Stretches for Shins

It takes only a little anatomical knowledge to understand how critical it is to keep your calves and shins in good shape if you want to avoid injury. Anyone who runs on hard surfaces, trains in worn-out shoes, rapidly increases mileage or neglects stretching and strengthening the lower leg is at risk. The calves help propel us forward while the shins support and stabilize the body in motion.

The Shin Problem

• Calf injuries and shin splints are among the top five most common problems for runners, according to "Runner's World" magazine. Runners usually have tight, overworked calf muscles and weak shin muscles. Pain running down the front of your leg is most likely shinsplints, or "medial tibial stress syndrome." It can strike anybody, but particularly affects people who overtrain. If you have shin splints, the pain will strike when you start to run, and it will stop once you've warmed up.

Diagnosis and Treatment

• The best remedies for shin injuries are rest, icing, and stretching and strengthening exercises. (Anti-inflammatory medicines, such as ibuprofen, also work.) However, it's important to determine that you don't have a stress fracture. Stress fractures demand six to eight weeks of rest, and should be diagnosed early by a doctor. A touch test will often tell you whether you have a stress fracture: An agonizing pain in any particular spot on the front of the leg is a dead giveaway.

When to Start

• Washington, D.C., sports podiatrist Dr. Stephen Pribut suggests waiting until the pain of the injury has healed before starting a new stretching regimen. He thinks that stretching once you have begun feeling pain in an area will only contribute to more tearing of the muscle. "Let the darn thing heal a bit before trying to stretch it," advises Dr. Pribut on his website. If people are going to continue running, he says, they should decrease the intensity and duration of their training runs and never run on concrete.

Recommended Stretches

• Dr. Pribut recommends gentle stretching of the calf muscles and the hamstrings for shin splints. For hamstrings: straighten one leg and place it, with the knee locked, on a footstool. Bend your body and bring your head towards the leg. Hold this position for 10 seconds. Switch sides, repeat 10 times. For calves, do the Gastrocnemius stretch. Stand facing a wall or support and place one foot behind the other. Keep your back knee straight with your heel on the floor; bend the front knee. Lean forward, placing your hands on the support until you feel a stretch in your back leg's upper calf. Hold 30-60 seconds and repeat on the other side.

Shin Stretches

• The Shin Splinter will strengthen the shins. Sit on a table with your legs dangling over the side. Place a 3 to 5 pound weight (such as a roll of coins) over your toes. Flex your foot at the ankle (bend it up). Hold for six seconds, repeat 5 times.

  For loosening your already tight shins, try the Seated Shin Stretch. Sit on grass or a soft carpet with your legs folded directly under you. Setting one hand on the ground to support you, raise your knee up about 6 inches with your other hand, keeping your shoe pointing downward. Hold 20 to 30 seconds, then switch legs.