Shin Splints! Yikes! I came home from work with some rather significant shin splints, in the right leg only. So I looked it up online. As it turns out, the term "shin splints" is an all-encompassing term that could mean many things. In my case, the pain was on the outside of the shin. This pain is attributed to a muscle called the "tibialis anterior", which is responsible for "dorsiflexing" the foot (bringing the foot upwards towards the shin). This muscle works against the calf, which brings the foot downward and away from the shin. When there is a muscle imbalance where the tibialis anterior is too weak compared to the shin, then the tibialis anterior could be stretched too far when the foot is "snapped" down onto the ground when the foot rolls from heel to toe when stepping.
Here is an excellent Wikipedia article explaining the function of this muscle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_splints
So I tried some exercises, and they went away almost immediately.
http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/1079-shin-splints.htm
I tried running today, but my knee is causing some big problems. More on that later.
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