Step one - Stop the stress on the area immediately

This information has been taken from Chapter 1 of the Shin Splint Cure

The very first step in your recovery is always to stop what you are doing that is stressing your lower legs so much. Your muscles are intelligent and they are telling you in their own way that it is too much at this point. Stop right now whatever training or activity that is causing the injury, at least for a few days but a few weeks would be recommended. This is a very simple step I know, the simplest step of them all, yet it must be included as so many people just ignore it! Some people just do not want to stop no matter what. They will only stop when the pain of walking is so unbearable. Of course this is only digging a deeper hole for themselves which is a silly thing to do to your self. What I tell most people that if it is a great inconvenience now to stop training then shin splints will often make you stop at a time that will be even more inconvenient. I also believe that this type of personality is at great risk of chronic shin splints - that kind of rigid approach to push on and train harder and ignore the problem.

A past regular client of mine, a tri-athlete wanted to oppose me on this instruction. She was a 22-year old who had a race in three weeks time and said she could not stop training. Now, I did not say you had to stop training altogether - I said you must stop the activity that is putting the stress on the muscle. Triathlon has three legs, they are the run, swim and bike. So in this case, we stopped the running (the activity putting most, if not all, the stress on the muscle) for a week. Training was focused on the bike and swim legs. The athlete was gradually able to increase runs whilst continuing stretching and working on the tibialis anterior muscle.

What a great strategy this could become for her anyway. Her swim leg was by far her weakest leg. If she wanted to balance her race and make a big difference in her result she needed to spend the hours in the pool. She could work on her swim while giving her shins a rest and still keep up the bike training.