Repeated Calf Injuries

After some advice as I'm at my wits end!

I get repeated calf injuries, pretty much any time I run up a hill! Always in the lower calf/soleus but at various points in it, and in either leg. The onset of the injury is never during the run, but comes on like DOMS during the next day. It doesn't fade away like DOMS though. I'm currently nursing a calf injury of this kind picked up in a XC race last Saturday, just to the inside of the achilles and I can feel a sore spot in the soleus.

I have seen a sports physio earlier in the year but massage and a program of heel raises didn't seem to help that much. I've been mainly OK for the last 6 months but I was just doing shorter distance road running (and track sessions) and I was always worried that as soon as I ran up a hill I'd get injured again and so it has proved.

My theory is that because I have poor dorsiflexion I am forced onto my toes at the first sign of a hill and this causes eccentric loading of the soleus, hence the DOMs and then injury. But what can I do to stop it?

Did you do heel drops with a bent knee, 30, 3 times a day on each side, taking 5 seconds to go down?

Hi R0bh,

Sounds like you need to work out/find out exactly what is causing the issue...then make some change to stop it from recurring. Maybe a start is to improve the poor dorsiflexion if you know that's an area that could be better. Nothing will change unless you find out the cause and remove/improve/strengthen.

Lynne

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Originally Posted by Mike T

Did you do heel drops with a bent knee, 30, 3 times a day on each side, taking 5 seconds to go down?

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...and when they're easy to do, start doing them with a rucsac on and gradually increase the weight in the sac.

and stretch (calf stretch with a bent knee), and ice after running.

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Originally Posted by blencathrafrommykitchen

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and stretch (calf stretch with a bent knee), and ice after running.

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calf stretches need to be done with both a bent and a straight leg. have a read of this to see why: http://globaltherapies.wordpress.com...alf-stretches/

I had a very similar problem to you by the sounds of it.
lots of physio sessions, lots of stretching of all kinds, lots of strengthening exercises and yet it keeps on reoccuring........
I can tell you how to fix it in one simple step - run barefoot. I strongly recommend buying Ken Bob Saxtons book to tell you how to do it correctly (virtually everything I found on the internet is codswallop, listen to it at your peril!).
My calf injury simply dissapppeared overnight.
I am now running up hills with zero problems and haven't even had a minor twinge from it. I spent about 4 months going backwards and forwards to the physios and wasted a lot of money. Spend £15 on that book and impliment what it talks about - I almost guarantee it will fix the problem and give you a real insight into how your body SHOULD be working. Going to physio's is simply going to treat the symptoms and NOT the cause.
Aferall the £15 for the book wouldn't even cover half a physio session....what have you got to lose.
Oh and it's really great fun :)

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Originally Posted by mikekeswick

Going to physio's is simply going to treat the symptoms and NOT the cause.

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Glad you found a way to cure your experience of this problem. I'm obviously going to be biased given my profession, but that's quite a generalised statement you make. Not all physio's (or therapists) work in that way.

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Originally Posted by cyclops

Glad you found a way to cure your experience of this problem. I'm obviously going to be biased given my profession, but that's quite a generalised statement you make. Not all physio's (or therapists) work in that way.

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For sure it maybe was a bit too generalised but then that's generally what you get with forums!
I'll clarify what I said a little. The various physio's I went to (all with very good reputations) all pretty much shrugged their shoulders as to why my calf did what it did in the first place. Sure they knew why it kept doing it after the initial injury but as to the actual cause....I never got an answer. I'm not saying that physio's are bad people or knocking them - I understand they do some great work and have been very grateful to them in the past myself. However when it comes specifically to running injuries they are blind to the fact that the majority of 'over use' type running injuries are definately related to the use of the modern shoe eg. cushioning and a heel. I mean it's pretty obvious when you look from a biomechanical point of view that our bodies as a whole are not meant to be walking on squishy platforms that are inclined forward. This is an indisputable fact - it's not about opinion, sure people will have many opinions on walking around barefoot but forget all that sort of stuff and just look at what happens when you put a modern shoe on....it tips you forward if you don't change your body posistion compared to standing on the floor barefoot. So to counter this we squat slightly, stick our behinds out and bend the upper body forward at the hips to maintain balance. This is a stressful posistion for your body to maintain - this stress has effects. You also can't feel the ground with all those nerve endings that you have in your feet which do a massive amount to help with your balance by sending signals to your brain constantly....with these signals cut off our muscles have to work harder all the time to simply maintain balance. So picture that posture that you have to assume just stood still and carrying it throught to how it would affect you when you run....

I've got a similar problem but I seem to get the problem when actually running. I went to the Physio last week after trying stretching, foam rolling, heel drops/raises, compression sleeves etc for a good 12 months now.
She came to the conclusion that my tight back muscles along with weak glutes were contributing to the problem. Lots of stretching for a few weeks and we'll see what happens.....
Kind of disappointing as I thought I'd got more flexible and stronger recently but her face when assessing range of movement left me under no illusions to the fact I've got lots of work to do!

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many opinions on walking around barefoot

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:D

I'm still waiting for you to start a blog on a BFBGR, genuine interest.

Hi all,

Thanks for your ideas.

I've been having a think about my situation and I've decided that the first thing I need to do is improve my dorsiflexion, which has got noticeably worse in the last few weeks. So I've started doing this exercise "self ankle dorsiflexion MWM" - http://jessephysio.wordpress.com/201...-dorsiflexion/

Once my injured calf is healed the heel drops with a bent knee to isolate the soleus sound like a good idea to improve strength under eccentric load, and I'll also do seated heel raises with a weight on knee, again to isolate the soleus.

