Overuse Injuries

It looks as though I may have won the battle with my much hated shinsplints.  Years ago, when my shins first started bothering me, I did a little research on overuse injuries and found out some facts about shinsplints.  There are apparently different causes.  In my case the agonist muscle, the gastrocnemius, is getting a full workout while the antagonist, the tibialis anterior, is getting almost no workout at all.  This causes exhaustion of the unworked muscle and eventually pain.  The painful state is what characterizes the shinsplints.  This is why it is so important to work the antagonist muscle.  If not, the agonist will become over contracted while the antagonist will remain weak.  In order for the antagonist to do it's job on a daily basis, it has to work harder than ever because the agonist (which is getting stronger) is working against it. 

I bought an exercise band and I used it to give my tibialis anterior muscle some resistance exercise.  I've been working with it every other day.  So far, after two days of working with the band, I went for a run and I had absolutely no pain in my shins!