Shin splints not getting any better

[slag]

I've been putting a mile or so on the treadmill almost every day for the past couple months and its killing my shins. They tighten up and hurt extremely bad which forces me to stop (Even walking hurts them), and then they loosen up after a few minutes and I'm good to go again. I got a new pair of brooks running shoes a couple weeks back thinking it was my shoes and the pain remains. I can run like 1/4 mile before I have to stop and pull up lame because it hurts so bad. I would think that the repeated motion would eventually build up the muscle but its not happening.

Any suggestions? I warm up before and warm down after running and also stretch a bit both before and after.

The track yesterday was just brutal on my shins.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Are you getting shin splints on the inside of your leg or the outside of your leg? Shin splints are a muscle strain. You can't keep running on them. You have to unload them by loosening up the tissue and reducing activity. Massage the area lightly, ice it. Shin splints can be caused by something like too little ankle dorsiflexion all the way to foot deformities. Even weak hip abductors and external rotators can be the source. New running shoes may not be enough, especially if you need orthotics. Go check out a physical therapist. They can evaluate you for each contributing factor and fix some of them.

In the meantime, stretch, stretch, stretch. Ankle dorsiflexion is very important for reducing pain within the foot and ankle. Stretch your calf with your knee straight and with your knee bent, while maintaining the arch of your foot (don't collapse). See how that helps, in addition to the massage and ice.

 

[slag]

Outside of my shin, in the muscle, not the bone. I stretch until the cows come home which is perplexing to me because it doesn't feel like it helps. It doesn't really work out for me to ice my legs when I'm out at the track either unfortunately. I was evaluated by a glorified salesman who measured my arch, my walk, said I rolled my ankle when walking, and then submitted a group of 4 different shoes to me of which the Brooks felt the best. Maybe a true physical therapist is up next if my shins don't start feeling better.

 

[HNNstyle]

Do you workout your Calfs? Try putting more muscle in them to see if that helps.

What type of arch do you have? I have flat feet and Asics has always been the best for me.

 

[QueBert]

Outside of my shin, in the muscle, not the bone. I stretch until the cows come home which is perplexing to me because it doesn't feel like it helps. It doesn't really work out for me to ice my legs when I'm out at the track either unfortunately. I was evaluated by a glorified salesman who measured my arch, my walk, said I rolled my ankle when walking, and then submitted a group of 4 different shoes to me of which the Brooks felt the best. Maybe a true physical therapist is up next if my shins don't start feeling better.

What sort of stretches are you doing? I started jogging last year and I was always stretching before hand. I injured myself (different injury than yours) and I learned that doing static stretchebefore exercising's actually can be harmful. I was recommended by a bunch of people to do dynamic stretching only. I did have some shin pain issues early on last year, like SociallyChallenged said the only thing that helped me was I had to completely stop for about 10 days.

 

[shortylickens]

How old are you?
Are you getting a good stretch after the workout as well? And a proper warm up and cool down?
Are you getting plenty of potassium and protein?

Consider taking a break from impact. Let the muscles and tendons rebuild (obviously keep stretching). Maybe try bike or elliptical or some other cardio that isnt stomping your feet. With a proper break you can get back into it. I havent done real jogging in a while and just got back into it. Also hurting a great deal. I take rest days from the impact and I do seem to be getting better over time. I need to up my protein after the workout I think. That coupled with off days will probably turn me around.

 

[momeNt]

I had to learn how to run lighter on my feet before a treadmill stopped giving me all sorts of pain. Barefoot running helped as you are protecting your feet from the impact. Treadmills are cushioned, combined with cushioned shoes and you are sending a lot of forces up your body that your shins maybe can't handle.

 

[HNNstyle]

Another thing you can do is land on your heels, not your toes, and not flat. Only land on your toes if you are in good shape.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Another thing you can do is land on your heels, not your toes, and not flat. Only land on your toes if you are in good shape.

Actually, with landing on your heels, you increase the demand on the anterior tibialis, which is where he's complaining of symptoms. That's due to the heel becoming the center of rotation when your foot hits the ground. That causes huge demand on the anterior compartment of the leg. For him, landing midfoot or forefoot might be a better solution, but I can't say because I haven't looked at his foot type, ankle mobility, hip strength, etc.

