Month: February 2025

Shin splints and stress fractures are no fun. They are both in the top 8 most frequent running injuries experienced by athletes and exercise enthusiasts. Preventing shin splints and stress fractures is doable. It is always unfortunate to hear about someone experiencing shin splints and stress fractures because we know how annoying and painful, they can be. In the following post, we are going to spill all our knowledge on how to prevent shin splints and stress fractures from ever happening again so that you stay outside and motivated to pound some pavement throughout the week.
First, let’s define shin splints and stress fractures. Both of these injuries are commonly grouped together but they are in fact, very different. Let’s break them down:

Shin Splints:

Otherwise known as tibial stress syndrome, this is when your muscle begins to tear away from the shin bone. This results in a minor pain that gets worse with use and can become very painful if not treated. In some cases, shin splints can result in stress fractures.

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Causes of shin splints

The main cause of this will be overuse. Personally, I experience them when training for a long race that includes a very high weekly mileage. If you are new to running, you may experience shin splints by trying to run high miles very suddenly. Your body needs time to adjust and heal itself so that it can perform what you are asking it to do. There are some cases that poor or cheap running shoes will cause this as well. A show with no integrity to the structure will not give your foot any support. This will result in your foot trying to compensate and overuse tiny muscles that should not normally get as much use. Lastly, you may be tying your shoe incorrectly. Try tying your shoe tighter at the meat of your foot (the middle laces). This will keep your foot completely secured to your shoe so that there is no movement. Think about wearing a pair of flip-flops. You must curl your toes up to keep the flip-flop on your foot and stop it from falling off. This tension is what aggravates your shin muscles. This same theory goes for if your shoe is not tight enough.

Treatment for shin splints

Although it may not be what you want to hear, you need to chill out and rest. This kind of injury is not one you can just push through. There needs to be minimal aggravation so that the muscle fibers can repair. We would also recommend taking an anti-inflammatory so that the swelling around the muscle is reduced.

Stress Fractures:

If you thought preventing shin splints was frustrating, be glad you never reached the point of a stress fracture. Stress fractures are when a part of your bone begins to crack like a spiderweb. The more you continue to try and work on the muscle, the worse the fracture and pain become. Like all breaks and fractures, you will be sidelined 4-6 weeks as it takes much longer for the bone to heal compared to muscle.

Causes of stress fractures:

This is another overuse injury. This is common sense, if you never give your bones the chance to heal, the injury will follow. Over time you can ask more and more from your body, but this is a process that will take weeks if not months. Another cause of this is carrying around extra weight. No, we are not calling you fat. Some people think running 2 miles in a weighted vest is an awesome idea, it is not. This activity puts sudden shock on your bones that they more than likely will not be able to handle. This is also a common injury for football players. Wearing an extra 15 pounds consisting of a helmet and pads add stress to legs that are not ready for it.

Treatment for stress fractures

Again, the best way to cure this is to rest. Besides that, we have found a cure by taking a Vitamin D3 with Calcium supplement. Although you may not have a deficiency, your body may need more than the normal amount to restore the bone damage you have done. Once we began taking these daily, our stress fractures never came back.

Conclusion

These injuries are unfortunate yet easily avoidable. The biggest way to avoid them is by listening to your body and responding to any irregular feelings you experience. Although all RaveRunners are extremely tough individuals, they also are intelligent and know when to back off. Preventing shin splints and stress fractures will keep you in the game and able to perform. After all, a RaveRunner needs to be out pounding the pavement or flippin’ tires if they want to show up and Be the Inspiration. 

Best Way to carry phone while running

We have tested out ALL possible methods of carrying your phone while running and have tested each method on a multitude of runners. Below we put the results in order of overall ranking and give you the pros and cons of each solution.

#1 RaveRunner® Chest Pack – Running Vest

These sweet chest rig bags are an up-and-coming trend for a reason. If you take the function of a normal fanny pack and combine it with the poise of an athlete, this is your result. These chest bags are comfortable, secure, and solve the problem of placing your phone in a safe spot while you run. When we tested them, we almost forgot we were wearing them. Not to mention they are super fashionable and sharp looking.

In addition to carrying your car keys and maybe some credit cards, you can also thread your headphone cord through the bag. These chest utility bags were designed to fit men and women both, regardless of chest size. Having a fanny pack across your chest is the best bet for all styles of runners. If you are yet to try the official bag for running, you’re missing out…

PRO’s: Fashionable, functional, comfortable, versatile, innovative

Con’s: Not many brands to choose from

#2 RaveRunner® Hydration Pack With Chest Pockets

#3 Running belt

Running belts are an older technology, but a method of running with your phone that is tried and true. We did occasionally have to twist and move the belt to keep it in our desired position. Additionally, one of the belts we tested did not have zippers and our phone slipped out a few times. We did constantly feel our phone on our hip but this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because we never got anxious that we dropped it.

Pro’s: Functional

Con’s: Uncomfortable, unreliable, not fashionable

#4 Arm Band

This is lower on our list because it is an extremely outdated way of running with your phone. All of our test runners needed to buy different styles because most running armbands were made for certain phone sizes. That wasn’t the only aggravating factor. We experienced a lack of circulation in our arms because we needed to make sure the armband was tight. Even while cutting off our circulation the armband still slipped.

Pro’s: Functional, small

Con’s: Uncomfortable, not versatile, probably a little dangerous?

#5 Shorts/Leggings with phone pocket

While we expected this method to be the easiest way to run with your phone, it turned out to be the worst. Maybe it was the brand of shorts we bought, but our phones constantly bounced out. Even when it did not bounce out, we were running uncomfortably and abnormally to minimize the bouncing. In the end, we could not finish our run without getting too aggravated and utilizing our chest running pack instead.

Pros: Sleek.

Cons: Doesn’t actually work, not usable for any other occasion.

Conclusion:

You can see that you have plenty of options when you set out to go on a run with your phone. Some are way better than others. We encourage you to try a few of these options since we put a lot of time and effort into figuring out a method to carry your phone while running is most beneficial. This is not to say that the method that benefitted us the least will not end up helping you the most. Everyone’s body type is different, and a phone placed on the body in different positions can work differently for other people. While you may love your $10 fanny pack you bought off Amazon in 2010, there are many new options with features that will greatly benefit you when you run with your phone. Your overall speed, comfort, and sense of fashion will increase with ditching that old crusty fanny pack and settling for a new, innovative option.

Let us know what you find to be the most effect way to carry your phone while running and give us your pros and cons in the comment section. Additionally, if you find another method that you believe we should add to our list, we would be more than happy to give it a test and place it on this listicle to benefit our readers.