Shin Splints for nearly 5 years now. They wasted my prime years and ruined my running. Tried everything but they won't go away.

You haven't even mentioned a strengthening and rehabilitation program, which should be the first thing you opt for when overcoming an injury.

Jeez, 5 years and you never thought to do this.

Try strengthening your calves; work up to 3 x 15 reps of calf raises with 15kg in a pack on your back. Do both straight leg and bent leg (so, 3 sets of each).

Also, try to increase the flexibility in your ankle joint. Look up YouTube videos on this.

His calf strength is not the problem. I guarantee this. It's the exact opposite. His anterior chamber muscles are weak.

Run backwards. This is what I read and heard 40 years ago.

Try an elliptical trainer instead. You can run forwards and backwards on it with much less stress on your joints.

What kind of arch supports do you have in the shoes you wear most during the day? If you have inadequate arch support in your shoes that can contribute.

Roll your feet on a golf ball or some other small ball. If you have access to a trampoline, that can help.

Make sure you are doing lengthening of your calf muscles as well as strengthening them.

One of our high jumpers cured his shin splints playing rock band as the drummer.

Op make sure your foot strike is landing directly below your center of gravity.

What's your cadence? Get over 165. Barefoot running helped me. You might need to do it longer. It took a good year to really transition, meaning my muscles adapted to the new form.

How's your weight? If any extra to spare, get rid of it. Every little bit of less pounding helps.

Or. You could just just quit running. If your goal is just to see if you could break your lifetime prs. You kind of already have your answer. Unlikely. And if you do. It will be slightly. No shame in that. You could probably predict right now what your prs could be even if things went ideally.

Would you really be much happier then vs how you are now? Did your current prs make you much happier than you were before them?

Instead of taking time off, reduce the volume or intensity for a while. Time off just restarts the process of developing shin splints.

This works. I used to do it to keep from getting shin splints. Not an entire run backwards, but throwing in 15 seconds or so of backwards running during a longer run.

Maybe you can replace the bone?

kinda grim but it could work in your favor

dailymail.co.uk

Cancer survivor who had all the bones in her leg replaced with titanium lands job as a model

Amanda Williams

Elesha Turner, 20, from East Sussex, was diagnosed with bone cancer and medics warned she may have to have her leg amputated.

Link:www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-271...

I'm convinced shin splints aren't even real, It's all in your head. like food allergies and snake venom.

I've never had shin splints because I BELIEVE

People still parroting this?

Listen, if your foot strikes directly below your cog, you WILL fall. I don't make the rules.

Ideal cadence depends on how fast someone is running. Again, I don't make the rules.

This may seem like BS but this seriously has helped me in multiple areas. The way I understood it was that even though I may have rehabbed an injury (and there was no longer anything physically wrong), the nervous system connections linking to the pain sensations were still the 'shortest path' for the nervous system to take, and thus those were the paths it took the most often. The book (and other's by Dr. Sarno) aim to have you buy into that and then teach you about how to overcome it.

This is the thing though...how do I even know it's just shin splints at this point? When I get the pain it's right ON the bone and I also feel bumps all along the shin. It's on the inside of the tibia, on both legs but on my left side the worst (My left shoe gets worn faster too)

Reduce it to what? One run a month? A year? I already reduced my volume to 2 days a week, 3 on a good week. I used to be able to do 50-60 MPW at much faster paces /:

Bump

You already tried taking time off or dialing it back, and it did not work for you. Did you try going to a PT, like so many posters suggested? Or any of the exercises suggested by many posters?

Every runner needs to do strenght, plyometrics, max sprints, jumps if they want run fast and injury free.

You can't just run

This. Run like 2 miles every other day max for a while and just live life. Once that's manageable, add a little here, a little there. It sounds like you are always ramping up too quickly and never healing.

Look up mobility exercises for your ankles and try these 2 things if you haven't already