Shin splints and shin pain are a common injuries, especially with running based sports. The pain associated with them is either on the posterior aspect of the shin or the anterior aspect.
What Causes Shin Splints?
It is usually caused by the muscles in your shin becoming too tight from overtraining associated with poor foot and leg biomechanics.
Here are some of the most common causes:
- Overpronation of your feet
- Oversupination of your feet
- Inappropriate footwear
- Increasing your training too quickly
- Running on hard or angled surfaces
- Decreased flexibility at your ankle joint
- Poor knee flexion alignment
- Poor buttock control at in the stance phase
- Poor core stability
- Tight calf muscles, hamstrings
- Weak quadriceps, foot arch muscles
Generally shin pain arises from a combination of three structures:
- Muscles
- Tenoperiosteum
- Shin bone (tibia)
As a result of repeated overuse, one or more of your muscles in the lower leg may become injured through excessive loading stress. This can result in muscle tenderness, inflammation or knots.
The most common muscles that cause shin splints are tibialis anterior (anterior shin splints) and tibialis posterior (posterior shin splints).