Weak glutes like Lyndon says above has come up for me before in the book "Anatomy For Runners" by Jay Dicharry (definitely worth a read; in fact I need to re-read my copy) - his theory being that weak glutes make the calf do more work than it should be. Glute function is something I have been working on this year though so should be better than it was.

If anyone has any more thoughts please keep them coming.

What shoes do you wear?
You have got to think WHY it did it in the first place or else you may well end up in the same place as I was.....being scared to go out running in case it went again.

I have had the same thing and was out for about 8 months about this time last year. What worked for me was yoga, classes once or twice a week and use some or the more simple positions as warm up and post race stretch. Injury free since, more flexible and running more freely

Has anyone any more advice on this. I think I'm struggling with damaged Soleus again. Anything that has helped anyone else?

When my soleus was injured the physio prescribed several exercises. Heel raises with both feet on a step, then lower with only one foot on the step. Walking on tiptoe. One-foot heel raises. Heel raises with bent knee, which I could never do properly. It took a couple of months before I was running properly again.

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Originally Posted by anthonykay

When my soleus was injured the physio prescribed several exercises. Heel raises with both feet on a step, then lower with only one foot on the step. Walking on tiptoe. One-foot heel raises. Heel raises with bent knee, which I could never do properly. It took a couple of months before I was running properly again.

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Thanks that's very helpful. I think it is Soleus but it was pretty difficult to tell at first. Should see a physio I spose but it seems behind the Achilles and underneath the main calf muscles. Achilles itself doesn't feel painful. Thanks again for the reply those exercises make sense. 👍

I’m going to sound like a right miserable, patronising dad here, but having had a knackered foot all year, the only real answer is:

See a good physio.

I know you know this, and you said so above, but it bears repeating:

See a good physio

I know there’s loads of duff physios (OH LORD HOW I KNOW), I know it sucks because it feels like Google should just be able to diagnose the problem and offer a solution, but the only reasonable thing to do is:

See a good physio.

Sorry if this is coming across as patronising when written down, it’s not meant to, I’m just trying to be the angel of reason on your shoulder reaffirming what you already know:

See a good physio.

There’s probably (at least!) 5 different causes of the underlying problem… You can use Google to figure out what they all are, then spend 10 months scientifically trying the appropriate treatments for 2 months each, until one treatment actually works, and then you know what the cause was…

Or you can get a physio to just tell you what the devil is wrong with you.

Or do loads of calf raises :)

Good luck getting it sortedd!

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Originally Posted by skipchris

I’m going to sound like a right miserable, patronising dad here, but having had a knackered foot all year, the only real answer is:

See a good physio.

I know you know this, and you said so above, but it bears repeating:

See a good physio

I know there’s loads of duff physios (OH LORD HOW I KNOW), I know it sucks because it feels like Google should just be able to diagnose the problem and offer a solution, but the only reasonable thing to do is:

See a good physio.

Sorry if this is coming across as patronising when written down, it’s not meant to, I’m just trying to be the angel of reason on your shoulder reaffirming what you already know:

See a good physio.

There’s probably (at least!) 5 different causes of the underlying problem… You can use Google to figure out what they all are, then spend 10 months scientifically trying the appropriate treatments for 2 months each, until one treatment actually works, and then you know what the cause was…

Or you can get a physio to just tell you what the devil is wrong with you.

Or do loads of calf raises :)

Good luck getting it sortedd!

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Absolutely right. I think I'll just get on with it and get booked in.

Let us know how you get on!

This has been me, recurring calf strains for the past 4 years have all but stopped me running now when I used to be racing most weekends! I dabbled with physio but got injured the session right after i finished their programme so lost all faith and reverted to doing some stuff on my own, running fine for a few weeks then getting injured again (and repeat endlessly!).

Have finally just phoned up and booked myself onto Denise Park's waiting list, I won't get to see her until the new year but I figure if she can't fix me no one will, and so I know then to give the running up as a bad joke. But I miss it so much I really need to know once and for all, cycling is great but i'd estimate even at it's best it gives me 40-50% of the enjoyment that comes from racing round Langdale on a hellishly grim lakeland day!

I thought it was just me.

For 2 / 3 yrs now I have been plagued with calf pulls . Tried all kinds and seen many different therapist .
However I thought I had a breakthrough having had about 4 months without issue and built up to 10k

The last therapist I seen was a rugby league injury therapist . After a few short tests he assured me my problems are coming from weak hamstring and Glutes. I was also starting to get pain in my Hips ( Tendonitis ) this he said was more evidence that my hamstring are doing nothing and my calf’s are being overloaded .
I was given a strength programme to balance my quads and hams as well as strengthen my Glutes and lower back
. After 2 week of weights I was back running built up to 10k and was fine for 3 months . Lock down hit so couldn’t do my weights programme and with two week bang , calf goes again. Could be a coincidence ? Or it could be the therapist is bang on and the lack is stimulus in my calf’s through the weight training put them back into sleep mode. Anyway . Back to square one. I’ll update in the coming weeks when I’m on the programme again now I have tools to train .

ALERT regarding "repeated calf injuries"
I have been having problems with my calves for some time now and cannot see a clear way through this. BUT, from my reading, I have found that intermittent calf pains can be a result of oxygen starvation of the muscles due to narrowed arteries. It can be an early warning of the possibility of future angina, heart attack or stroke.
Most of us see physiotherapy as our first port of call for "calf pain" but there is very little mention of intermittent claudication if you look online or talk to your physio. Most of the stuff online seems to glibly repeat others about "stretching" or "strengthening." These techniques are not applicable if you have narrowing arteries.
Just wanted to inform, not alarm. Maybe speak to a GP if you have stubborn lower leg/calf pains when you exercise.
PS I am 67, have been endurance running for half a century and do not want to give up quite yet but this calf stuff is a real pain. My sympathies to fellow mortals.