) and outside and started using an eliptical machine ( no pounding ) and i have been pain free for over 3 years. When i decide to run now outside (2-3 times a month) i can get away with it pain free because i dont over do it anymore.
Most of my cardio is now done on an eliptical machine.

Speedy recovery, and try to find a good (EFX) eliptical machine to get your heart rate up.:cool: ;)
hope this helps, ill be watching for some other solution too, i would love to see this problem solved.
***remember when you were 12 you could run all day all you needed was some food and water once and a while, those were the good old days****
 
I Have The Cure!!!

I used to have this problem all the time, then I stumbled across an article somewhere (I forget where) that gave me some advice. I tried it and voila! No shin splints since.

The trick is to build up endurance and strength in shins. There are two exercises you should do for this, they're both the same, except one is weighted and one is not. Wait for the pain you're experiencing now to die down, then go on this routine and you should be all set in terms of not having any more pain.


Exercise #1 (4 sets to failure - daily): Seated Non-Weighted Toe-Raises

How to Do It:
Sit down anywhere you can find a seat. Place your feet flat on the ground, and plant your heels into the floor. Keeping your heels planted, raise the front of your feet and your toes (your foot should be at a 45 degree angle from the floor) by forcefully contracting the muscles of your shin. Do this as fast as you can until you reach failure. If you're performing it correctly, you should be feeling a deep burn in your shins.


Exercise #2 (3 sets to failure - twice a week): Seated Weghted Toe-Raises

How To Do It:
Same technique as above, but put a plate on top of your feet to add resistance. Go for slow controlled reps with this exercise, unlike the quick, jerky contractions in Exercise #1. Use a weight that you allows you to reach failure at around 20 reps.



Hope this helps you out WW7, as well as anyone else suffering some shin splints. I don't think I did very well with the exercise descriptions :( , so if you need further clarification, let me know.
 
Toe Raises DO work, gonna back Sheesh here... I had horrible shin splints every year in high school from running long distance and sprint workouts for 3 hours, 5 days a week... old school coach, ya know :rolleyes: ... couple that with Osgood Schlatter's syndrome (tibia grew too fast due to growth spurts, combined with overuse and excess quad strength, ended up with a bone splinter inside my anterior cruciate ligament)... anyway, my senior year I was determined not to have to deal with shin splints so over the summer I added some simple toe raises. so I can vouch for em :D good luck dubya, they do suck bro
 
I got this via PM so I thought I would add it for further comment and insight.

In regards to your thread on shin splints, some poor advice was given and I thought Id jump in before the situtation got worse. Yes, toe raises are great for shin splints, but only as rehab, not for treatment. Shin splints require cryotherapy and the best form of cryotherapy is an ice massage. Take a paper or foam cup, fill it with water and freeze it, when its frozen, remove it and cut the cup away by 1/2 so its half ice, half cup. Use the remaining piece of cup as a handle and rub the ice end superior to inferior up and down the medial tibia. Do this for about 15-20 minutes or until the ice is gone. This is the best treatment for shin splints because it relives swelling and pressure, suppresses inflammation and removes all synovial swelling in the area. Shin splints is nothing more than an irritation of the synovial lining and inerosis membrane of the tibia and fibula. If it worsens, it can lead to stress fractures or the dreaded compartment syndrom, which requires immediate surgery. Do this ice message after your cardio and you should, in a week or so, be pain free. Best of luck with them.
 
I disagree with some of that WW... ice is not a "treatment" anymore than toe raises are... that is to say, once you have shin splints, you have them. ice doesn't heal them, only lessens the swelling and irritation following training eh?... complete rest for the shins, for a few weeks or more is the only real way to "cure" them... so **** that, ice is good, toe raises equally so. I've done both in absolutely enormous quantity believe me, and neither way expedites the healing process to any significant degree as long as you keep these minor injuries recurring with frequent exercise. they WILL go away with time and strengthening of appropriate muscles, so whatever... only thing you can really do is try to prevent them from happening in the first place IMO
 
"Your best bet is to switch to a motion control or thicker shoe and a make sure to stretch out your calf muscles" before and after running, says Michael Fredericson, MD, doctor for the Stanford Cross Country and Track Team and an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. Do this by standing with your rear foot approximately two to three feet away from the wall. Your rear leg should be straight, the front leg bent and your hands touching the wall. Your feet should point ahead with heels on the ground. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat 10 times on each leg. Now do the same thing with your rear leg (that was straight) slightly bent at the knee. You should feel this stretch lower down.
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nice avatar breu! one other thing... I'm not sure what surface you do the majority of your cardio on WW, but that can play a significant role. the track that we had access to most often in high school was old, and the track was very, very hard and compact, not made of the newer more shock absorbing composite stuff... same with treadmills, some nowadays are amazingly well suited for shock absorption, and that can play a pretty big role... you might think about switching up to a bike or even elliptical if you want to try to overcome the shin splints quicker. just some more thoughts for ya.
 
windwords7 said:
I got this via PM so I thought I would add it for further comment and insight.

