Emily Scott
Professor Kerr
EN 101-23
25 October 2011
Shin Splint Causes
Every year, people make New Year resolutions to be more dedicated runners and athletes. When it comes down to it though, only forty percent of gym memberships bought at the beginning of the New Year are used at all (Broyles). Most people do not follow through with their athletic resolutions because of a lack in motivation but another big stopping point is injury. One injury common in new runners is located in the lower leg or shin area and causes sharp constant pain. This pain is known of as tibia stress syndrome or shin splints. Shin splints usually occur when a person dramatically changes their running status in a short amount of time. Shin splints can be caused by stress fracture, muscle swelling, or bad shoes.
A shin splint caused by stress fracture has the hardest and longest recovery process (Quinn). This is because stress fractures effect the bone. Stress fractures occur when there is an excessive rate of muscle growth, another object impacting the leg, or when muscle contractions bend the bones. A strong muscle in one part of the leg can overload the other parts of the leg near the shin that have not grown as strong. A lot of this pressure is put on your tibia bone. Great amounts of pressure can lead to minor cracks in the bone that would cause shin splint pain. An inpact stress fracture is relative to a minor bone break. The bone is not broken but craked and still needs time to heal. Sometimes, muscles outgrow the bone and the protective layer it around. This can cause a bending of the bone when the muscle is in use. This bending can lead to tiny cracks in the bone. Dr. Thomas J. Palashewski is a Board Certified Sports Physician who works at Emergent Health Spine and Sport. He says, “Without adequate recover, these cracks continue to grow and become a fracture,” (Palashewski). The stress fracture then causes acute pain in the front of the leg, or shin.
Muscle swelling, also known as compartment syndrome, is when your muscles swell during and/or after exercise. This affects the anterior compartment sheath which surrounds the muscle and is not elastic. Mackenzie writes for The Brian Mac Sports Coach and says, “Each time you use the muscles they will swell further and create extra pressure in the sheath,” (Mackenzie). Swelling puts pressure on the inelastic containing sheath that surrounds the muscles. The pressure slows blood flow. Sometimes, the outcome is immobility in the legs because of the swelling (“Circulation”).
Runners can fix and prevent more problems with good shoes than anything else (Maharam). According to Jim Brown from Core Performance, “Flat feet, rigid arches, and over-pronation (ankles roll inward on impact) – These are examples of mechanical malfunctions that could cause pressure to be distributed unevenly on the lower legs,” (Brown). Bad shoes and bad feet are sometimes the cause of shin splints. The muscles and tendons around your shin are doing more work to keep the body upright than if the athlete got the most out of each step. This creates a greater amount of pain in each step, called shin splints.
Shin splints are hard to recover from. Most athletes find it useful to ice or take ib prophen until the pain stops. If it is an extreme case, the athlete could get surgery to cut the sheath and allow the muscle to expand but most shin splints recover on their own. To prevent shin splints an athlete needs to be careful to buy new shoes, be careful when switching onto harder ground, and make sure to ice muscles that swell too much.
Works Cited
Brown, Jim.
Broyles, Jared. "Sixty percent of New Gym Members Sign up in the First Three Months." 5 News. October 15, 2011. http://www.5newsonline.com/news/kfsm-sixty-percent-of-new-gym-membe-123010,0,282932.story
“Circulation.” Foot Smart. October 17, 2011. http://www.footsmart.com/healthcondition.aspx?ailmentid=106
Mackenzie, B. "Shin Soreness and Shin Splints." BrianMac Sports Coach. October 15, 2011. http://www.brianmac.co.uk/shin.htm
Maharam, Lewis. “Why does my knee hurt when I go up and down stairs?” Runners World. October 15, 2011. http://runningdoctor.runnersworld.com/2007/07/27/should-a-stiff-html/
Palashewski, Thomas J. “Shin Splints - Prevent and Treat the Pain of Shin Splints.” Emergent Health Spin and Sport. October 17, 2011. http://www.myemergenthealth.com/Emergent_Health/Shin_Splints.html
Pope, R. P., R. Herbert, J. D. Kirwan, and B. J. Graham. "A randomized trial of pre-exercise stretching for prevention of lower-limb injury". Med. Sci. Sports Exercercise. October 15, 2011.
Quinn, Elizabeth. "Shin Splints." About.com Sports Medicine. October 15, 2011. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/leg_injuries/a/leg2.htm
"Shin Splints." The Mayo Clinic. October 15,2011.
