Tim and I have recently put the kibosh on our daily 7km walks. He has his sore ankle to blame, while I’ve been experiencing an odd pain in my shin that I can’t seem to figure out.
Right below me knee, the upper portion of my tibia feels bruised to the touch, but there’s no swelling or black-and-blue. Oddly, the only thing that really aggravates it is kicking my legs while swimming freestyle or backstroke. I thought swimming was a fairly no-risk sport but in this case it seems to be worse than walking. How annoying. But then I wonder, maybe it really IS the walking that’s screwing the pooch and the freestyle is just accentuating the pain? Who knows.
I’ve got an appointment with my doc in a week. In the meantime, I’ve subbed walking and freestyle swimming for more breast stroke, and I bought a “pull buoy” so I can swim freestyle without kicking my legs. Things seemed to be getting worse until I decided that this injury was a really good excuse to start doing yoga again. For the past few mornings, I’ve started the day with about 20 minutes of easy yoga. Remarkably, the shin has been slowly improving ever since.
So what’s going on here? I’ve done my share of obsessive-google searching for “shin pain” this week and the only thing I could find was information on shin splints. What I couldn’t understand was that the pain felt like it was on the bone, freaking me out that I might have a stress fracture or something (can that even happen from walking and swimming?). But then I posted a message on the PhysioForum and someone (a physiologist presumably, but who the hell knows – this is the internet, after all) came back with the following:
the area you refer to is the attachment site for your hamstrings and some other muscles…
…and to answer anyone who might ask, on a dissection project last year, we saw the tendon and thickened fascia extend nearly 10cm down the tiba in a broad sheet, not like a finger tendon on a point insertion.
I too have had this pain when running too much.
Often it is a result of poor biomechanics. The majority of my patients have poor dynamic hip stability. The usual suspects tend to be Glut Med and other deep hip rotators. but also Iliacus and glut Max and min are also important in their roles.
It’s remarkable – for all the time I spend working out my body, I don’t really know as much as I thought about the body itself. Silly! If I’m putting this time into my muscles, I should really learn what these muscles are all about, eh’? Time for a lesson in hamstrings.
Indeed, there is a tendon that connects right to the spot where I’ve been feeling this pain. Now, I’m rubbish when I come to stretching, and I’ve had a hunch for a while now that my hams and calves are extremely tight. I suspect that this is what led to my shin pain, and now that I’m doing some yoga, those down dogs are helping me stretch out my hamstrings and ease the tension in those poor tendons.
At the same time, I still feel like I’m treading in modern jackass territory, and I look forward to hearing what the doc thinks.
In the meantime, like Tim, I’m happy I can still continue exercising while recovering from this injury. Still, let our little aches and pains be a lesson to us all:
Overuse injuries happen. Especially when you suddenly increase the intensity of your workouts. Even something as simple as walking can be a stress on the body. We were doing 7kms a day, every day. But even with walking, rest days are important. It’s easy to think “if I take a rest day, then that’s one more day between me and my fitness goals.” But remember, rest days are when all the good stuff happens: the body rebuilds and strengthens itself. You get stronger when you rest.
While you’re resting, why not take the time to get to know these muscles you’re working so hard to build? I’m thinking about ordering one of these posters from the “Anatomical Shop”:
They also sell a Illustrated Pocket Anatomy Muscular and Skeletal Systems Study Guide.
And how cool are these muscle socks??
I got this same pain a few years ago when I first started running. Tried to do too much too soon. At that point it was really only a couple of miles at a time I think. But it was on concrete at a park. I remember it happening. It literally hit me like bricks and I collapsed and couldn’t walk on my legs for several minutes. After sitting on the ground rubbing my shins for a few minutes I limped back to my car and went home. It really didn’t feel like a muscle pain, it felt like the bone had all of the pain in it, like it was bruised or maybe a small fracture. I was told (not by a doctor mind you) that this was shin splints and was common and would go away eventually and would have been prevented by proper stretching, blah blah ok. The pain eased up but every time I tried running again it flared back up. Even starting back up very slowly and only doing a little bit on a soft treadmill, no good. Even taking a few days, even a week or so off, no good. It wasn’t until I decided to just stop for a few weeks (like 6 I think) and let it heal that it finally went away.
I haven’t had it again. A few things I believe helped prevent it from happening again. Obviously not doing too much too quick is first and foremost. Second, I noticed in the days/weeks after I first got the pain and tried running again that I may have had my shoes too tightly laced. Sounds silly, but feeling around for where all the leg muscles attach down at your foot it makes sense. I loosened up the laces a bit (a lot) and felt a ton better, it really did help (I did tie my laces _really_ tight before). I’ve kept my laces tied at a point where I can just take my shoes on and off without untying, and that’s the sweet spot for me (ymmv). Last is the stretching. On top of the usual stretches they always tell you to do, I found one stretch that helps my ankle and shin immensely and I do it religiously now and I believe it helps me more than anything else. With your foot (say your right foot) pointed in front of you (say that’s 12 o’clock), pivot it around keeping your toes on the ground so it’s pointing to about 9 o’clock and really stretch it right there. That should feel great on the lower leg. Do that and hold it a few times on each leg in conjunction with a toe/foot lifting stretch (and of course all your other leg stretches). I typically do it again after a mile or so of easy warm up before moving onto faster running to make sure those muscles are nice and loose and warm. I’ll add that it’s kind of hard to do that stretch without shoes on.
That’s helped me anyway, thought I’d share. Do take it easy for a while though, no matter what else you do. Good luck!
Jason – this is reassuring. I’m glad I’m not alone. Six weeks SOUNDS like a long time but I guess it really isn’t in the grand scheme of things. I tried that stretch – nice! I will add it to my usual line-up of down dogs and forward bends. Interesting point about the shoes – not so much an issue in the pool 🙂 but a good thing to look out for. Now that you mention it, tight shoes is something I’ve experienced while hiking… I have a bad habit of lacing my boots too tight which I only notice after an hour or so of walking. Now I try to keep things pretty roomy in the boot itself, but snugger around the ankle. The feet swell during a long hike and this gives them some extra growing room. Thanks for your feedback, Jason!
Hey Monica – I know this is an old blog but it’s is the first post I found on the internet that describes exactly the pain I’m getting..Just curious to know what the doc said and did you manage to get rid of it in the end?
Hi Steve. Thanks for the comment and I’m sorry to hear your experiencing the pain. I wish I had better news. After months of stretching, the pain DID subside but I now have isolated pain right below my kneecap that flares up every time I walk or swim too much. An MRI didn’t reveal any noteworthy abnormalities. I’m currently doing some hardcore strength training and more stretching to see if that fixes it. Sometimes I wonder: maybe if I just did NOTHING for a few months, I would be cured! But doing nothing is surprisingly hard, especially when you’re used to being fairly active. I hope you have better luck overcoming your pain. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for the reply Monica – only just saw it so apologies for not replying sooner. I went to an osteopath who basically ‘massaged’ my inside upper shin with her elbow for a few mins which left me pretty tender for a few days! No real improvement (bit scared of more sessions as not sure it’s the answer!). Have started weight training again and did some squats yesterday which caused no problems at all, yet the pain can simply appear when doing something as simple as getting out of the car and crossing the street! May have to finally visit my gp…. Anyway, just wanted to thank you for the reply – will let you know if I find a cure!