Unfortunately shin splints, which presents as pain along your shin bone at the front of your lower leg, is extremely common in runners. If you are suffering from this condition, should you keep on running or take a load off for a while?
As shin splints is an overuse injury, runners are often under the impression they should cease their training altogether and stop running. However, this is not necessarily the case. In fact, running and gentle jogging can be used to supplement your recovery programme. The focus should be on a gradual loading programme to strengthen the surrounding muscles of the shin bone (tibia) but using running alongside this will only help aid recovery.
While your usual runs will need to be reduced, running with shin splints is best done using the incline setting of a treadmill. The incline reduces the distance the foot must travel to the floor, working the muscles less than traditional road or park running. Incline running at a low to moderate pace will result in less pain and will help you get back to peak performance.
When incorporating incline running, I’d recommend that, after five minutes of jogging, you stop and do the following strengthening exercises. Then repeat this process until you experience pain, at which point stop and rest.
• Heel raises. Stand with your feet flat on the floor and gradually move onto your tip toes and back down.
• Inversion with resistance band. While sitting on the floor, loop the resistance band around your toes and hold the other end. Slowly move your foot inwards towards your other foot while keeping resistance.
In summary, you can run with shin splints, although you will need to reduce the intensity and distance of your runs. Using incline running on a treadmill is a great strategy to use but the focus should be on using strengthening exercises. Combining these will give you optimal recovery. Remember, if you feel pain when running stop, stretch and rest. As an elite-level athlete, I need to make sure that my body is able to perform at the highest level come race day. In the case of shin splints, extending this injury by attempting to run would delay my improvement in fitness and potentially cost me a podium at my next race.
In my experience, I would advise a rest period from all impact sports, as it only prolongs the injury. This includes runn
