Run softly to avoid shin pain

Have you ever experienced inner shin pain while running? It may have started just as a bother, but then it continued to worsen until you could no longer run without significant pain.

How about a tibial stress fracture, also known as a stress fracture in your shin? Perhaps you have sustained one or even several tibial stress fractures over the years and are worried your next one could be right around the corner.

If so, you're not alone. In the last month or two, many runners and other athletes have come to see me at FLASH Sports Physical Therapy & Performance Center complaining of inner shin pain. (Medial tibial stress syndrome is the most common diagnosis, which is known to many of us as shin splints). Some of these individuals developed this shin pain because they did "too much, too soon" when beginning to run or practice in August and September, but others developed it because of how they run and move.

If you've suffered from shin issues in the past, you need to think about how you actually run to have a chance at ridding yourself of shin pain for the future and decreasing your risk of sustaining a tibial stress fracture!

As runners, we constantly subject our bodies to impact forces whenever we run since running is a weight-bearing activity. How we run though can determine the degree of impact to which an area like our shins are exposed over several miles and multiple runs.

If you can hear your feet slapping or pounding the ground or some well-meaning friends tell you they thought a buffalo stampede was coming as you ran up to them, then chances are that your impact forces are extremely high. Impact forces are highest when running downhill, lowest when running uphill, and "in-between" when running on the flat. Also, most of us have a tendency to run more loudly as we fatigue, like at the end of a race or a hard workout.

High impact forces are directly tied to inner shin pain and development of injuries like tibial stress fractures. To reduce impact forces while running, simply work on running more softly.

This skill may be difficult for you at first, but with practice, you will be running more light-footed in no time!  Make sure you are not listening to music, and try running down the street in a way that the pedestrian ahead of you would not hear you approaching. Think about "landing as light as a feather." If you hear yourself stomping or slapping the ground, try again. Your hearing is your source of feedback.

Mastering the skill of running softly can help you forget you ever had shin pain and perhaps felt you were cursed to a lifetime of one tibial stress fracture after another.

Let me know your experiences with shin pain as well as working on running more softly in the comments section below.

Read more Sports Doc for Sports Medicine and Fitness.