Immediate treatment

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Rest: Stop the exercise until you can resume doing it without pain. If walking or going up stairs are painful, do not try to run

• Ice: Relieves pain and acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. Ice the area 3-4 times a day, especially prior to exercise.

• Compression sleeves: These sleeves work by restricting the pull of the muscles on the shin, thereby reducing the stresses placed on the shin, and decreasing the amount of inflammation that can reside in the area.

• Elevate the legs: Helps to improve circulation to the lower limb, thereby reducing inflammation in the area.

• Anti-inflammatory drugs: Decreases inflammation in the area

• If the above treatments are not working, you unfortunately may have to avoid any activity that aggravates the shins.

Treatment regime to improve condition:

• Massage: Aids in increasing blood flow which in turn decreases swelling and relaxes tight muscles

• Shoes: Best if fitted by a specialist. They must be correct for the type of foot and the type of exercise. Added cushion shock features can also be beneficial in reducing heavy loads placed on the lower leg.

• Taping: Arch of the foot and front of shin helps in reducing the load placed on these structures when training at a high intensity

• Stretching: Calf muscles and shin muscles.

• Try training/playing on softer more even terrain: Keep frequency and intensity of training quite low until problem goes away.

• Do some down hill walking/running to strengthen lower leg area

• Change running style, don’t over-stride, avoid leaning forward while running

Prognosis:

With adequate rest and proper treatment shin splints will typically go away. The area needs to be given time to recover and heal. If not it can lead to stress fractures, other injuries, even surgery.