 

[neocpp]

I've been fortunate enough to not get shin splints very often (I only had them once when I started running). When I changed out my shoes I was good to go. However, I suggest working on your form. I actually think that it was a combination of shoes and poor form which caused me to have shin splints early on -- in my old shoes I would pound my feet a lot and heelstrike. I was noticeably quieter in my second pair, and I actively worked on trying not to heelstrike even when I got tired. A few days or even a couple weeks on the stationary bike instead of running can help a lot too and won't hurt your running performance in the long term.

 

[tedrodai]

Yeah, it can be from a lot of causes.

You might also try to tone down the amount of running you're doing until you build up more strength. Even if the rest of your body can handle a better pace, your leg muscles that are giving you shin splints *might* be waaaay overtaxed and need to ease into the running.

You can do that by taking a slower pace, by giving more rest time between runs (every other day etc), by adding some rests during the middle of your runs, and/or by lowering your distance. And you can do other exercises that will strengthen your leg muscles, keeping in mind that your muscles need recovery rest after these also.

 

[neocpp]

Outside of my shin, in the muscle, not the bone. I stretch until the cows come home which is perplexing to me because it doesn't feel like it helps. It doesn't really work out for me to ice my legs when I'm out at the track either unfortunately. I was evaluated by a glorified salesman who measured my arch, my walk, said I rolled my ankle when walking, and then submitted a group of 4 different shoes to me of which the Brooks felt the best. Maybe a true physical therapist is up next if my shins don't start feeling better.

Okay, so I was thinking about this some more, and I might be confusing two distinct feelings (I'm not a PT or anything, so I lack the training to distinguish the two). When you say shin splints, I usually think of nagging, fairly low intensity pain that lasts "forever," usually on the inside of your shin. For me it was probably caused by poor form and bad shoes. However, you said that the outside of your leg tightens up and that you're usually good to go after a few minutes if you stop. That sounds like something I used to get a lot in high school (the outside muscles of my lower legs would be constantly engaged like in static contraction after a few minutes of running, so it was rock hard and I couldn't move certain parts of my feet -- hurt a lot, but usually I would fight through it and after 10-15 minutes I would be fine again), but by college I figured out how to avoid them almost entirely. I know shin splints are a generic term, but I think the mechanism behind this type of pain is different (SC will be able to comment on this more than I can).

So here's what I noticed:
1) I would usually get them after NOT running for a few days (most of the time I would get them on Monday, since Saturday and Sunday were off days if we didn't have an invitational).
2) I would usually get them if we were doing something fast, like intervals or a tempo (we had workouts on Tuesday, but occasionally we would do something fast on Monday as well). Sometimes it would even happen if I took the warmup too fast.
3) I would usually get them if I didn't eat enough before going to practice.

I just took care of these in the most obvious way possible:
1) Took only 1 day a week off. Saturday would be easy and short if I didn't have an invite, but I would still run a bit (~2 miles? not very much).
2) Took a longer, slower warmup before intervals. I would probably warm up for 10 minutes longer than everyone else. I would get to practice early to do this so I could still work out with the team for most of it.
3) Brought a lot more food to school. I ate bananas since they were convenient and I heard potassium is good for stopping muscle spasms, but I think really anything would have done it.

After doing this, I would get that static contraction feeling maybe once every few months as opposed to the 2x a week I was getting in high school -- and that was usually right after I would break one of the rules above (i.e. taking 3-4 days off, or running the warmup far too quickly, or not eating before practice). Again I'm not sure if this is really the same thing you're talking about, but maybe there's something there that can help you.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Well, both the pain on the inside of the leg and the outside of the leg are likely muscular strains from overuse (with some biomechanical contributions). The goal would be to reduce tension initially by reducing activity and foam rolling/massaging the muscle (anterior tibilialis, maybe some peroneals). In addition, doing some low intensity, concentric/eccentric activity would be optimal to promote blood flow and healing. In addition, doing some resisted eccentric into plantarflexion (start in dorsiflexion with a weight on the foot, let it drop down, help it back up with your other foot) would help modifying the line of stress and stimulate collagen production. With that, the injury would start to subside typically and then he could resume running. However, if he has poor biomechanics while running (either due to structural or functional issues), he may continue to get them until he address that.