How to Address Shin Splints

How to Address Shin Splints
Written by Fritz Nugent 

The other night, a member of our Run Club mentioned that his shins were bugging him (shin splints) and was wondering what he could do about it. Here’s Coach Fritz’s Reponse…

Why Do You Get Shin Splints?

We must narrow down to WHY they are bugging in order to help you address it. There are three main factors that affect pretty much ANY tissue/joint/muscle:

Intensity – In running, this is the speed at which you are working. It’s possible to average this out over a single session, a week, month, a year (any time domain). Once we have this information, we can then adjust your average intensity up or down depending on the goals. For shin splints (or any tissue/joint concern), they can occur when the intensity of one or more sessions is too high for the tissues to handle. This causes small ruptures in the tissue which then progress over time towards dysfunction and eventually pain.

Volume – In running, this is the distance at which you are working. You can also average this out over the course of any time domain. Similar to intensity, we can adjust volume up or down depending on the desired adaptations. For shin splints, too much volume can cause irritation of the tissues, also leading to dysfunction and pain. 

Mechanics – Sub-optimal mechanics of the tissues and joints in the feet, ankles, lower legs, all the way up to the hips, spine, and shoulders can cause shin splints. Sometimes it’s difficult to narrow down exactly what the mechanical dysfunction is and what technically you can change to address it.

How Can You Fix Shin Splints?

Now, for the solutions. They can be very simple:

Slow down. This drops your average intensity and gives your body time to rest and heal. I recommend two weeks running at NO FASTER than a heart rate of 125 BPM four times a week for no longer than 30 minutes

Drop the volume. If you follow my above prescription, your volume should be low enough to recover.

Strengthen and Lengthen. If we did an assessment on you, we would most likely find muscle weakness or an imbalance somewhere in the feet, lower legs, upper legs, and/or hips. We would likely also find tissues that are very short and need stretching. Specifically, I recommend strengthening your shins, calves, hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexors, while lengthening/stretching your shins, calves, hip flexors, and glutes.

Shin splints sometimes seem like they will never go away. But with a few simple tweaks to your training plan – like those mentioned above – you can mitigate the issue that is causing your pain.