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Solving the Riddle of the Shin Splint

When we were all just babes in the coaching world, we probably uttered the same two words we often heard our prominent elders using to describe lower leg pain in runners: shin splints. Even if we didn’t know exactly how to explain a shin splint, we knew what it caused—the kind of pain in the front of the lower leg that, when you pressed on the specific hot point, sent runners to the roof tops. For most of us, whatever we chose to call that kind of pain, we still weren’t coming any closer to resolving it.

The riddle: When is a shin splint not a shin splint? The answer: When it’s a stress fracture. And a good response to this riddle might be: If the end result is basically the same—a…

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 What Are Shin Splints, and How Do You Prevent Them?

If someone asked you to pound your entire body weight onto your hands, repeatedly, for an hour a day, six days a week, you’d probably tell me to get lost. Yet, if you’re reading this, you probably do the exact same thing to your feet everyday when you work out, jog, or shoot hoops...

Articles of Interest

A Guide to Soothing Painful Shin Splints

This injury is one of the most frustrating to overcome. Shin splints can linger for a very long time, and prevent you from working out the way you want too. The good news is that they’re very treatable.

How to Prevent Shin Splints

Shin splints, a term used to describe pain in the lower leg, are a common overuse injury, especially among athletes and runners. The pain is classified as either medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS) or anterior shin splints.

Relief for Shinsplints

Some emerging science suggests that cellular changes within the shinbone itself, in reaction to the stress and pounding of many sports, also are involved, although to what extent isn’t clear.

Running into problems: shin splints

Shin splints is actually a bit of a misnomer and should really be referred to as "exercise-induced leg pain", as I will explain. The most common type of exercise-induced leg pain is medial tibial (shin bone) stress syndrome (MTSS) which doesn't exactly role off the tongue, but is a more accurate term. The other two main types are a stress fracture or compartment syndrome.

Shin Splints No More

The correct term for what you're experiencing is medial tibial stress syndrome. The cause of medial tibial stress syndrome is often debated, but most agree that it's caused by overuse.

Terrible, Dreadful, Painful Shin Splints…..

The correct, medical term for this injury is Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome. More research is needed to correctly determine the pathology of shin splints. It is thought to be due to excess stress being put on one or more of the muscles that attach directly onto the surface of the tibia (or shin bone), and/or the fascia (connective tissue).

What causes shin splints?

The root causes of the pain of shin splints can be divided into two areas: muscle and bone. The muscles that connect to the ankle are covered by a "sausage skin" known as fascia. This fascia holds the muscles together, and it is quite tough and inelastic. When the muscles naturally expand as a result of exertion, the resulting pressure causes the pain. We see this form of shin splints, known as exertional compartment syndrome, in athletes who play field sports like soccer or run a lot on hard surfaces. The second major source of shin splint pain stems from the bones and ranges from stress reactions to full-blown fractures.

Resources

6 Stretches That Help Prevent and Treat Shin Splints Effectively

There are few things every runner agrees on. The best running shoe, the most accurate GPS watch, and whether KT tape really works are all up for debate in running communities. One thing all runners can all agree? Shin splints (pain along either or both of the shinbones) are the absolute worst—second only to a DNF next to our online race results.