Are "Shin Splits" Forever?

S

sparrow

Guest
I have battled this injury for over a year. I've been rehabilitated, had an MRI, learned a lot about prevention, stretching and strengthening, and yet its something that continues to reappear. I'm at a place now of complete rest from running. I'm giving myself around 8 weeks off of pavement pounding. My question is: Are shin splints something that are always going to be there once you've had them? Would 8 weeks of complete rest be able to actually heal the whole situation, and providing I increase my mileage very gradually and work on my form, I could potentially be injury-free from then on out?

It just seems like an injury that never really heals so I wondered if I'd done permanent damage.
 
they are not forever.

I landed downwind, "hard landing," in a skydiving incident. i SEVERLY splinted both shins, by trying to run out a 50-60 mile an hour landing.

The damage done is permanent from "what they say" and swimming was going to be my only rehab actvity. AND I have my legs back. they are not as explosive as they once were, but they are back. the tissue will not repair, but new tissue will strengthen.

I had an icing routne that I believe helped alot. I can flex my calf Sparrow, and actuall feel the tension along the sides of my shin bone.

REMEMBER, I had complete seperation in many areas (the MRI was scary looking)

Belief and optimism are critical to this "oh so painful" injury.

I was also told the sciatic nerve damage would "limit me" the rest of my life.

I am 39 years old and seeing physical performance levels I had never even considered.

I am absolutely nothing special! You know me well enough privatley to know that is true.

Just believe Sparrow!! Believe.

off to the gym
 
Do people get shin splints from an accident or can they just be there? Every time I run there is one bump off to the right of right shin and one bump off to the left of my left shin, everyone I ask says its shin splints but I've never asked a professional.
 
Have you researched compartment sydrome? Its more common than people think and is often mis diagnosed as shin splints. Also when I had shin splints for about three years I took 3 months of all running etc and hit the pool pretty hard. I also had accupunture.
 
Derwyddon said:
Don't smack me for asking, sparrow, but have you ever had your shoes professionally fitted? With all your activity if you haven't, you might want to. If you have and rolled your eyes, well then i'll go eat some cake.

It's not supposed to be forever, but in extreme cases some people have surgery.

What you proposed at the end of your entry is the right way to go. Give up all high impact training for awhile. Your swimming is still good for you, as you dont want to give up all activity.

When you come back, you're going to have to start at levels much lower than where you are now and gradually increase. Once you start doing that, severe pain should not be reached, and if you feel mild pain that is your cue that you have already gone over your limit for the training session.

And yeah, hypothetically, you should recover this way.... if you can stomach giving up some of your gains and learn to stop pushing so hard.
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Yeah I have had my shoes fitted and I got orthotics last year. They totally disappeared for the entire tri season this summer and then came back as soon as it was over! weird. I'm doing very low levels of running right now. If I go above 1.5 miles right now I have issues so I do a mile 3 times a week just to keep me sane :)
 
I developed a nasty case of shin splints after the strong man competition. It took me about 2-3 weeks of anti-inflammatories, massage, and icing before the pain subsided and I can play soccer again without a lot of pain. I had to curtail a lot of my activities as far as playing time on the soccer field and being physically active with my PE class.

I'm not sure if that helps you as mine developed from the trauma of acceleration and deceleration with front loaded heavy items.
 
Mine dont sound like shin splints I can keep up with alot of people for running, I could withstand any sport. I don't do leg exercises just because I'm scared I'll pull something with wrong form. Also it doesn't sound like chronic compartment syndrome, I can run 3 miles and the bumps hurt but they subside like within 10 minutes. I used to weigh 306 and when I ran then the bumps would hurt alot more and alot faster than they do now, now it takes about mile before they start to hurt and the bumps are visible...I don't know if that helps you guys.

I tried to tell my doctor and she just said lay off them for a while its hard to tell people with out showing them, like i want to run a mile then show them within like 1 minute of stoping.

P.S. sorry for thread jackin, don't mean to be rude heh.
 
sparrow said:
It just seems like an injury that never really heals so I wondered if I'd done permanent damage.
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I don't think it ever 'goes away' but I think with proper treatment and rest you can manage them well enough to compete again.
I don't know much about it personally but there have been lots of football (soccer) players who've had them and come back. Andy Cole suffered from them really badly for years and had a few operations but he still plays in our top league in his mid-30's
 
Shin splits are the pulling of the epitherial (sp?) tissue off of the front of your shin. It is painful, and they do go away. The tissue won't reattach to the bone, but new tissue will form and connect the 2 by filling in the gap. Once the new tissue is healed and strong, you should be back at 100%

Some people are more prone to splits, and it's really about form and prevention. Good luck, i hope you get a chance to do some seriouse runnin' soon.
 
just a few months ago i developed shin splits after a long period of very little activity
it would hurt just walking fast for 5 minutes to the point that i could barely walk

i couldnt run past half a mile without the pain getting too much

and after i started working out it went away (but other pains took its place :( )
what i did was use a stationary cycle where i ran a bit until it hurt then cycled the rest, i also had plenty of days of no running where i just used the bike
i also had a full body workout that included various lower body workouts like heel ups with weights
 
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