Shin Splints: 7 Tips That Work Now
Brief summary
In brief:
-Shin splints is a collective name for all kinds of shin disorders.
-The main cause is overloading of the shins, due to sports activity and other incriminating activities.
-The best way to recover is to rest, keep your leg up, use ice and wear compression socks.
-There are exercises to make shin splints recover and prevent faster.
-The use of compression socks remains remarkably low, while it is the solution for this common condition.
preface
Do you suffer from shin splints? Then you are certainly not the only one. Sources say that more than 30% of athletes can suffer from shin splints.
That is why we write in this blog post about shin splints and everything that has to do with it.
We will discuss what exactly shin splints is, how it can arise, what you can do to speed up the recovery process, which exercises are available and how you prevent it.
What are shin splints?
Shin splints, or shin membrane inflammation, is a condition with many names. In the tennis world, these disorders are known as jumps, while nowadays Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS) or tibial posterior syndrome is also spoken of. Tibial membrane inflammation is not really a condition. It is a general term that refers to several injuries at the same time, all of which occur around the tibia.
In most cases it is an inflammation of the place where a muscle in the lower legs is attached to the bone of the tibia. You can see it quite simply: both the tibia and the fibula run in the leg. There is tissue between these two bones to connect them. There is also a leg membrane around these two bones, which is very sensitive. You can feel it when you hit the shin.
At the same time there are muscles in the lower leg that are attached to the tibia and fibula. When you often load the lower legs, such as athletes and especially runners, it can happen that the muscles in the lower legs cannot handle the load. In this case, the force that the muscles can no longer handle will also act on the tibia. This can cause cracks in the tibia, leading to inflammation in the tissue that connects the tibia and fibula. Hence the name "shin membrane inflammation".
The inflammation is often called shin membrane or shin splints. This inflammation is therefore due to overloading the lower leg. Lower leg overload may also be because other parts of your body, such as the calves or ankles, are too weak. As a result, you load the lower legs more and also overload. The recovery of shin splints takes an average of 2 months (!). It is therefore also very undesirable to contract tibia infection.
Shin splints are therefore common among frequent athletes (10 to 35% of athletes suffer from tibial infection), but also among soldiers who start their recruits training (5 to 10%).
Shin splints can be roughly divided into two types. There are many more variants of shin splints, but these two types are the most common. The first type is an inflammation of the posterior tibial muscle. With this form of tibial inflammation, you will most likely suffer from pain coming from the center of the tibia. It can also become red and swell around the tibia. With type number two, the pain is mainly present on the sides of the shins. There is also a possibility that you feel the pain in front of the shins, this is less common, but is still very annoying.
Another form of shin splints is when the shin itself contains cracks, which may cause the shin to overload. This is a shin stress fracture. Here too, pain will develop around and on the tibia.
The greatest risk groups for shin splints are (starting) athletes, who suddenly start to exercise a lot and therefore overload the lower legs. Runners in particular suffer from this, but cyclists, volleyball players, skaters and tennis players also often suffer from jumping jumps. However, soldiers are at the top of the list. Novice recruits often have heavy training sessions and load the lower legs quickly. Especially since their boots give little space to the lower leg to move.
Below is a video where we go deeper into shin splints:
Do I have shin splints?
How can you know if you have shin splints? You usually already feel it yourself, it is a nagging pain in the shins, which can also become a stabbing pain in the event of a load. Often you know how it can happen, since overloading is the cause. Have you just started running, but have you started running a lot? Or have you suddenly started exercising a lot? Then shin splints is a logical consequence.
Doctors can also diagnose sch
