Ok, it's not really my calf that is hurting but the front part of my lower leg (shin) from my ankle to the mid part of my lower leg. It hurts whenever I play my regular b-ball games on Mon. Tues. and Fri. I warm up and jog a little, stretch, and shoot around before actually playing a game but my legs still get this pain in them after playing a game. Is there anything to help ease it or actually prevent it before it happens?
IIRC, Shin splints are caused by the stretching of the lasso type ligaments holding the fibula and tibia together. There is some stretching of this ligament that is causing the pain. Try long socks or knee bands and high tops tightly laced. *edit* this is from a discussion from an athletic trainer. It made sense to me, but could be wrong.
It could be shin splints, which suck. If so, ice, ice, ice. Did you have any contact with anyone, like did anyone step on your ankle, or did you roll it or anything? If so, it could be a high ankle sprain. Those suck, and usually take a while to recover from.... Either way, Ice, stretch, rest, repeat.
I'd rest it for a few days, and if it still feels kind of tender, go to the doctor. You could be dealing with a slight high ankle sprain. I'm no doctor, though, I just took an athletic training class or two, and like to play the role of the internet athletic trainer.
Could be but I'll bet on shin splints becaus bothe legs are actually sore. The right leg (the one that stepped on the other foot) is a more sore than the other so that indeed may be the culprit.
I used to get shin splints every year during football. It was due to running on concrete, then the track, then gravel, then the football field, and back every day. Like that article said, there are infinite amounts of causes for shin splints, but the things SWilkins said, and running so often on so many changes surfaces, as well as bad shoes are probably the most common. And yes, I thought only the one leg hurt. If both hurt, it's more than likely shin splints.
Like I said, we play every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday and we have for a few years now but the past two weeks the pain has just come along and it really got bad today so that's why I posted the thread. I drink before and after every game, we usually play 5-6 games a day.
I have SS bad right now from playing tons of tennis -- wearing crappy shoes can make them flair up, other than that rest is the best medicine.
From the wiki article [this is normally what a shin splint is]: Shin pain may also be the result of connective tissue such as periostitis, which is an inflammation of the periosteum.
This definitely sounds like shin splints. A few years back I developed very bad shin splints from playing Ultimate frisbee. They got so bad that at one tournament it literally felt like my shins were burning. That day I took two ibuprofren and the pain was completely gone in 30 minutes. For the next few weeks I took ibu everytime I played and the pain went away completely and never came back. My guess is that the ibu reduced the inflammation which got rid of the pain and allowed me to heal while I continued to play. Ibuprofren is a wonder drug. Now I take it before most games just as a preventative. However, be careful if you're taking it and drinking alcohol on the same day. It's bad for your liver.
You're head on why Ibuprofen works on shin splints. The only bad thing about is that you can become dependent upon ibuprofen to relieve the shin splints. A kid on my football team my senior year (one of the Nutball whacks in my YouTube thread ) got shin splints horribly. He ended up taking 5 ibuprofens at a time, a couple times a day because they hurt him so bad. Well, his shin splints went away, but they left him with a stomach ulcer....
