Shin Splints

Factual Questions
1

I recently started running for excercise and am encountering the bane of all runners existence…shin splints. I’ve ehard that eating bananas helps. Any other ideas?

2

There are a number of informative sites about shin splints. Sports Injury Clinic offers this:

I also searched for “shin splints” “home remedies”, but got pretty much the same stuff. Yes, I have no banana advice today.

3

IIRC, shin splints are due to weakness in the tibialis posterior. Search on that and you may be able to find some preventive exercises.

4

Well there are posterior shin splints and medial shin splints. The former is the tibialis the latter is believed to be the soleus. There are a couple of things I didn’t see mentioned:

  1. orthotics: overpronation will lead to shin splints

  2. stretching the calves and hamstrings. Often strong calves will “snap” the tibialis causing the microtears that we know as shin splints.

  3. You can strengthen your tibialis and soleus by doing some exercises: Point your toe to the floor and trace the entire alphabet in the air with your big toe. (Yes that is actually an exercise) . Also walk on your heels for a while.

5

I also suffered from shin splints. I tried rest, I tried working them out, I tried stretching them (the way the doctor showed me), but nothing worked. I’d work out lightly for a few weeks, they’d go away, then I’d do one heavy workout on the raquetball courts and they’d be back.

Then one day I got some advice which has cured me. Before your workout, trace circles with your toes, like KidCharlemagne’s #3. Back and forth for a little while with both feet. Then squat down with your butt as low as you can get it until you’re almost falling backward. You’ll have to put your arms out in front of you and lean forward to counterbalance, which works your shins. 10-20 seconds for each little evolution did the trick for me… this extra minute or two was a small price to pay for a huge payoff.

I don’t know why this works, but it does. At least, it did for me. I haven’t had them since, and it’s been many years.

6

This is pretty common for people that start running. Most folks run on pavement with shoes that they have already. Get some good shoes, run on trails or grass, and don’t run too far to start with. To let the shin splints heal, take a few weeks off, take 400 mg Ibuprofen before bedtime to reduce swelling and allow healing. After a few weeks, start back running a little with the new shoes. Don’t up your mileage too much, maybe start 4 minutes, then 5 minutes, etc. Don’t run every day, only 2 or three times a week, from now on. It will get better, just need to give it some time. Good luck.

7

I’ve had really bad shin splints before. Aigh! Just when I was getting up the gumption to exercise God smacks me down.
Yeah, there are certain exercises that strengthen the involved muscles. Toe circles, toe taps where you keep your heel on the ground and bring your toes up as far as you can, stretch your calves and front muscles really well. Ibuprofin and ice after running. Someone will tell you that you can run through these-- you can’t. When it starts to hurt stop, and in a few days start up again more gently. Ice and ibuprofin. Try finding somewhere nicer to run, like a bark-mulch track (sometimes more feral trails are uneven enough to exacerbate things if caused by pronation or instability).

8

I noticed when I used to run track that some types of surfaces caused me to get shin splints as well. There was this one track, (I think it might have been rubber) every time I ran on it without fail I got shin splints. Don’t know how that will help, just an observation.

9

I want to add one more thing. Don’t take ibuprofen or any other anti-inflammatory before running. You’re dulling the very feedback mechanism that helps you avoid exacerbating the problem in the first place.