1 - warm-up in tights or sweats. Keep your legs very warm. (this is most
important for jumpers and sprinters)
2 - Daily walks of duck walk, pigeon toe walk, heel walk, backward walk. Daily
means every day for roughly 30 meters.
3 – Daily heel drops. Stand on the edge of a stair, and let your heels drop
gently. Count to 10. Do 10 reps to loosen up calf muscles.
4 - Step-ups and lunges for strong bone-building --
light weights every other day.
5 - Buy expensive new training shoes often. Get them with lots of support,
stability, and cushion.
6 - Bare foot running is actually good for turnover and shins if done daily in
moderation. Barefoot running teaches you to reduce the impact of each step. Too
much impact is the problem with shin troubles. You need a quicker and lighter
stride that can be developed through careful barefoot running. Run one barefoot
lap each day.
7 - The best prevention is to be sure your foot is not striking in front of your
axis. Have someone video-tape you running, and then watch the tape. Freeze the
tape when your foot strikes the ground. If the foot is in front of your axis
(the line that runs through your head, down your spine) then you are putting the
brakes on with every step. This will cause too much force to be pounding into
your shins. High turnover will help get your foot strike under and behind your
axis. You want low knee lift, short steps, and fast turnover. The problems
arise with high knee lift, relatively long steps, and slow turnover.
8 – Work on having a turnover at 90 lefts or better per
minute in all kinds of running.
9 - ice bath after practice
10 - dairy products in diet for strong bones
11 - sitting at desk at night, with shoes off, use your foot to grasp a
towel 20 times or more while studying. This builds up the muscles in front of
the shin.
12 - take good doses of ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatories for a couple
days, and then take light doses throughout the season.
13 - Rest the shins by not doing any running or impact exercise on alternate
days or until pain is gone. Switch to skating, biking, lifting, swimming
until pain subsides.
14 – Don’t smoke or drink ‘til you are 21. Underage smoking and drinking is bad for your health.
15 – Vitamin D through milk, vitamins, AND spring, summer, and fall sunshine. --