Shin splints is such a broad term. It's stress to your medial tibial and the pain is felt in the anterior part of the shin. It could be anything from a stress fracture(prob not), muscle strain, or chronic anterior compartment syndrome. Is it from overtraining on hard surfaces or do you also pronote when you run? How bad is the pain? Does pain occur: only after running, before and after running but doesn't really affect your performance, before/during/and after running and it affects your performance, or so severe that you can't even run? If shin splints are due to pronation, you need new shoes and maybe orthotics too. If this is a recent injury, then you need to concentrate on reducing inflammation, pain and point tenderness. Ideally, you should take 1-2 weeks off of running and avoid bearing weight on them as much as possible. Ice massage (avg 7 min) daily and do static stretches to your anterior and posterior muscles (toe and heel walks to strech and strengthen calves and achilles tendon) 2-3 times daily. Keep your cardio in check with the exercise bike or swimming. Inner Longitudinal arch taping or orthotics to help with the weight bearing is ideal throughout injury. Once pain subsides to where you no longer feel any pain during daily activities and it can bear your weight, start rehabbing. Continue to Static stretch the achilles tendon (heel walk position;hold for 30 seconds;4 sets of 3 during the day). But if you have a coach like I did, and need to start running the next day then get a shin splint taping or a brace to act like a counterforce and take the pressure off of your tibia and mallelous. Icing for 5-15 minutes after running is really important. Do stretch cord exercises. If your school's facilities can accommodate it, transverse friction massages, ultrasounds, and modalities will do WONDERS and you'll be back in shape in less time. The main thing you need is ice and rest and no running, but if you have to keep running (even if it's on grass and a lighter workout)they won't get better and will take longer to heal, worse comes to worse, stress fracture. Don't worry, you'll get better, but I know how annoying they are when you have them. Damn, I'm actually learning something in college...
~julieT~