Common Injuries Part 2 – From Shin Splints To Stress Fracture

As your foot touches the ground while running, your lower leg absorbs an impact as much as three times your body weight. If running isn’t your typical workout and/or if you are quickly adding on the miles, this type of impact can easily stress the muscles along your shinbone, causing pain and tenderness called tibial stress syndrome, a.k.a. shin splints. (Sometimes this can also happen if you are power walking.)

Without adequate recovery, these muscles become so overworked that they simply shut down, leaving your shinbone (“tibia”) to manage the added stress. Since the tibia is not designed to handle such repeated impact and pressure, over time small cracks start to appear in the bone structure itself. A bone scan or MRI will be necessary to confirm the diagnosis of a stress fracture. At that point, a minimum of six to eight weeks rest without any weight-bearing activities is required in order to let everything heal!

Therefore, if you experience pain and tenderness around your shins, reevaluate your cardiovascular routine, rest as needed, and look for slow but gradual progress.