I walk my dog about a mile on most evenings and lately my shins have been killing me. From what I understand I don’t believe it’s shin splints, because the pain is in the muscle on the outside, running parallel to my shins, I can’t remember what this muscle is called. Anyways, it gets very tight and painful, similar to a muscle cramp. I try to stretch it out but this only helps slightly. It’s very annoying as it happens almost every time. My only guess is possibly a muscle imbalance, as my calves are fairly weak. Any advice or info is appreciated.
Ice it, make sure you have a decent sodium to pottassium raito, and do toe ups. Just sit in a chair and raise your foot upwards.
It’s still shin splints! It can either occur on the inside or the outside! Treat is just as shin splints! If you don’t know, let me know!
playgrounder
A little more information would be useful. It may not be shin splints if the pain is far enough “outside”. What I mean by that is that the pain may be located in your peroneal muscles (peroneus tertius, brevis and longus are located on the lateral aspect of the lower leg between anterior tibialis and gastrocnemius). Please provide a little more information regarding location of pain and type of pain felt. The “toes up” advice is pretty good considering most people have a muscle imbalance between calf and anterior tib (this is what usually contributes to shin splints). So, if you think your calves are weak, your anterior tib is probably even weaker. One other tip for true shin splints is to walk on softer surfaces. Hope that helps.
are you taking creatine? i had that problem and a friend of mine also and i noticed when i stopped taking it, it went away. i know a professor who researched this so that is the only reason that i thought about it. do a search for anterior compartment syndrome of the lower leg with creatine use, study done by DR.potteiger
The muscle is the anterior tibialis. when walking/running/jumping it co-contracts with the gastroc and soleus (calves). Weakness in this muscle is responsible for most, if not all, shin splints, bone/muscle pain.
Try walking your dog barefooted (shoes take away much of the calf movement, activation, etc.) and do heel walks and calf jumps.
If this doesn’t alleviate the pain then go see an md cuz you got a tumor or somepin.
just kiddin, bro.
Shin splints is a loosely used term and can represent a number of conditions. Shin splints in the medial region of the lower limb are usually caused by one of three conditions, or in some cases a combination of them.
1.Stress Fractures of the tibia
2.Chronic periostalgia (Soleus Syndrome)
3.Posterior Compartment Syndrome
If stress fracture you should of cause seek medial advice. A scan will be necessary to reveal the fracture.
One of the ore likely causes though is chronic periostalgia (Soleus Syndrome) where there is loosening and sometimes separation of the periosteum from the tibial fibers.
The other more likely cause is posterior compartment syndrome are usually associated with elevated pressure within the soleus muscle.
In both cases the exercises above may be used to either relieve or correct the condition.
I’m not sure how the pic will turn out so let me know if you want me to send it to you dirrectly in .pdf format.
For the Self-Myofascial Release (see article previously posted on T-Nation).