I had this problem a few years ago while training for my first marathon. I had the luck of training with a group of very experienced distance runners. What I was told was immediately after the run, ice and elevation. Also before and immediately after a run, stretch the area. From the kneeling position, with the tops of your feet flat on the ground, and your shins flat on the ground, slowly sit back on your calf, and if you're flexible enough, lean back. Do this slowly and don't push if there is pain. This helped me get through my shin problems in a few weeks, with very little cutting back on mileage. Good luck, and don't forget to watch it for something more serious. If bad enough, it could turn into a stress fracture.

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- Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
P. J. O'Rourke

Hey Matt,

I have had a heck of a time with shin splints. I have been struggling with them for the past 5 years. The past year has been devoted to finally ridding myself of them so I could do IMFL last November. I think I have tried every treatment in the book, namely rest, ice, NSAIDS, orthotics, strengthening exercises, stretching, and massage therapy. The only thing that has worked for me is decreased volume and massage therapy. The massage therapy is extremely painful at first, but gets better after a few times. I first recieved massage therapy from a PT, and then I used those techniques with some success in order to get myself through IMFL. However, when I started my training again, they came back, and the same techniques I had been using weren't working. The past two weeks I have been using techniques that I got from "The Pain-Free Triathlete", and www.julstro.com. These are massage techniques I perform on myself, and they are a bit more aggressive than what I had been using to get through IMFL.

Here is a routine I am currently using, and my shins feel great, (something I have rarely been able to say in the past 5 years). By the way, I have posterioir shin splints, which are on the inside of the leg, not the front of the leg (http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/shin.html), however, this should also work for anterior shin splints.

My shin splints had become very painful for me upon resuming training in January. I was able to keep them under control, in otherwords, they weren't progressing as rapidly as they had in the past. However, I was in quite a bit of pain after my runs. So, I took one week off completely from running, and performed the massage techniques from www.julstro.com. Then, I ran only three times last week for only a half hour and I took a minimum of one day off in between runs. Normally, this would result in a lot of pain at the end of my runs, however, my legs only hurt to the touch, and I was able to massage this pain out after a few minutes. This week I will add one more day of .5 hours running. From there I will slowly increase my running volume, by 10 - 15 minute increments on some of the days. If I am not able to massage the pain out after 1 day of rest, I will take another day of rest.

I used a similar increase in volume when I was training for IMFL. I noticed that being conservative in the beginning allowed me to recover very quickly, and get past the problems. When I resumed training this Jan., I started out too fast, and I quickly got the shin splints back.

The thing to know is, shin splints can almost completely heal in 2 weeks time. And, you should take enough rest in between runs for the pain to go away. Usually 1-2 days is what you should look for in order to make progress in your running. For me, I get the pain to go away during this rest with an appropriate volume, massage therapy, and making sure I stretch after my runs. Things are currently progressing similar to last fall when I was able to get to IMFL, so I expect to be past this completely in a month or so, and running whenever I want for however long I want.

This is just my experience, maybe you need to do the strengthening exercises, or the stretches or orthotics. Good luck, and let me know if you want more info.

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"What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind and body can achieve; and those who stay will be champions."

Shin splints can have several causes but the result is the inflamation of the tendon in the front of the lower leg. Vertainaly quickly increasing your miliage can cause it. My cause was a different. I am a 190lb 6'1" guy with WEAK ankles. I had severe shin splints while training for a marathon 10 years ago. I was hobbled! I broke down and went to a sports ortho. He took one look at me standing in bare feet. He saw low arched and ankles that sloped in. He looked at my running shoes, the soles show the teltale sign, heal strike on the outside, pushoff on the toe inside, the clasic wear for an "over pronator" His solution was simple, use motion control shoes! I started running in New Balance 990's and 6 years ago switched to Acisc MC's. Sacuony grids or beasts work well too!. I call them fat boy shoes because they are designed for large, high milage, over pronating runners. They are several ounces heaveier than normal shoes but I can eun all I want. Since switching to motion control shoes I have ran many marathons and mucho miles. I have had all sorts of pains and aches EXCEPT shin splints. Give them a try

Hope this helps

Steve

A few years ago I was developing shin splints and it occured to me to use the occasional lawn/garden sprinkler I would see on my runs to cool my legs off - especially the shin area (just happened to run when sprinklers were on). It worked - they went away, and didn't come back. Now on long runs I always take advantage of any sprinklers I see. Strange but true!

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"My strategy is to start out slow and then peter-out altogether" Walt Stack

Until this past year, shin splints were a constant companion on the first couple of miles of every single race. Some hamstring problems prompted me to start stretching the UPPER back of the leg, and I used a yoga stretch in particular. The shin splints have almost completely stopped recurring. Pretty weird, I know, but I'm taking it anyway.

Good luck.

jmc22 mentioned the treatments from "The Pain-Free Triathlete" ebook. I have experienced dramatic results using their self-treatment techniques as well. They have a discussion forum at their website at www.julstro.com/18.html that you can find several threads on shin splints and how to treat them. Pretty informative.

Matt,

I've treated these in my office for over 20 yrs and suffered from a mild case myself. Sometimes they clear up quickly but with other patients they can be quite stubborn. Remember when the aerobics craze was on in the early/mid 80's. I once had seven women aerobic instructors coming in for these all at the same time, so it's not just runners.

Different things work differently for different people, but my usual approach has been with either one or a combo of ultrasound, electrotherapy, laser acupuncture and deep massage. I've sometimes taped them as I used to do a lot of athletic taping back in my soccer days as a player/team Dr. Also recommend ice and stretching. In more chronic cases I've also perscribed custom orthotics and cutting back on the running mileage for awhile. Convincing runners to cut back is often the hardest part of the treatment! There are different ways to treat these, it might take some trial and error to find what works best for you.