This post has REALLY helped me. So I wanted to put the contents here so I can access it, and it is available to anyone who is reading these now or later. =) It was compiled by one of my BLC group members.
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I'm an athletic trainer and work with athletes all the time that have shin splints. I have several suggestions.
1. It is extremely important to stretch your calf muscles. You have 2 major muscles in your calf. If you don't stretch both of them prior to exercise you WILL get shin splints.
a. The first stretch is for the gastrocnemius muscle. Standing on a stair with your heels
hanging off the stair. Keep your legs straight and relax your feet. Let your heels drop off the step. Hold for 30 seconds and repeat.
b. The second stretch is for the soleus muscle. Repeat the steps as above, but this time rather than keeping your legs straight, unlock your knees. Again hold for 30 seconds and repeat.
NOTE: Not all your muscle fibers go in a straight line so I always recommend adding angles...repeat the above two stretches, but, rotate your toes towards each other and repeat rotating toes away from each other. These are a little awkward, but the work.
2. ALWAYS ice your shins for 20 minutes following activites/workout.
3. You can try icing your shins before exercise for 20 minutes, too.
4. Are you wearing old shoes? Shoes wear out on the inside faster than they do on the outside. If you don't have relatively new shoes, you may want to invest in a new pair.
5. Do you have appropriate arch support? Many of us lack the support we really need in our arches and it manifests itself by giving us shin pain.
I would start here and see if you notice a change. Don't expect quick results. It takes a LONG LONG time for this to completely go away. However, the more often you are able to stretch the quicker you may feel some results. Also, you may want to massage the front muscle...if I remember that one is the anterior tibialis. (You may want to google them to better understand.)
Good luck!
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