So you’re out for a leisurely jog and everything is going great – until you start to feel pain. That distinctive, shooting pain, up your shin. Even when you stop running, every time you put weight on your foot soreness shoots up your lower leg. There’s little doubt: you’ve got shin splints.
Shin splints is the term commonly used to describe what’s actually known as medial tibial stress syndrome. The injury is characterised by a diffuse pain along the inside of the shin bone (tibia) that’s aggravated by activity.
It’s thought that between 9% and 20% of runners will suffer from shin splints at some point in their life – though novice runners are almost twice as likely to suffer from injury compared to more experienced runners. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to lower your risk of this pesky injury – and prevent it from happening again.