I believe I have recently developed these God forbidden shin splints. Pain is good but this pain is just flat out annoying. I have only been having pain in my shins for the past two weeks. I have been running 3-5 miles a day at a good pace. I have also been woring my legs at the gym twice a week. I researched some previous topics about this, so let me get this straight: I can get rid of shin splints by stretching frequently? I find it hard to stretch the front of my calves. Well I just wanted to know if I could get rid of them. Thanks.

I'm also recovering from a pretty bad case of shin splints. There is an earlier post in this forum that has a link to the Merk medical manual. I think this is the best reference on the web to explain the causes and cures for shin splints.

The primary recommendations I have seen are:

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• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Rest - Self-explanatory </font></li>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Stretching - The goal here is to stretch the calf muscle. The idea is that a tight calf muscle puts extra strain on the muscles in front of and around the tibia </font></li>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Strengthening - By building up those muscles on the front of the leg you can increase the muscles' ability to counteract the pressure put on them </font></li>
• <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Change Running Surfaces - Stay off concrete and move to something more forgiving such as dirt or a treadmill until things get better. After that, do as little running as possible on the hard surfaces. </font></li>

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hope this helps a little.

Second that last comment. It is not calf weakness that causes them, but some researchers believe it is caused by an inbalance of the relative strength of the calf and anterior tibialis (front muscle next to the shin) in the favor of the calf brought about by rapid growth in the calf due to intense training. Also recommend stretching the sides of your lower leg by rotating your ankle out and also rolling it out. Freeze water in a bunch of dixie cups and use these to massage the shins after runs. Ibuprophin will reduce the swelling and kill the pain before runs (don't be afraid to take in upward of 4 - Ibuprophin becomes Motrin when taken in large doses and changes from a pain killer to an anti-infamatory). REDUCE your training load. I would suggest taking a few days off and then running every-other day on a treadmil for a couple weeks. Then, you can get off the thing and out into the great outdoors, but still keep the day of rest between runs (you will not lack benefits because it is quite doubtless that the body has sufficient time to adapt, cardiovascularly or muscularly, when given only 24 hrs. of rest between any kind of workout). You don't need to decrease your run length. Make sure you are using good running form. Contact the ground squarely with the heal and push off straight from the toes. Do not rotate the hips. Do not pump your arms across your chest, but straight out, like you're drawing a pistol. You also might want to see about getting some orthopedic inserts for your running shoes at a local sports store. I ran 4 years of track in high school with killer shin splints.

Re: Ibuprofen/motrin.

OTC doses are usually 200 mg/pill. More than 4 of these (800 mg) at a frequency greater than 3x/day may have some nasty side effects.

Gastrointestinal bleeding (think puking large volumes--liters--of blood) and injury to your kidneys are both real possiblities. I have hospitalized young, healthy guys with kidney failure because of ibuprofen overuse.

Sure, it's "vitamin M", but use your head, and your own good judgement.

My own shin splints suck rocks.

out.

Chris

For shin splints you would only take one motrin-sized dose about a half hour before your run.

OSINSKIRD,

Thanks for the valuable info...as well as the others. I am going to start running on the side of the road in the grass...I am afraid of stepping on a snake but oh well I guess. As long as it is not venomous. I tend to swing my arms across my chest...so I will correct that too...Thanks again.

Bowen

I think it is good luck to step on a snake while sustaining a sub-7:00 pace for the long haul.

What helped for me was after a run or even before, I would walk only on the heels on my feet for about 1/4 mile. People gave me weird looks but it really did help alot. I did that after a run while I was cooling down. Just my nugget of info.

Take off your shoes and socks, throw down a hand full of marbles on the ground, and pick them up with your toes and bring it to your hands with your feet. Best way to prevent or get rid of shin splints IMO.

All that stuff is aimed ad increasing the strength of the tibialis muscle.

JB,

Just remember shin splints suck but they are not debilitating . You have to be careful you don't confuse shin splints with stress fractures though. The difference with stress fractures is they have point tenderness as opposed to shin splints that tend to ache in an area. I've found that if you hop on your left foot on every odd tuesday during months that begin with a consonant your shin splints will disappear. Hey, everyone else is giving advice on how to get rid of them

Hey, possibly some useful information here, if you can stand reading a long-ish post.

I spent some time looking for information on "shin splints:, also called medical tibial stress syndrome (MTSS).

One large review of the literature found that there was not much proof that you could do anything to prevent shin splints--"CONCLUSION: Our review yielded little objective evidence to support widespread use of any existing interventions to prevent shin splints. The most encouraging evidence for effective prevention of shin splints involves the use of shock-absorbing insoles. However, serious flaws in study design and implementation constrain the work in this field thus far."

Citation: The prevention of shin splints in sports: a systematic review of literature.
Thacker SB - Med Sci Sports Exerc - 01-Jan-2002; 34(1): 32-40

But there may be some good news:
One study found that hamstring flexibility decreased the rate of injury. Here's the citation:

Increasing hamstring flexibility decreases lower extremity overuse injuries in military basic trainees.
Hartig DE - Am J Sports Med - 1999 Mar-Apr; 27(2): 173-6

They studied the influence of flexibility on lower extremity overuse injuries including stress fractures, patellofemoral knee pain, muscle strains, tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, shin splints, and anterior compartment syndrome-- all of which have been extensively proven to suck.

The number of lower extremity overuse injuries was significantly lower in an intervention group compared with the control group. Where multiple stretching sessions focusing on hamstrings were done daily over an army basic training course.

There were 43 injuries in the control group (29% of subjects), compared with 25 injuries in the intervention group (17% of subjects)--approx. 150 people in each group (some people had more than one injury).

The authors conclude that to increase flexibility and thus reduce the risk of injury, stretching needs to be done multiple times during the day, to maintain the stretch, and not just once a day.

Maybe that will help a bit. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

People react to different treatments. Here is what helped me out when I started running agian, about a month and a half ago. By the way I'm now up to 5 miles a day, 6 days a week.

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes......A good pair of shoes made all the difference in the world. I found a great sports outlet store here in Seattle and got Two pair for a good price, and alternated wearing them. One pair Mon., Wed., Fri., the other pair ...You get the idea.

In the begining though, before I started my runs I'd streach like crazy, started slow on my runs, and then streach again like crazy when I got back. I also wrapped my lower legs with an ace wrap, to give more support to my lower legs. Then when I got done with my run I'd ice my lower legs down.
Just take a styrofoam cup, freeze it, of course with water in it, then rub it on my lower leg. A good cup
can last at least three days.

As I said before everyone is different. This is what worked for me.

If your not on the Edge.......
Your taking up too much Ground!!!!!

To all who may be in the Seattle area, get on up to the outlet mall in North Bend. They have a Nike store up there where I got a $210 pair of running shoes for $60. If you have the money, it is worth it to spend a bit extra for quality shoes with GOOD ARCH SUPPORT.

Chris Ewing -

Do you have a link to the full text of the article by Hartig? I did a search and could only find abstracts.

Have you read an explination of why hamstring flexibility affects shin splints? Sounds interesting.

Thanks