If you've noticed swelling, pain and soreness in your calves, you may have shin splints. Shin splints are not usually serious medical condition and can be healed with over-the-counter care and home remedies. Reduce your chance of getting shin splints by doing low-impact exercises, like cycling. Talk to your doctor before treating shin splints yourself.
Causes
Shin splints may occur after doing high-impact physical exercises like hiking and running. You may also develop shin splints from doing exercises that involve starting and stopping, like basketball and tennis. Running or walking downhill may also increase pressure on the heels, which may cause shin splints. Shin splints are not usually caused by cycling or other low-impact exercises like swimming or walking.
Symptoms
Shin splints may make any type of exercise, including cycling, painful. Shin splints occur when the connective tissue around the shinbone become inflamed and swollen. You may notice pain on the inside of the shin, the area of your leg below your knee. Talk to your doctor if your shin is severely swollen, the skin on your shin is hot or if the pain continues even after you've rested your legs for a few days.
Treatments
Shin splints are usually treatable at home over the course of several weeks with rest. Reduce pain and swelling with ice packs and over-the-counter medications like acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Elevate your legs above the level of your heart to reduce swelling. If your doctor approves, you can do low-impact activities like cycling while you are recovering from shin splints. If you have severe shin splints, even cycling may aggravate them. In severe cases, your doctor may recommend complete rest, even from low-impact activities like cycling. Wait about four weeks before running and doing other high-impact activities.
Prevention
Prevent shin splints by doing fewer high-impact activities like running downhill and more low-impact exercises like cycling and swimming. In some cases, wearing shoes with poor support may cause shin splints -- using shoe inserts or wearing more supportive shoes may help prevent shin splints from returning. Cycling on a regular basis will usually not cause shin splints and will keep them from coming back.
