You’ve clipped on your pedometer, water bottle in hand and you’re 10 minutes into your walk and Ouch! Your shins start to burn…

What’s the cause?

In most cases, it’s caused by a sudden increase in your walking intensity and duration. Basically, you are asking too much of your shin muscles, they need to get stronger first. Your shoes can also be the cause as they might be past their used-by-date. (Yes! Your old comfy shoes may just have to be replaced – sorry! )

Tips to turn down the heat on your shins?

• Warm up for 5 minutes (walking at a gentle pace) then do a couple of Shin stretches – it will make a world of difference.
• Reduce your walking to a pace at which you feel no pain. You will need to gradually increase your walking intensity over time.
• Look for softer surfaces, like grass to walk on.
• Make sure you are not taking big stride lengths (this puts unnecessary force on your shins as you tend to lean forward more when you take larger steps). You should actually focus on taking smaller steps as this works more muscles and burns more calories!
• Make sure you are walking with the correct walking posture. Straight back (pretend someone has poured ice down your back) and head and chin up (imagine having an orange under you chin). This allows your weight to be evenly distributed.
• It also helps some walkers to do a quick shin stretch as soon as the shin burn starts as well. See the video at the bottom of this article.
• As mentioned before – check your shoes. Generally speaking walking shoes (runners, sneakers whatever you want to call them) last approximately 800km (for those of us who  talk ‘steps’ thats about 1.2 million steps.) The shoe and tread may still look OK but its the cushioning within the shoe that has deteriorated – thats the important part of the shoes if you suffer from shin pain as this is the bit that absorbs the ‘force’ of your foot hitting the pavement with every step!

It’s as simple as tapping your toes!

Try this shin exercise at home or at work to strengthen your shin muscles…

Tap your toes: leave your heel on the floor and tap your toes and ball of your foot on the floor. You will feel the shin muscle working. Do this as many times as you can until you feel discomfort. Then change to the other leg and repeat.

You can do the toe tap anywhere, sitting at your desk, watching TV or standing in the kitchen. The more you do it, the stronger your shins will become.

Hope this article helps to keep you on track with your step, fitness or weight-loss goals.
Happy Stepping!

PS: Below is a really simple shin stretch you can do when you are out walking