Just a quick little sharing of my cone-back-journey, on how my calves are doing after having returned from my stint on the injury couch.
Ca 25 days ago, a well-known twinge in my calves was the start of a recovery period from a minor calf strain. I posted about it in S&F healthunlocked.com/strength..., but I thought I’d post here as well, as my calf strain seems to originate from my walking activities, and not from my running or rowing.
And twinges and niggles are so common that Oldfloss even has a few posts about these “pesky twosomes” at healthunlocked.com/strength...
That these twinges happen to me only when walking, and not running or rowing, makes a weird sort of sense to me. Having mostly a desk job means my legs are mostly in the bent position, over decades probably shortening my calf muscles. And running and rowing do not involve straightened AND weight-loaded legs.
So according to my logic, but I may be completely wrong here, it makes sense that my calves have a bit more work to do in their lengthened position, as walking includes a weight-loaded moment when feet are flexed, and legs are lengthened. Add to that that I slowly moved over to zero-drop shoes last year, my calves have their work cut out for them.
I think it makes sense, right?
I know it was a minor calf strain, meaning I could just about walk still, when needed, with some pain and hobbling. But I took it very easy in the first week, icing, resting and elevating.
From there, I spent and am still spending considerable time in phase 2, with using compression sleeves when I walk and work out, still icing at times, and definitely doing calf exercises both targeting strength and flexibility. (If you need ideas for that, head over to our S&F forum! ( healthunlocked.com/strength... )
But a game changer for me was the introduction of cross-fibre massages on my legs that are aimed at removing any potential scarring. Scarring, in turn, impedes the smooth sliding of our muscles over each other and over the fascia, the fabric that sits between, above and beneath the muscles (as far as I understand).
I started doing some walk-runs last week, and yesterday, I managed a continued 4.5k walk.
Tadaaa!!!!! 😅😄😁🎉
No pain in my calves, so good news.
So hope everyone is twinge and niggle free, but if you’re not, why not share it here. I find myself sometimes thinking that these setbacks are there for the purpose of focussing more on particular parts of our body, asking for strengthening of areas that we might have forgotten about.
Happy walking!
