I've been running a lot more these past few months and I started getting some really bad shin splints in the beginning, so I did a lot of research, added different insoles into my shoes, got compression sleeves for my shins and started the exercises where I walk on my heals a lot.
They went away for the most part but this past week I started getting a whole ton of shin pain in my right leg. It's to the point where I had to take motrin last night and I've been wearing my shin sleeve nonstop. It's just my right leg and I've been doing the exercises again several times a day, but it doesn't seem to be getting any better. I haven't been running as much either, and I plan not to until the pain goes away.
Any advice on shin splints?
Also any other exercises I can do to stay active that won't make it worse?
So I just did a search of these forums for some already provided advice and found one suggesting toe lifts. I hadn't tried just doing toe lifts (i walk around on the back of my heals constantly though, haha). I just did 50 while standing with a wall behind me for support and the fronts of my legs were burning...so I'll keep that up!
Any other shin splint advice would be very welcome!
Another exercise that will strengthen those muscles is shin burns. Here's how to do them: sit on the floor, propping yourself up on your elbows, keep one leg bent and the other up, with your knees together. Flex your foot for one second, then point it for one second. Do this 10 times. Now do it fast 10 times. Circle it left slowly 10 times, then fast 10 times. Do the same to the right. Repeat if you can. Then do the other leg. :)
The great thing about shin burns is you can adjust it to your ability. It you can only do one set, only do one set. Add or subtract reps if you need to.
Also, icing is important! One thing my coach has told me to do is ice massage. Use an ice cube (or a dixie up that you have filled up with water and frozen; I find this works well as when the ice melts you can peel off the paper and use more) and rub it up and down your shin.
Hopefully this helps, shin splints are awful! Hope they get better! :)
You really need to rest it. Lower impact activities like cycling or swimming should be fine to keep your conditioning up. But the high impact running/jumping types of activities should be on hold for at least a few weeks. You don't want this to develop into a stress fracture.
For prevention in the future, stretch your calves thoroughly. Downward facing dog is great. Balancing exercises are good too.
Won't buying insoles that support your arches help prevent shin splints?
Running on concrete and in bad shoes never helps either.
It seems muscles imbalances and lack of flexibility in calves and shins adds to the problem. Wikipedia FTW.
I always sit on a high chair and put a light DB between my toes, then lifted my toes up toward my shin to work the muscles and tendons of the shin. I noticed the shin becomes exhausted way faster than the calf.
Is the pain on the inner side of your shin or the outside?
Try hopping up and down on your right foot 10 times. Does it hurt?
Thanks everyone! I wasn't getting any replies to this so I didn't check it again until now. I've been continuing some exercises (just started trying yours, JustFlipx3). I can even do that one at my desk (just picking my toe up and down slow, then fast, then circling around...I'm definitely feeling it!).
It isn't as painful today, so I'm glad about that. I hate doing other exercises other than jogging. I'm still walking quite a bit but i'm going to make a point of wearing good sneakers for that (i was wearing whatever shoes I had on, i think that aggravated them in the first place).