In regards to your thread on shin splints, some poor advice was given and I thought Id jump in before the situtation got worse. Yes, toe raises are great for shin splints, but only as rehab, not for treatment. Shin splints require cryotherapy and the best form of cryotherapy is an ice massage. Take a paper or foam cup, fill it with water and freeze it, when its frozen, remove it and cut the cup away by 1/2 so its half ice, half cup. Use the remaining piece of cup as a handle and rub the ice end superior to inferior up and down the medial tibia. Do this for about 15-20 minutes or until the ice is gone. This is the best treatment for shin splints because it relives swelling and pressure, suppresses inflammation and removes all synovial swelling in the area. Shin splints is nothing more than an irritation of the synovial lining and inerosis membrane of the tibia and fibula. If it worsens, it can lead to stress fractures or the dreaded compartment syndrom, which requires immediate surgery. Do this ice message after your cardio and you should, in a week or so, be pain free. Best of luck with them.
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Whoever PM'ed WW7 with that, don't be afraid to post here on the board and share the knowledge! We won't bite !
 
I have trouble with shin splints and ankle pain from running as well. While I was in Physical Therepy for back surgery I had my PT take a look at my ankle and asked his advice. After my back healed he put me on a tread mill and filmed me running. He then analyzed me and determined I had a mild pronation. (Pronation the right term?) He then made some insoles for my shoes this enabled me to run without much pain. Store bought insoles will not help.
What I found works best though is to get my cardio by another means.
Good Luck, LOCO
 
when i was in basic training they told us to walk around on our heels to help with the splints. wed walk around for like 5 minutes to get the front of our shins warmed up.
 
heheh...

yeah good_guy, that sounds interesting, probably works just fine I'd imagine... now if I can only man-up enough to gimp walk around the gym like a dipshit before cardio :D
 
Stop running is probably the best advice I've been given thus far, as I've tried icing (up to 4x / day, before and after sprinting), 800mg ibuprofen 30 mins before sprinting, i'm doing toes raises as i type, and then writing the alphabet. Hopefully this will cure me enough to be able to play in the flag football tournament this weekend... I'm going to play, no ifs ands or buts about it, i just want to find out something that will eliminate the pain enough that my performance won't be hindered... Then when season is over, I'll rest... Think icy/hot or any of that **** would do any good?
 
Wouldn't hurt. Have you tried different shoes? The type of shoe used when you run can make a huge difference. Might want to do a search on shoes and shoe types as well as running preference (ie the way your feet strike the ground when you run).
 
natedogg said:
Wouldn't hurt. Have you tried different shoes? The type of shoe used when you run can make a huge difference. Might want to do a search on shoes and shoe types as well as running preference (ie the way your feet strike the ground when you run).
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Well I'm wearing cleats for football, and as you can imagine, they don't have a huge difference among them, like running shoes... But I did get a Dr. Scholl's insert for them just yesterday, and I plan on seeing if that helps any tonight... But I'll consider looking at the different running shoes, as I run a lot of sprints and stuff w/out cleats... Thx
 
Magickk said:
Well I'm wearing cleats for football, and as you can imagine, they don't have a huge difference among them, like running shoes... But I did get a Dr. Scholl's insert for them just yesterday, and I plan on seeing if that helps any tonight... But I'll consider looking at the different running shoes, as I run a lot of sprints and stuff w/out cleats... Thx
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A lot of it depends on how your foot hits the ground, how your foot laces out, how flat your arch is (or how high it is)

And they most certainly make a huge variety of football cleats for different runners... you just have to know where to look and what to look for...

Over-pronators need Shoes with support (more support for more pronation)

Over-supinators (like myself) need shoes with extra cushioning and dont need support...

Neutral people can pretty much run barefooted without any problems :)

The shoes can have different support structures in different places. I've been running with these awesome Nike running shoes for a month now, getting ready for the Navy... and I've been having a helluva time with shin splints and my arch hurting after long runs. (in fact the pain would cause me to stop running long before my endurance ran out, was very annoying)...

Well I found the shoes that Ive been using are for Over-pronators (people that have flat feet or land primarily on the inner part of their shoe/feet when running). They have a lot of support on the outer and inner part of the shoe and have a very stiff arch area on the sole.

I need cushioning, because I run on the outer portion of my feet, which is over-supinating, it causes wear on the outer rear of the shoe heel (checked my old running shoes and other shoes and saw the wear on them was very evident). I changed my shoes over to a cheap Dr Scholl's from Walmart that has extra cushion but less support and there has been much less pain. I could probably do even better by forking out some cash for a set of nice Adidas, New Balance, or Asics specifically designed for my feet, but I dont have $150 cash to toss around right now on a pair of shoes ;)

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Scroll down to check out part 1 and 2 first (links at the bottom), then read part 3. Edumucate yohself :head:
 
Heat pad before running, ice afterwards, Sportscream once a day and you should be good to go. But if they are extremly painfull you need to rest for a few runs before you can start again.
 
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