What Muscles Are Affected in Shin Splints?

Shin splints, or medial tibial stress syndrome, is a painful condition resulting from stress of the anterior shin muscles. The stress stems from high-impact exercise such as jogging and commonly appears amongst runners. The injury takes time to heal and, if ignored, can result in stress fractures of the tibia.

Tibialis Anterior Muscle

• The tibialis anterior muscle resides on the front of the shin. The tibialis anterior is responsible for lifting the foot up and preventing the ankle from rolling over. If the muscle is weak the ankle may roll over and pull the muscle, which results in the pain associated with shin splints.

Extensor Digitorum Longus Muscle

• The extensor digitorum longus muscle aids the lifting of the foot and the extension of three out of five toes. The muscle tries to control the horizontal movement of the foot during high impact, and stress on the muscle causes the symptoms of shin splints.

Extensor Hallucis Longus

• The extensor hallucis longus act to slow the horizontal and vertical movement of the foot. During high-impact exercise, the muscle fails to control this as easily, which can result in undue stress on the muscle and thus lead to shin splints.