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Shin Splints: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment Options

Shin splint is a common condition that affects the front of your lower leg. This page will discuss what causes shin splints, how they can be treated and what risks come with this condition.

What are Shin Splints?

Shin splints are an inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue surrounding your tibia or shin bones. Symptoms include pain in a localized area on the inner border of your tibia where the muscle attaches to the bone. They can occur when you place too much stress on your anterior or medial tibialis. Doctors may refer to this condition as medial tibial stress syndrome.

Shin splints is an overuse injury in your leg. Some risk factors associated with the condition are overdoing physical activities or playing on hard surfaces that fail to absorb shock due to being too rigid. It is common among runners and excessive walkers.

Symptoms of Shin splints

Shin Splints can be a debilitating condition. Pain may begin gradually and worsen with continued activity, or it may come on suddenly after an increase in exercise intensity.

The pain of shin splints is concentrated between leg and ankle. It may feel like throbbing or sharp pain inside of your shins. You might experience muscle pain, achiness, soreness or swelling in the lower leg bone. The pain might stop while they are resting but can eventually progress to a stress reaction or injury. Other symptoms of shin splints include intense pain when touching the sore area; you may notice difficulty walking due to numbness, weakness and pain on either side of your shin bone.

Development of Shin Splints

Shin splints are usually caused by repetitive stress on the shinbone. Common foot deformities such as rigid high-arches and flat feet may put the risk for shin splints. Excessive force causes the muscles to swell and increases pressure on a bone, leading to pain and inflammation.

Athletes (Runners)

If your muscles are used to train with a specific intense, abrupt change may irritate your lower leg muscles or medial shin muscles and cause inflammation. Hence, active people and runners may put them at high risk of developing shin splints.

Overweight/Obesity

Your lower extremities are made to support your body for basic movements, and bearing excessive weight may weaken your arch and cause excessive pronation.

Improper workout

If you start your workout without proper warm-up or end it without cool-down stretches, your muscles may not properly absorb the shock of impact activities. The activity level fatigues muscles or weakens soft tissue.

Improper footwear

Engaging with high impact activities on hard surfaces wearing shoes without good support is at high risk of injuries.

Shin splints treatment

Shin splints can usually be addressed by limiting physical activities or taking a break from them for a day or two. The pain should go away entirely within hours or days. The following are the treatment for Shin splints:

Take a rest

Since shin splints are commonly caused by an overuse injury, resting for a few weeks is the first step in treating shin splints. During your recovery, you can substitute low impact activities to strengthen your muscles and keep mobility while recovering.

Cold Compress or Ice Packs

Place a cold pack on the shin for twenty minutes at a time but do not apply ice directly to the skin as it can damage them. This treatment is essential in alleviating swelling.

Stretching Exercises

Calf and anterior stretching can relax the tight muscles. Strengthening exercises help correct biomechanical problems to reduce pain.

Healthy weight

Excess weight can be difficult to bear by the lower extremities. Hence, maintaining a good weight can be beneficial for you and can prevent hurting your hip muscles.

Medication

If the swelling worsens, anti-inflammatory drugs or pain relief may be necessary to reduce inflammation and pain. Take note that you need to consult with a doctor for an accurate prescription.

Orthotics and Supportive shoes

Shin plints is the result of incorrect foot posture/ faulty bio-mechanics such as excessive pronation/supination of the foot. Corrective prescription functional orthotics is the gold standard for this condition.

Surgery

Severe cases may need surgery if the symptoms persist and becoming worst. This surgery is a fasciotomy, and it involves making minor cuts in the fascia tissue surrounding your calf muscles.

What are the Risk & limitations due to Shin Splints in day to day life?

Shin splints can affect your mobility and your time spent on physical activities. It can be debilitating and may cause pain when you walk, run or bend your foot. The risk of permanent damage to the tibia is higher in people with shin splints because they are more susceptible to stress fracture.

Why Stephen Zucal Choose South Perth Podiatrist for Shin Splints treatment?

The Podiatrist at South Perth Podiatry Clinic will provide you with the best way to manage Shin Splints for your lifestyle & sport.

People must get a proper diagnosis from their podiatrists because there are other conditions like a stress fracture or plantar fasciitis, which may present as shin splints but require different management plans and treatments.

The foot care specialists at South Perth Podiatry Clinic have years of experience treating various types of injuries affecting feet, including plantar fascia pain, chronic heel pain (heel spur), acute heel pain, metatarsalgia, arch support problems, neuromas, shin splints, etc.

For your appointment
or more information please call

Monday - Friday
9AM - 5PM