This is not Dr. Oz.

But a short answer to your question: there are muscles in your shins that provide balance and specific motions in your foot, namely raising the toes upward.

For leg muscles in general, don't try stretching before you walk or run. Give yourself at least 10-15 minutes to warm up (a good mile of light jogging for runners). This brings blood to the muscles and gives them time to loosen up. Stretching while "cold" can actually irritate injuries.

If you have not been active in a while (no matter what your weight), strain on muscles will cause discomfort or pain. In the case of balance muscles...they are firing quickly and in an uncoordinated manner because they have not been conditioned to perform the work.

That's why a beginning weightlifter will spasm and shake. The first few weeks of condtioning train the muscles to fire in a coordinated effort. He can lift more weight not because he is stronger, but because the same muscles are now working together.

It the same principle between a good team and a bad team in tug-of-war.

The muscles around the shins are hard to work with. A common exercise I used to do was to squat with hands on the ground. Lean in a circle. As your body weight transfers around, your shins will be firing trying to keep balance. Rotating around trains them to work together.

After a while, you may be able to rotate without using your hands for balance. Generally this only happens to lighter folk. As you get heavier, the momentum from your body mass tends to accelerate too quickly for your shins to handle all of the change.

Stretching the shins is easier with a partner. Lie on your back. Your partner should be facing you and holding your toes. Partner will hold your foot in place while you pull your toes upward. Now, point your toes down. Repeat from this position. Your partner should _not_ pull your toes down at any point, because he won't be able to stop quickly enough if you are in pain. Forced stretching like that could irritate or cause injury.

Now, point your toes down, having your partner hold & provide resistance. There should be enough resistance so that you are raising your toes very slowly and forcefully. As you begin these exercises, you'll see that your muscles seem to shudder or spasm because they aren't used to working together. After a couple of weeks the motion will be more fluid.

Best of luck with your exercises.

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