A lot of people encounter shin splints, during their exercise bringing usually involving tons of cardio. (sorry) It always seems like im bashing on cardio well rightfully so but anyway. Point being Shin Splints are painful if you have ever had them you probably don't want them again. Although for those of you who have had jumpers knee I know we would rather have shin splints any day (but that is besides the point.)
Shin Splints: What are they? How do they form? How do you stop it?
What are they?
Technically they are the splitting apart of the muscle from your shin. The stress on the connective tissue from the high impact exercise, be it running jumping or anything of that nature. Traumatizes the muscle and connective tissue along the shins. This is usually when you start to feel irritation, possibly slight discomfort and a burning sensation with prolonged use. At this point you are in the beginning stages of shin splints.
How do they form?
Well I guess we technically covered part of that in the "What are they?" section. That fine I will explain in more detail. The shin is made up of 2 bones and many muscles. The names are not as important as the actions/ injury though so I will leave the names out. For each bone their is connective tissue, the function of the connective tissue is to keep the supporting muscles attached. The key being ATTACHED! What shin splints are is the opposite, your body is doing its best to fight against the high impact strain of what ever is causing the shin splints. But your force is too strong for the shin's connective tissue to keep the muscle in place. So it begins to tear, little by little but each little bit creates pain. Eventually to the point where you get such a great tear along that connective tissue that it is so inflamed and irritated you cannot touch it or walk properly.
How do you stop it?
Well this may come off as sarcastic, well mainly because it is... But what do you do when your burning yourself because you have your hand on the stove and it hurts? You stop, right? I mean unless that is something that you enjoy in which case I suggest you don't my analogy as literal instructions and follow them! (Seriously though..) All jokes aside, if something hurts you usually stop what ever is making it hurt. So with injuries the rules still apply, they are just more intense because you get immediate feed back. This rule applies for all injuries! IF IT HURTS DON'T USE IT! Ice and rest shin splints and then wait until the tears have heal'd then begin exercise again.
I will take this 1 step further and go into what may have caused it in the first place besides the exercise. Your shoes, are normally the first thing a doctor will ask you about when you go for shin splints. They say that if your shoes are either too worn out or TOO soft then you will develop shin splints. The problem is with the shoes being to worn out, your body is taking too much impact on each step you take especially when running all the trauma is multiplied by 10x. When your shoes are too soft you are ok with shin splints but your knees will not like it so much as their job with stabilization will be 10x harder and you would rather have shin splints then bad knees TRUST ME!
They recommend time to replace all shoes is 6 months obviously if you have 2 pairs of shoes and wear them every other time you exercise you will get more life out the shoes and if you don't wear them at all the 6 month rule obviously does not apply. But as far as support goes this is a general rule of thumb. Running shoes are good for walking but walking shoes are not good for running. Basketball shoes are different and sometimes ok for running depending on the specific type of shoe.
Thanks Everyone
Frank
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