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Comment by CJefferson | Hacker News Reader

I agree, I started doing a couch to 5k, I'm now off running, and I've got a constant pain in my knee which shows no signs of going away.

Turns out my technique was bad and I had a week muscle in my knee, now I've badly messed it up. The worst thing is that it never hurt seriously -- you can build up some serious damage without ever being in serious pain.

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Same thing happened to me, though in my case it was less of naturally bad technique and more that I have naturally weak joints that I tried using without sufficient other supporting muscles for stabilization. Missing a few http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RequiredSecondary.... Now it's going to take a year or two, maybe more, to get the joints back to where they were so I can try again.

I had to go through a few cycles of getting shin-splints, stopping for a while, then starting again. Each time I could run further before the splints.

Maybe it's technique, but I thought it was my tendons/bone needing to strengthen after endured stress.

Shin splints is commonly caused by tight calf muscles and tendons. Try foam rolling your calves and dynamic stretching before a run (google 'runner dynamic calf stretch').

It can also be technique, or shoes. But calves are a good place to start.

Everyone has their favorite shin-splint exercise. The one that works for me is one that I've rarely seen mentioned, so I'll share it here. After your run, sit normally and place one ankle across the other knee, then simply rotate your ankle in as big a circle as you can in both directions a dozen or so times. Repeat with the other ankle, of course. ;) For fun, you can put your fingers on your shin while you're doing the rotations, and really feel those muscles moving around. A simple thing, and I've never gotten shin splints nearly as much as others seem to, but I find it helps with that as well as other common kinds of post-run soreness.

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