We all need to exercise on a regular basis, particularly as we get older. If you don’t, your muscles will waste as part of the typical ageing process, your metabolism will need fewer calories to function, and even if you eat no more than you ever did, you will begin putting on the pounds.
This creeping weight gain is slow, but relentless. Just half a pound here, half a pound there. You put it on at Christmas ” it doesn’t go away like it used to! Holidays add a little more, and before you know it, you’re 7lb overweight and your favorite clothes don’t fit anymore. Now how did that happen?
You resolve enough is enough and start an workout program. As part of your program you start running or jogging. At first you don’t have a problem but after a couple of months the front of your shins become uncomfortable. Chances are you have Shin Splints.
I always thought that only horses got splints. Work a young horse too much on hard ground, and you were asking for him to get one ” making him lame for months, sometimes. Well, humans aren’t so different!
I like to use running as my main way of keeping in reasonable shape. But I was discovering that, after only a short time, my shins would start to ache, down at the bottom of my leg. At first I thought I was just a bit stiff, and it would go off as I warmed up more.
Being an optimist I hoped the problem would go away all on it’s own. How wrong I was, far from going away the pain in my lower legs got much worse. The more I ran the worse it got until in the end I couldn’t even finish my training and you could often see me hobbling home muttering under my breath.
You would think that if you had Shin Splints you had a Splint. Not so, Shin Splints refers to an overuse of the long muscles down the front of your lower legs. The muscles get overused and get inflamed – this is what causes the pain. I learned all this when I trained as a sports therapist and I’ve also discovered how to treat them.