Alternative Names
Lower leg pain - self-care; Pain - shins - self-care; Anterior tibial pain - self-care; Medial tibial stress syndrome - self-care; MTSS - self-care; Exercise-induced leg pain - self-care; Tibial periostitis - self-care; Posterior tibial shin splints - self-care
What Are Shin Splints?
Shin splints occurs when you have pain in the front of your lower leg. The pain of shin splints is from the inflammation of the muscles, tendons, and bone tissue around your shin. Shin splints are a common problem for runners, gymnasts, dancers, and military recruits. However, there are things you can do to heal from shin splints and prevent them from getting worse.
Causes
Shin splints are an exercise problem. You get shin splints from overloading your leg muscles, tendons or shin bone.
Shin splints happen from overuse with too much activity or an increase in training. Most often, the activity is high impact and repetitive exercise of your lower legs. This is why runners, dancers, and gymnasts often get shin splints. Common activities that cause shin splints are:
- Running, especially on hills. If you are a new runner, you are at greater risk for shin splints.
- Upping your number of days of training
- Increasing the amount of time in training, or going a longer distance
- Doing exercise that has frequent stops and starts, such as dancing, basketball, or military training
You are more at risk for shin splints if you:
- Have flat feet or a very rigid foot arches
- Work out on hard surfaces, such as running on the street or playing basketball or tennis on a hard court
- Do not wear the proper shoes
- Wear worn out shoes. Running shoes lose over half of their shock absorbing ability after 250 miles (400 kilometers) of use.