Shin city

Treat and prevent all your sporting niggles.

1. Where and why does it hurt?
If your shins ache like you but stumbled into a coffee table then you've probably increased the pace or distance you run or cycle, have feet that turn inwards (pronate) as you run or have been clocking too many road-running miles. Dr Carlyle Jenkins, sports rehabilitation specialist at Prohab, London, identifies key signs as a razorsharp pain on the outer edges of your calves. The aching area can measure 10-15cm and the pain often settles down after warming up and returns after the workout is finished. The pain is dull at first but can become excruciating.

2. Sounds like you've got a case of...
...shin splints, an overuse injury that a study in The Physician & Sports Medicine found to be a result of collagen breakdown caused by too much stress (from pavement pounding), influencing the deep muscles around your shinbone (tibia). The muscle most affected is the tibialis anterior, which stretches from your knee to your ankle. Running can irritate and inflame the connective sheath around it, as well as your shinbone, making it feel as though rug rats have been at it with a pain-causing tool-kit.

3. Don't worry it's not going to kill you…
...but it will make you hobble like a pensioner. Decrease your training load by 90-95 per cent for four weeks and stop running on concrete. Opt for grass or packed dirt instead, as this will reduce impact. Apply the principles of RICE (rest, ice, compression and elevation) then massage the affected areas twice a day. "Use your thumbs to massage your shin and calves up and down, starting at the bottom of your lower leg and working your way up to the top," says Jenkins. "This helps you build new collagen."

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