Shin Splints | Education and GuidanceUpdated 10 days ago

What are shin splints?

Shin splints is a term you've probably heard before. It refers to pain along the inner edge of the shin bone (tibia) and is one of the most common complaints among people who are on their feet a lot, whether that's walking, running, or playing sport. The more clinical name is medial tibial stress syndrome (MTSS).

Pain experienced with shin splits tends to be a dull ache during activity to sharper discomfort that lingers afterward. It's your body signalling that the load being placed on the shin and surrounding muscles is more than the tissue is currently conditioned for.

What causes shin splints?

The underlying driver is repeated stress on the shin bone and the muscles that attach to it. Contributing factors include:

• Too much, too soon: The most common cause. The shin, muscle and connective tissue needs time to adapt when you increase how much you're running, training, or moving.
• How your foot hits the ground: Landing hard on the heel or taking long strides pushes a lot of force up through the lower leg on every step. It adds up fast, especially over longer distances.
• Footwear Design: The shoe itself is not always the problem. How the shoe changes your body awareness is more of the issue. Thick cushioning can stop your feet from feeling the ground properly. When your feet cannot feel the ground, it is harder for them to know what they are doing. This can include being overly forceful in your stride, heel striking (when running) or uneven loading across both legs. The key is making sure your footwear does not negatively impact optimal movement mechanics for the type of activity you’re doing.
• Same route, same surface, every day: Doing the same concrete run repeatedly gives the same tissue no break from the same load. A bit of variety goes a long way.
• A leg and hip that aren't pulling their weight: If your calf, hip, or foot aren't absorbing load well, the shin ends up doing more than its share.

What can you do?

• Work with a trained professional: A physiotherapist, podiatrist, or exercise physiologist can identify what's driving your shin splints, rule out more serious stress injuries, and build a graduated return-to-activity plan around your specific sport or training demands. For athletes, understanding the cause of the shin splints early saves a lot of time.
• Build whole lower body strength and mobility: The shin is often the symptom, not the source. How the whole lower limb absorbs and shares load influences how much stress ends up at the shin. A trained professional can help identify where the gaps are and how to address them progressively.
• Manage your training load: Finding the right activity level during recovery is important. Too much too soon can set things back, but complete rest isn't usually the answer either. A qualified practitioner can help you work out what's appropriate for your situation and training demands.
• Address your movement mechanics: Running technique, foot strike pattern, stride length, and cadence all influence how much force travels up through the lower leg. A coach or physiotherapist with a movement lens can help identify what needs attention and how to change it progressively.
• Review your footwear for your sport: What works for casual walking isn't always what supports athletic performance. Shoes that allow the foot to move and sense the ground well can improve mechanics over time, but any transition should be gradual to avoid overloading tissue that isn't conditioned for the change and ensure it aligns with the movement mechanics required for the activity.

Where TFC starts with foot function

Feet are designed to be strong and stable, mobile and adaptable, sensitive and responsive. Most people have spent decades in footwear and environments that work against all three. TFC's approach focuses on five fundamentals. They apply to every person, regardless of starting point.

Circulation: Movement drives blood flow through the foot. Feet that spend years in rigid, cushioned shoes receive less of it. The first step is simply getting the foot moving more, so the tissues and structures get what they need to function well.

Sensation: The foot is primarily a sensory organ. It reads the ground and feeds that information to your nervous system, which uses it to organise every movement you make. Feet insulated from natural surfaces over time become hypersensitive to them. Graduated exposure to texture and varied ground gradually rebuilds that sensitivity.

Mobilisation: There are 33 joints in each foot, and joints exist for movement. Modern footwear and inactive environments restrict many of them. Targeted mobility work restores the range of motion the foot was built to express.

Coordination: Range of motion needs to be controlled to be useful. Coordination is the foot responding to load and varied surfaces automatically, without conscious effort. It starts with focused practice and becomes subconscious over time.

Integration: The foot does not work in isolation. Every step integrates it with the ankle, knee, hip, and the rest of the body. Building foot function means working toward that full integration, not just isolated strength or flexibility.

TFC's free training library on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O51AY5yABWQ

TFC's free training library on YouTube covers each of these fundamentals and includes a routine you can start with today.

Looking for hands-on support?

Our practitioner directory connects you with professionals who understand and apply TFC's approach to foot health. This article is general in nature. For guidance tailored to your situation, a practitioner from our directory is a great next step.

Find a practitioner at thefootcollective.com/pages/tfc-pro-directory