september's educational post (what a pain in the leg)

With the exercise that I've been doing to try to lose weight (though in actuality it's only keeping off the weight that wants to come back), I've ended up hurting myself.  Big surprise - I know.  After a few months of intermittent jogging, I've developed shin splints.  Lucky me!  I can still do my walk, but as soon as I start running, these things flare up and start yelling at me, so I have to stop. 

I ended up doing a little research on the pesky condition and thought I'd share some of my results.

"Shin splints is a general medical term denoting medial tibial stress syndrome, a slow healing and painful condition in the shins, often caused by the stresses of running, jumping, dancing, sprinting, etc."

Symptoms of shin splints:

• Pain over the inside lower half of the shin.
• Pain at the start of exercise which often eases as the session continues
• Pain often returns after activity and may be at its worse the next morning.
• Sometimes some swelling.
• Lumps and bumps may be felt when feeling the inside of the shin bone.
• Pain when the toes or foot are bent downwards.
• A redness over the inside of the shin (not always present).

"Shin splints can be caused by overly tight muscles in the lower leg, including the calf muscles and the shin muscles. Stretching on a daily basis and even receiving sports massage can help improve flexibility."


A possible contributing cause of shin muscle pain is the relative weakness of the muscles on the front of the lower leg (the shin), compared to the relative strength of the calf muscles, at the back of the leg (the calf). Shin-muscle strengthening exercises are usually prescribed to correct for this muscle-strength imbalance. The shin pain caused by medial tibial stress syndrome (shin splints) usually lasts some ten (10) days, the pain slowly diminishing as the muscle-strength imbalance is corrected. The shin pain is attributed to a forced extension of the muscle, by the opposing calf muscles."

"Treatment for shin splints is as simple as reducing pain and inflammation, identifying training and biomechanical problems which may have helped cause the injury initially, restoring muscles to their original condition and gradually returning to training."

What can the athlete do about shin splints?

• Rest to allow the injury to heal.
• Apply ice or cold therapy in the early stages, particularly when it is very painful. Cold therapy reduces pain and inflammation.
• Stretch the muscles of the lower leg. In particular the tibialis posterior which is associated with shin splints.
• Wear shock absorbing insoles in shoes. This helps reduce the shock on the lower leg.
• Maintain fitness with other non weight bearing exercises such as swimming, cycling or running in water.
• Apply heat and use a heat retainer or shin and calf support after the initial acute stage and particularly before training. This can provide support and compression to the lower leg helping to reduce the strain on the muscles. It will also retain the natural heat which causes blood vessels to dilate and increases the flow of blood to the tissues to aid healing.
• Visit a sports injury clinic for treatment and rehabilitation.

"In order to properly treat shin splints and prevent them recurring, the causative factors must be taken into consideration. No matter how much rest, anti-inflammatories and massage are used, without correcting the cause of the injury, the symptoms will continue to return.


Biomechanical problems such as overpronation and supination can be corrected using running shoes or insoles (or orthotics). Ensuring shoes/trainers are suitable your foot type and for the activity in question.

For runners, try to avoid always running on hard pavements as they provide no shock absorption. Try running some of the time on tarmac, grass or even sand to reduce the shock passed through the legs."

Okay, so I completely copied and pasted from Wikipedia and SportsInjuryClinic.net, but I''m not very creative when it comes to explaining medical conditions.


Looks like my crappy shoes from Wal-Mart that are old and falling apart aren't doing me any good.  Unfortunately I don't have the funds to go out and buy myself a good pair of shoes.  At least I walk/run on a gravel trail and not on the sidewalk.  I learned that trick a long time ago.  Guess I'll just have to nurse these babies for a little while, start stretching, get back into it and see what happens.