Nursed a very painful shin splint in my left leg all of last week and was still limping when I joined the Hyderabad Runners yesterday morning for a tough 17.5k through some pretty steep ups and downs.
Over the past one week, several people gave some good suggestions on how to deal with shin splints and I have been trying everything from ice and mustard oil massage to strengthening exercises for the shin.
Started the run yesterday very, very slowly and was hobbling along for the first few kilometers after which I started settling down in a good rhythm. Fortunately, I had a running companion for the entire run and that helped a lot. Without the company I would have given up so felt pretty happy when we finished the run together in 2:13.
My leg is feeling much better than last week so clearly something seems to be working. The ice as well as the mustard oil massage has certainly helped, tried elevating my leg while sleeping by putting a pillow under my leg but found it to be very uncomfortable.
What has probably worked best is the shin strengthening exercise that has helped my left shin to gain more power. Also, my right knee is much better (thanks a lot to Dr Bakhtiar Choudhary for the knee exercises) and hence is able to share the load of my body when I run.
Just hoping that pain goes away soon; I now need to increase my weekly distance and having a good pair of legs is essential.
Here is a link to some good shin exercises:
http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/0161-shin-splints-treatment.htm
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