Sore muscles on front of shins

JimBobPlayer · 12-09-2014 3:15pm #1

I know about stretching but I can't stretch the muscles at the front of my legs and they're sore. Will further exercise do damage or should I proceed?

The Davestator · 12-09-2014 6:50pm

JimBobPlayer wrote: »

I know about stretching but I can't stretch the muscles at the front of my legs and they're sore. Will further exercise do damage or should I proceed?

Soreness on the front of the shin can be shin splints so get it checked out by a pro would be my advice

JimBobPlayer · 12-09-2014 6:52pm

The Davestator wrote: »

Soreness on the front of the shin can be shin splints so get it checked out by a pro would be my advice

It's not my bones. It's the muscles that are on the front of my legs below the knee! I can't stretch them, it's just muscle pain!

Doug Cartel · 12-09-2014 6:59pm

JimBobPlayer wrote: »

It's not my bones. It's the muscles that are on the front of my legs below the knee! I can't stretch them, it's just muscle pain!

That's what shin splints is. Stop trying to stretch them and give them a chance to rest. If it doesn't go away go see a pro.

roseybear · 12-09-2014 7:15pm

Get a foam roller and massage them instead of stretching

calfmuscle · 13-09-2014 2:43pm

Go to a good physio and find out

1) how to treat them

2)why you are getting them

3)how to prevent you from getting them again

Alf Veedersane · 13-09-2014 2:50pm

JimBobPlayer wrote: »

I know about stretching but I can't stretch the muscles at the front of my legs and they're sore. Will further exercise do damage or should I proceed?

You can stretch them to a degree but if they're feeling sore from exercise then more exercise won't be the answer.

Adequate rest, go back to exercise and if it happens again, follow calfmuscle's advice above.

Gentleman Off The Pitch · 13-09-2014 6:29pm

Just to offer my experience with this when playing hurling. One season in my late 20s I started getting what I think were shin splints which were so bad that I couldn't train properly. I had never had them before in my life and I tried everything to make them go away. I was going to put it down to age when I copped that I had been doing a lot of calf raises in the off season for the first time and when I researched online I found other people who experienced the same problem after doing calf raises.

What I found helped was cutting back on the calf raises and doing an exercise where I strapped a weight to my foot (5kg) and performed a movement where I riased and lowered my foot, kinda like a foot curl!

Anyway, perhaps all the above sound ridiculous to fitness professionals on here, so take it or leave it, it's just my experience

.ak · 15-09-2014 8:44am

I have the same pain. At first I thought it was shin splints but my physio ruled that out (I play rugby and don't run on hard surfaces), also I only get it in my right leg - if it's shin splints you generally get it in both legs.

After a while it got very bad so my physio thought it might be a stress fracture. I read up on these and they seem nasty, so be very careful and go to a physio/doc straight away to get that ruled out. If you persist with a stress fracture without treatment you can end up with a really nasty fracture with a 6 month recovery window.

Anyhow, turned out it wasn't that either as I took a few months off sprinting and it still comes back. Eventually we came to the conclusion it was a knock on effect from a previous old injury in my opposite leg, so I'm obviously balancing and over-compensating on my other leg, especially in the twitch muscles.

I do some stretching work to ease it out, which includes foot rolls, rolling it on the foam roller, raises your toes up and down when balancing on your heels over a stair etc. A lot of it is down to management though, which means building up more dependency in my bad leg to take away some of the work on my good leg, and listening to your body. If I'm playing a match or training I won't push it.

A good physio will work it out with you, but just be patient, as it can be a multiple amount of different things and it may take a while to get to the bottom of it.

guile4582 · 15-09-2014 9:06am

it's shin splints
only remedy is complete rest from impact

calfmuscle · 15-09-2014 10:45am

guile4582 wrote: »

it's shin splints
only remedy is complete rest from impact

Bull****!

ecoli · 15-09-2014 10:56am

guile4582 wrote: »

it's shin splints
only remedy is complete rest from impact

Shin Splints is a catch all terms for pain that general area, plenty of ways to treat depending on the cause, once you find the specific cause you will find how to treat them

JimBobPlayer · 15-09-2014 10:57am

Didn't exercise yesterday. Pain almost gone. It's just the muscles. Not used to being used!

