Shin Pain With Running?

A friend of mine (from a Spanish speaking area) sent me a message that they have started working out more and running, but have a problem.

Because they recently increased their activity level, have pain in their shins with running, and it hurts when they massage down the front of their shin, it sounds like it could be medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS), commonly known as shin splints. This condition is quite common with athletes, military personnel, and dancers.

A few easy ways to start treating shin splints are rest, stretching, massage, and ice.

Hopefully, they just increased their training too quickly, and will feel better with these simple steps. If they continue to have pain that doesn’t get better within a week, it would be a good idea for them to have an in-person Physical Therapy evaluation to see if there may be more going on.

The American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has free information for the public on a variety of conditions, including shin splints/MTSS.

You can find a local Physical Therapist using APTA’s Find a PT tool.