Why Do My Shins Hurt When Ice Skating?

Why do my shins hurt when ice skating? Ice skating is fun and therapeutic, whether you’re skating for fun or competitive reasons.

Unfortunately, shin pains can get in the way of denying you the opportunity to enjoy figure skating, speed skating, hockey skating, or recreational skating. If you’re wondering what causes the pain, below are the possible reasons.

Your shins can hurt when ice skating for one or many reasons depending on where you’re feeling the pain. If it’s coming from the front part of the ankles, it can be due to lace bites. But, if the pain is coming from the center of your shins, it can be because of a shin splint injury.

Below is a quick rundown of other reasons why your shins hurt when ice skating.

• Overuse Injuries like Muscle Soreness and Shin Splints
• Using the Wrong Body Form like Stiffness when Ice Skating
• Medical Condition in the bones
• Undeveloped Shin Muscles
• Poor Choice of Ice Skating Shoes

This is why Your Shins Hurt when Ice Skating

This is only the tip of the iceberg. In the rest of this guide, I go deep into why your shins hurt when ice skating. 

You’ll also discover how to handle the pain on your own and when to seek medical attention. So, without much ado, let’s get to it!

1. Overuse Injuries like Muscle Soreness and Shin Splints

Ice skating is fun and exciting. So, it makes sense that you want to skate more often. However, everything, when done in excess, can be dangerous.

Similarly, too much ice skating isn’t cool and can lead to severe pain in your shins.

How does that come about, you ask? Over skating is a contributor to overuse injuries when skating.

During the push and glide motions, your body uses different muscle groups to generate power for skating. The leg muscles are an example of these muscle groups.

That being said, over skating overstretches these muscles and makes them sore. It’s at this point that they begin to hurt.

In addition, the problem starts small, then escalates to something else, especially if you continue skating in that pain.

The best way to deal with this problem would be to watch out for your frequency of ice skating.

If you skate three times a week, try bringing this number down twice or once a week, then analyze the outcome.

If the pain persists, probably you’re putting in more hours for every session. Suppose you’re doing two or three hours; it would be best to lower the number of hours to around one hour per session.

If these don’t help solve the problem, the shin pains could be from other causes, as we’ll see in this guide.

2. Using the Wrong Body Form like Stiffness when Ice Skating

Using the right body posture when skating goes a long way to give you a memorable skating experience.

On the other hand, the wrong techniques and posture can be disastrous, leading to shin splints.

The recommended skating posture entails bent knees, which should be above your toes.

In addition, your shoulders should be over your hips, and overall, your body should be relaxed.

Many beginners and intermediates have a problem maintaining the recommended skating posture.

Instead, they don’t bend properly, they stiffen their body out of fear of falling, and they tense up. Now the problem is, being too tensed can exert pressure on your shin muscles and bones, thereby causing you more pain.

If you’re afraid of falling, you’ll find yourself tensing, and your shins are likely to hurt when ice skating.

To that end, it’s always a good idea to use the right skating posture because it helps to distribute your body weight away from your shins to your toe balls.

It also helps to relax your body and keeps tension away.

If you don’t know the right skating posture, this would be the time to start learning the skill.

You can find an online instructor or one from your local ice skating rink to teach you how to implement the technique.

Afterward, you can assess the situation to see if your shins still hurt when ice skating.

More Reading: How much are Ice Skating Lessons? The Ultimate Guide

3. Medical Condition in the Bones                                               

Why do my shins hurt when ice skating? It could be because of a medical condition affecting your bones.

According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the pain coming from your shins could be due to Osteoporosis, a bone disease.

This condition is caused by the body’s inability to produce enough bones in your shins, leading to weak bones susceptible to breakage and cause a lot of pain.

It’s hard to know for sure if the shin pain you’re experiencing is because of Osteoporosis.

To that effect, it will be best to seek medical attention. The doctor should run some tests on you and will advise appropriately.

Assess the situation after the medication begins to kick in. Hopefully, the pain will go away after your trip to the doctor.

4. Undeveloped Shin Muscles

This has a direct correlation with overuse injuries, though not entirely. As we’ve already seen, ice skating uses your leg muscles to move you around.

In addition, skating can be demanding, thus putting too much pressure on your shin muscles.

So, if your shins hurt when ice skating, it could be that they’re still undeveloped or fully set for ice skating.

If this is the case, you don’t need to stress over it. All you need to do is give it some time. Most beginners experience this problem within the first few days of learning to skate.

So, if you’re a beginner, this should go away after a few instances of skating. If possible, try to skate 2-3 times a week to get your shins ready for ice skating.

5. Poor Choice of Ice Skating Shoes

The right ice skating shoes should snuggly fit your feet for comfort when skating. Tightly fitting ice skating shoes cause shin pains and ankle pains, and blisters on the feet.

On the other hand, loosely fitting ice skating shoes wobble on your feet and may come out anytime.

When ice skating shoes are tightly fitting, there’s a lot of friction between the skates and parts of your feet.

In particular, this results in lace bites that occur when the lower part of your shins, usually in front of the ankles, hurt so much.

So, if the pain is coming from this area, it could be that you have the wrong choice of ice skating shoes.

To correct this problem, you may have to shop for new ice skating shoes. Alternatively, you can rent a pair to confirm if the problem is the ice skating shoes or not.

Why do my Shins hurt when Ice Skating? Commonly Asked Questions

1. How do I get my shins to stop hurting?

You can get your shins to stop hurting by icing them till the pain ceases. Alternatively, your can stretch your shins or mildly massage where the pain is coming from.

Lastly. You can take medication like aspirin and ibuprofen to take the pain away.

2. When should I worry about shin pain?

You should worry about shin pain after trying out recommendations like minimal skating to avoid overuse injuries, applying the right body form and technique, doing optimum skating to get your shin muscles used to skating, and using the rightly fitting ice skating shoes.

At this point, the problem could be because of osteoporosis—a bone disease that needs prompt medical attention.

3. How do you strengthen your shins?

Do more leg exercises like calf raises to strengthen your shins and shin muscles. Do this several times a week, and you’ll have stronger shins to withstand ice skating for long hours.

Why do my Shins hurt when Ice Skating? Wrapping Up

Why do my shins hurt when ice skating? Your shins can hurt when ice skating because of one or more of the following reasons.

Overuse injuries like muscle soreness and shin splints, using the wrong body form like stiffness when ice skating, a medical condition in the bones, undeveloped shin muscles, and poor choice of ice skating shoes.

I hope you found this guide helpful. Happy skating, and stay safe!

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