.ak · 15-09-2014 11:09am

JimBobPlayer wrote: »

Didn't exercise yesterday. Pain almost gone. It's just the muscles. Not used to being used!

Keep an eye on it though. I found that happened to me, until one session when I did a lot of kicking practice and sprinting it just completely seized up on me and was stuck like that the best part of two weeks. Extremely painful. As I said above, listen to your body, stretch it plenty and carefully, and go to physio if need be.

guile4582 · 15-09-2014 1:35pm

calfmuscle wrote: »

Bull****!

care to elaborate more?

guile4582 · 15-09-2014 1:36pm

ecoli wrote: »

Shin Splints is a catch all terms for pain that general area, plenty of ways to treat depending on the cause, once you find the specific cause you will find how to treat them

what OP has described is shin splints

ecoli · 15-09-2014 2:48pm

guile4582 wrote: »

what OP has described is shin splints

Yes it is the only problem with that is it's not a diagnosis but rather its a description of where the issue is occurring

It could be a number of conditions;

- Stress reaction/fracture
- Medial tibial stress syndrome
- Tib Anterior muscle strain
- Compartment syndrome
- Active trigger points
- Extreme DOMS

Just to name a few which fall under that bracket and normally lack of flexibility and overuse tend to be among the most common causes however by simply saying they have shin splints is like saying they have a pain in there shin and nothing more.

guile4582 · 15-09-2014 2:56pm

it is what they have and complete rest is the remedy

if people want to go waste money on physio to be told the problem in up to ten more flowery ways, so be it. it's a pretty black and white common problem/solution

why do people have to needlessly complicate sport/fitness issues and injuries etc these days.

Not everyone is a high performance athlete.

Alf Veedersane · 15-09-2014 3:03pm

guile4582 wrote: »

it is what they have and complete rest is the remedy

It might be what they have.

I don't think you're in a position to make a definitive diagnosis.

ecoli · 15-09-2014 3:16pm

guile4582 wrote: »

it is what they have and complete rest is the remedy

if people want to go waste money on physio to be told the problem in up to ten more flowery ways, so be it. it's a pretty black and white common problem/solution

why do people have to needlessly complicate sport/fitness issues and injuries etc these days.

Not everyone is a high performance athlete.

9/10 times it might be routine precautionary thing, but for that 1/10 times the person might be thankful to get it properly assessed

I will give you an example;

A person complaining of lower back pain, 9/10 times people will say its QL muscle spasm or SI joint issue, 1/10 time it might be more sinister (such as a kidney related issue) that 1/10 time it is imperative to get it looked at and treated for risk of further health complications and this is where an accurate diagnosis can help long term health

nice_guy80 · 15-09-2014 4:29pm

use golf ball on the bottom of feet - roll feet over each foot for a minute then repeat
foam roll and stretch the calf muscles off a step
you can also get a ball into the shin muscles (tennis or baseball) by getting into crawl position and gently massaging shin muscles by rolling the shins along a ball.

if that don't help, rest.

calfmuscle · 15-09-2014 6:14pm

guile4582 wrote: »

it is what they have and complete rest is the remedy

if people want to go waste money on physio to be told the problem in up to ten more flowery ways, so be it. it's a pretty black and white common problem/solution

why do people have to needlessly complicate sport/fitness issues and injuries etc these days.

Not everyone is a high performance athlete.

You don't know what your talking about. It's embarrassing.

.ak · 16-09-2014 1:21pm

guile4582 wrote: »

it is what they have and complete rest is the remedy

if people want to go waste money on physio to be told the problem in up to ten more flowery ways, so be it. it's a pretty black and white common problem/solution

why do people have to needlessly complicate sport/fitness issues and injuries etc these days.

Not everyone is a high performance athlete.

That's a pretty narrow minded way of looking at things.

Sport injuries are not black n white. If they were we wouldn't need physios, doctors or sports medical experts.

Gal2011 · 16-09-2014 2:45pm

I experienced very bad pain for the first time ever last season in the front of my lower legs and I struggled to run with it and it had all the symptoms of shin splints. I actually went to a Chiropractor as I had lots of problems with my hamstring. This Chiropractor has helped lots of people and came very well recommended and he told me he would have me better after a couple of sessions and true to his word, the shin splints pain subsided and I played the rest of last season and all of this year with no pain or soreness in that area.

Sore muscles on front of shins

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