Melkor-- How can I avoid shin pain with the treadmill?

I've been trying to use a Nordic Track Treadmill to walk 5 miles at 4.5 miles per hour per day... sometimes faster...

The back of the calf muscles was the biggest difficulty to speed at first, but the pain in the shins, esp. the outer side of the left leg, has become a problem afterwards...

I just bought quality walking shoes... had my feet/stride evaluated as well. My feet at 45 are a problem...

I strike through the heel, then around the outer edge of the foot up to and across the area below the toes, to end with a Heavy! double-strike with the point below the big toe and that toe itself...

I have high arches, which I never knew... and my 5 year old SAS walking shoes told the tale plainly with the worn heel, outer edge and toe areas on the bottom... with almost no wear through the center and inner edge!

I've had a real problem with the region below the big toes... before I began with CC-- at 206.5 and only 5'1"-- I was unable to walk for around 2 weeks once, when that region suddenly became very painful... After losing 40 lbs. I hoped that problem was gone... but extra exercise and walking have created a need for good shoes and carefulness...

My new--to me, garage sale deal!-- Nordic Treadmill is cushioned and wonderful to my feet... but the shins are now a serious problem...

I've tried lifting through the upper legs as I walk-- thinking that would reduce pulling with the shins as I walk? Seemed to help... but not working seemingly today!

Do you know a link to a correct walking technique for treadmills? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks in advance.

Well I'm not Melkor but I do have shin splints and my only suggestion is stop doing the treadmill - or if you must don't do an incline.  I had to stop walking in my neighborhood due to shinsplints.  I switched to elliptical and recument bike.

A good stretch exercise i found that helped alot was inverted ( pigeon toed) calf raises.

Do you stretch properly? I found that if I did the treadmill w/ out about 5-10 minutes of leg stretches I would get crypling shin splints. And I could go a lot longer if I didn't rush my stretching. Just a thought.

 RICE - rest, ice, compression, elevation is what I've been told works by the runners who hang out here. In particular, it could help to get a support bandage or compression wrap and use that regularily while walking, though during the acute phase rest and ice and staying off the movement pattern that hurts makes the healing faster.

 There's also toe raises to strengthen the shins - and "writing the alphabet" with your toes to improve ankle mobility and strengthen all the little support muscles and tendons in there.

 In addition there's the ice trick - freeze some water in a paper cup, and peel of just a litte of the paper, then use that to ice your shin. The paper cup means you don't have to hold the lump of ice directly, so you don't freeze your fingers off while icing the affected area for the neccesary 15-20 minutes.

 But the first thing is to give your treadmill a short break while the acute damage heals - it will help speed the healing process along to not train trough pain.

 Now, keep in mind that I (mostly) only run when I'm late for the bus, my preferred cardio is walking up mountains and my experience with shin splints and other overuse injuries is very limited -  Dbacker knows more than I do, so take her suggestion and rest!

Thanks!

I've done a lot of walking without trouble before-- and only months ago outside on hilly roads... but I wonder if I'm trying to go too fast...?

Last year I had a SEVERE case of shin pain, after being required to hurry through an immense airport and a smaller one in one day... I seem to 'pull' through my shins when I try to go faster... but I want a decent speed for time's sake, and calorie burn!

That stretching sounds good...do either of you know where I could find proper stretches demonstrated online...?

I want to achieve around 10 miles a day average if I can...lol! I've done much more before, but younger...!!!

Funny note-- I'm having pain, esp. with every left-footed step today, but tried my rebounder to see if I could do ANY cardio today as I don't on Sundays... and I was hitting strongly through my heels-- painlessly!!! Crazy...!

Hi, Melkor!!!

Guess you don't want me to use my rebounder, heh?  

The pain is uncomfortable, not swollen/severe-- I just don't want worse!!! I feel I'm incorrectly pushing it-- but I didn't know where to find proper instruction... any thoughts...?

Any helpful links?

Edited for goof...!

See this link from other runners with the same issue:

http://community.active.com/message/19180#191 80

I found it helpful with this issue, since I'm a beginning runner trying to pick up any helpful running tips I can (doing my first 8K in a few weeks with my marathon girlfriends).

Thank you!

Hi,

As a veteran of lots of shin splints. 

1. Rest first for a few days. 

2. Ice ice ice when you finish your walking - you take a dixie cup, fill it with water about 3/4 full and freeze it then unwrap the dixie cup and voila you have ice. I forget how long to ice but I usually do it for about 15 minutes

3. Increase your mileage slowly - about 10% per week MAX. 

4. Walking up inclines is easier on your shins than walking down so you may want to increase the incline and reduce your speed. 

A word to the wise - I thought I had only very painful shin splints about  1 1/2 years ago and then they got worse, initially a bozo ortho guys said it was tendonitis and finally I fired him and got a new one who said that a stress fracture went to a full fracture of my tibia. I was out of running for 10 months.  Additionally I have found that certain elliptical machines exacerbate my shins so I stay away from them. Stairmaster seems to work fine for me. 

If you shin feels really really really hot then you may have a fracture. I did not know this and we were at a football game and there was steam coming off my leg!  Little did I know it was actually broken at that point - 4 weeks from diagnosis...

Good luck. You may want to also try Runner's world web site for other articles about shin splints. 

 

I get them if I do not stretch my calves properly.  I have to do about 10 minutes of calf stretches before and after every jog.  Ironically, I never got them when I played sports though.