i have got major probs with shin splints at the mo and the aussie season hasnt even started yet…i used to do a fair bit of bball and i think the constant pounding of the court and now the constant sprinting is giving me hell…besides rubbing all the crap of the bones and loosening up the muscles can anyone give me some advice of what i can do to get over this shit…
i used to have shin splits, but i found a thing on a website that actully helped me with them…it was this ABC’s thing where just when u are sitting around like on the computer or watching TV u trace the letters of the alphabet in the air with your toe…i also found calf raises helpful especially if i went really slow on the eccentric portion…im not sure if these ideas are scientifically sound to getting rid of shin splits, but they worked for me
dils23, lower leg pain is tricky to straighten out through cyber space.
In all my years I’ve seen athletes who’ve gotten shin splints in the beginning of the season and some towards the end. Some athletes with good foot mechanics who had pain and athletes with poor mechanics that never had pain. Periodized programs that had problems and athletes that ran instinctivly and never had a problem.
What I’m trying to say is that, take a step back and make an objective view of what your training has been like for the past 3 months or so. Shoes, surfaces, time off, etc…
The common flaws that I see mostly are: too much volume too soon in GPP, no periodized time off at all, improper conditioning of the lower leg and gluteals in GPP and high volume of jumping exercises on wrong surfaces.
What to do now? Ice massage works great in the acute phase. Anti-inflammatorys as well. ART. Deep tissue massage. Check foot and hip mechanics. Strengthen gluteals (Problem may lie there since a lot of bball has been played).
What does GPP mean??
general preperation phase
I’ve struggled with shin splints for 4 seasons now. I’ve been sent for bone scans to ensure that I don’t have stress fractures, and the bone scans have come back negative…My problem is periostitis (shin splints).
I’ve been given several stretching and strengthening exercises to do, and I’ve also tried orthodics, but nothing seems to work…Just as long as I keep sprinting, the pain keeps getting worse.
I have found one thing though that keeps my shin pain to a minimal, and allows me to complete all my sprint practices throughout an entire season, and that is taping my shins. I don’t think that I could describe to you on how you tape your shins, but my athletic therapists call it the “candy cane wrap,” because the tape kind of wraps around your leg as it goes up.
Try and find an athletic therapist that can do this for you if nothing else works. It’s a pain in the butt to get taped every day, but it’s well worth it when you know that you wouldn’t be running without the tape.
Any decent athletic trainer will know how to tape your shins, and I get it done all the time (so often that now I just provide my own tape, which makes them happy) for the dual purpose of shin splints and for when I bang my trail leg on the hurdle (ouch).
resistance band exercises take the ABC’s up a notch and are great.
I have always dealt with shin splints on and off, and when I started feeling them early this season I did a lot of massage, got new shoes, and did some strengthening a few times and week and the problem has faded.
As far as the resistance band goes, basically all you have to do is tie one end of the band to the leg of a table or sit in a chair and step on one end, and put the other end around your foot. Just pull in all four directions and you’ll feel all those different little muscles working.
Pauly, sometimes periostits occurs when your feet and/or shoes don’t sufficiently absorb your body weight. The stress is thrown heavily onto on tibias/periostium. What surface do you run on? Sometimes a daily ice bath, as cold as you can take it for 30 min. is great prevention.
I asked this to a really good physiotherapist of 25+ years.
He said to stretch the Gastroc and the Soleus !!!
The reason was that if they are not flexible and do not allow smooth movement through the range of motion, then the TI will be affected.
He said that you can do the same with stretching the hams before you do quad work.
I’ve tried it and I actually have felt quite a bit of relief from the ailment.
I found that when I started trying to run after I went from 190 - 220 (over around 3 years, not fat either) I ran for around 30 secs and it was like knives in my shins. I basically didn’t run for more than 30 secs, lol. I started working on the stretches every time I could and have felt relief.
Give it a try if you wish.
What is the Gastroc and the Soleus?
Your calf muscles. The ones you use when you stand up on your toes.
Excuse me, balls of the feet.
to stretch the gastroc, make sure your knee is locked
to stretch the soleus make sure your knee is unlocked. You can experiment on the degree of the bend and find different parts to stretch.
Thanks for the info Thomas. I don’t do ice baths, but I do ice my shins, with bags of ice wrapped tightly around the tibia, for about 20 - 25 mins after every training session. This helps me a lot, but still I’ll need the tape the next day to prevent worsening during training.
As far as training surface goes, at the beginning of the varsity season, we start running on grass, and stay running on grass until weather changes force us to begin training inside (indoor track surface). The shin pain is always non-existent when we first begin training outdoors, and then after about the 2nd or 3rd week (still training outdoors on grass), the shin pain begins, and I’m forced to start taping. It doesn’t seem to get any worse once we begin training indoors, but I think that’s because I’m already taping by this point.
Also, I do the stretching of the calves with bent knee and straight knee. I do several other stretches as well. I used to do all kinds of strengthening exercises too, but nothing was working, so I quit…It started taking up a good chunk of day, and with no results. I’ve changed my shoes, tried orthodics…everything I’ve read about or heard about, I’ve tried. I’m just happy that I can at least get through all my training sessions as long as I tape up.
yea u did all of that… the taping of the shins is new to me. i haven’t ran track in over a year…still got shin splints 
not as severe as before but it still bothers me
Are shin splints associated with knee pain? I started getting pain in the knee a couple of weeks after the shin pain began.
They can be. Like any chronic problem, after a while you tend to subconciously compensate to lesson the pain, but this can cause other problems, particularly in your knees and back.
Actually, after going to the doctor today, he diagnosed me with Chondromalacia (besides the shin splints), which causes knee pain due to imbalance of the four muscles of the quad. It can be treated with physical therapy and proper muscle strengthening.