I get them bad when I jog on the street. To the point where I cannot walk. I've never found a way to stop it from happening, other then to stop jogging on uneven pavement. You get them because the muscles between the bones in your lower leg expand if I remember correctly. I was told to try some warm up exercises, and to work on the flexibility of them. I cannot remember the exact exercises, sorry. As for treatment, I found that nothing besides time really worked. Ice helped, as did warm water. Some people told me warm water was bad though.