Agonizing shin pain after skating

I'm not sure why but Ive been having some pretty bad shin pain after skating these past couple of weeks...I never used to have this issue? They just feel like they are on fire! Does anyone know what the issue might be?

It could be a number of things. Is there pain when you skate or is it after you skate? Is it one side or both sides? Does anything help and how long does the pain take to go away. Has anything changed about your skating (time on the ice, learning something new, different equipment, etc?).

When I was marathon training I had pretty severe shin splints after running on too steep of a downhill, they lasted about 3 weeks. I didn't notice them skating unless I was jumping on the left foot (basically when doing a toe loop). I am a physical therapist so knew exactly what it was and did the appropriate icing, strengthening and stretching and they went away. If something is that painful and has persisted that long it is worth talking to a doctor or PT about.

Shin splints? Happens to me sometimes. Ice is all I know to do.

Seren said:

It could be a number of things. Is there pain when you skate or is it after you skate? Is it one side or both sides? Does anything help and how long does the pain take to go away. Has anything changed about your skating (time on the ice, learning something new, different equipment, etc?).

When I was marathon training I had pretty severe shin splints after running on too steep of a downhill, they lasted about 3 weeks. I didn't notice them skating unless I was jumping on the left foot (basically when doing a toe loop). I am a physical therapist so knew exactly what it was and did the appropriate icing, strengthening and stretching and they went away. If something is that painful and has persisted that long it is worth talking to a doctor or PT about.

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The pain happens after maybe 30 minutes or so of skating and subsides ~20 minutes afterwards. I haven't been doing anything new with my skating so that's why I'm confused as to its sudden onset. It's present on both sides but moreso on the right side. I haven't tried icing it since it seems to go away by the time I get home, but maybe it would be a good idea to.

Hmm...I've just realized the possibility of it being lace bite. It seems to be more or less in the similar area, is there a way to know for sure if that is the case?

ruki06 said:

Hmm...I've just realized the possibility of it being lace bite. It seems to be more or less in the similar area, is there a way to know for sure if that is the case?

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If you have lace bite, typically you'll have rough skin or even calluses. There are special tongue liner pads specifically to reduce lace bite. You can also just try some generic material such as moleskin for cushioning to see if your pain goes away. What make and model boot do you have? What type of padding and how thick is the padding on the tongue liner? My current boot has ~8 mm thick soft sponge foam for a tongue liner. I lace as tight as I can and have no problems with lace bite. I only had problems with lace bite many moons ago with a beginner's freestyle boot: it had only a few mm of cotton padding for the tongue liner; the boots also came with thin nylon laces, which exacerbated lace bite.

Here's a short video about "Shin Splints" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOTtuvTCMGs

You're in agonizing pain? Why don't you just see a doctor?

It's a bit hard to say. For me, I start getting pain in my shin when I tense up too much with my feet. For example, when I'm doing (forward) spirals, and overworry about tripping over the toe pick, I'll try to flex my edge foot too hard, and after a while my shin will hurt. If you're having the same issue, see if you're tensing up your feet too much. If so, then relax your feet more as you skate. If it's a recent thing, it may also be because you're tensing your feet a lot when doing a new move (for me this was especially the case when I started doing catch foot spirals).

If it's the front of your shins halfway between the knee and ankle, it's probably shin splints (muscle soreness). If it's pain in the front of your ankles where you lace your boots and it hurts when you bend your knees and press against the laces, then it's lacebite. Are you pressing harder into the ice when you skate than you used to?

Another possibility: Your boots don't match the shape of your feet. Suppose there is a lot more pressure on the left (or right) side of the bottom of your foot. Or maybe the one side of your boot is pressing harder sideways against your foot than the other. Either way, you will tend to "fall" towards the relatively unsuppported side, unless you use a fair bit of muscle strength on one side of your body to prevent it. Eventually the overused muscles get sore.

I had this problem - though I think most of my pain was higher up.

By placing tape under the insole on the relatively unsupported side of the foot, I eliminated the unnecessary muscle use, and the pain went away. It took me a long time to figure this out. This is roughly equivalent to getting a custom orthotic made by someone who knows what they are doing and also understands skates. You could try it out (sort of) by placing a paper towel under the insole on that side. Of course, there has to be enough space inside the skate to put tape there. If there is a lot of space to fill, use adhesive foam, like Moleskin.

I started with duct tape, but it slowly wore down, so I switched to athletic (coach) tape.

Another approach is to "offset" the blade - i.e., remount it a little to the left or right. You mount it closer to the side towards which you tend to fall, if you don't use much muscle strength. Any good figure skate skate technician can take care of this for you. That is the more common solution, and works quite well, up to a point, and has the advantage of not taking up space inside your boot.