What can you do tp prevent shin splints?

Question

besides for stereching well, drinking plenty of water, not always running on hard surfaces and having the right shoe does anyone have any advice on how I can help prevent shin splints. i love to run but i always have to take it easy after just minimal amounts of running becasue of shin spints

Answer 1

there's not much you can do.

what you should understand is that, after some weeks or months, they'll heal on their own.

after they heal, they'll be stronger, and rarely will the problem re-occur.

in fact, while i truely don't know, there may, in the long run, be some advantage to having them heal some and break some, in that the final healing process may be even stronger.

that said, you can be sure when they bothered me, i surely didn't try to make them worse.

however, as i said, the do heal, and they don't come back.

Answer 2

there's a specific way to wrap your shins so that it doesn't hurt as bad, and after you run ice them.  

you can freeze water in a paper cup and rub the ice on your shins.  I've heard that it helps a lot.

Answer 3

I've had my share of shin splints over my MANY (over 30!) years of running, training and racing and there is lots of advice on this subject - much of it it sounds like you already know about, but aside from good warming up and stretching there are a couple of exercises that you can add to your stretching/warm-up regimen:

1. raise one leg up just up off the ground and make imaginary circles with your foot. At first it seems like this would be something that is for your ankle and not your shins but after about 20 you can feel a little bit of burn in the muscles that go up your shin from your ankles.

2. walk on your heels for about a minute and then do sort of the opposite by walking around on your toes for another minute.

What's good about these exercises is that you can do them anytime through out the day (you'll look silly but hey....).

It worked for me....!

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 4

Basically, if you run up on your toes, you will put trememdous stress on the shins. Instead of using the back of your legs as shock absorbers (picture glutes, hamstrings, calves -- all muscles!), you are hitting too far in front of your body which then uses the front of the legs (shins and knees -- and upper calves-- take the brunt). This will also happen if you have too much heel strike when you run which is all bones.

Best thing is once you rest them a bit, is to learn to run correctly. You should be on the balls of your feet with the heel slightly off the ground or just grazing the ground. Your ankle should be dorsiflexed (90 degree angle) so that you are striking the ground no more than 4-6 inches in front (this is true even at sprinting pace) or more underneath your body. It will depend on your speed. You want to be pushing your body forward with your glutes and hamstrings rather than pulling the body forward with your quads.

Running correctly, sprinters put between 2-5x their body weight into the ground (this is on one leg!).  Running incorrectly is closer to 4-6x their weight because of braking forces and most people don't have the strength training that sprinters have.  It is no wonder that so many people get shin splints -- I used to get them when I was a sprinter, never since I changed my bad mechanics.

Good Luck!

Answer 5

when u get done running ice ur shin 4 a hour then wrap them

Answer 6

Sorry, but...

They do come back, at a normal rate

They dont make that area stronger, and they dont have any positive affects. Go to a running shop that has  a treadmill and a camera. (I live in NYC and use Jack Rabbit)

They'll watch your stride and find a good shoe for you.

also try stretches.

stand on one foot, grab your toe, and pull your h**l to your back. Also i find a railing and go onto my tiptoes, then i lean foward so i feel that area stretching.

If you feel them coming, slow down.

good luck