Apologies for the longer post, but I am trying to gather my thoughts and the physio advice received, to devise some sort of recovery and prevention plan addressing my reoccurring calf strains. In the off chance that someone might be in the same position, I thought I’d wrote it all down, as my ramblings over this issue might just give someone else some food for thought.
But my experience with my reoccurring calf strains, and probably also tight calves, has demonstrated to me how unique we each are, which can make it difficult to know how to move forward.
On this weekend I should have been running my 10k re-graduation run along side many other HU runners, as part of the HU10k/HM event, but here I am again nursing a calf strain. ( if you want to wave some virtual Pom Poms for everyone running on/around 19th May 2024, head to healthunlocked.com/marathon... )
In short, as I’ve written about it before, 17 days ago I pulled my right calf whilst walking (walking! Can you believe it!? healthunlocked.com/active10... ). After a period of RICE, I had gently started exercising again, indoor rowing and gentle stretching. It had started to feel normal again and I dared my first little gentle run 11 days after the calf pull. All fine, all felt good!
Two days later, 13 days after the calf strain, whilst I was walking from the train station to work, a 10 min walk (!), still consciously taking small steps and not over-striding, and suddenly, without warning, there was the ping of pain! I had pulled it AGAIN!!!
To say the least, I was frustrated!
I’m well on my way to recovery (again!), with plenty of advice from past posts, my physio, and various readings around tight calves and strains.
So I’m again trying in this post to sleuth my way through various pieces of advice and plan a way forward.
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SECTION 01 : Why?! Oh Why!?
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Even my physio was stumped to some extent. Ok, so I have tight calves, the gastroc to be specific. I found out it’s commonly called tennis leg. But the fact that my in-the-average one calf strain per year always occurs when walking, never running, is unusual. However, as a team of two super-sleuths, we came up with some contributing factors:
1) I have a desk-job, and am sitting much of my working day. As we know, sitting for long periods of time shortens the leg/feet muscles, resulting in a tight posterior chain, from ankles to lower back. (Remedy: could I work with a standing desk?)
2) I have always felt challenged with my walking, less so than with my running. So I don’t do it as much as I probably should. But amongst the three main activities I do (running, rowing and walking), walking is the only one which really stretches the whole posterior chain, and gets the ankles in positions that my Japanese slow running and my rowing never does. And the famous shuffling run of the Japanese slow running technique? It also doesn’t put pressure on a straightened calf muscle as much as “more normal” running styles do. But with my age, weight and ability, Japanese slow jogging is the only way for me to run. But so it’s logic my stretched posterior chain sometimes revolts, shouting at me via a calf strain. (Remedy: walk more, but somehow safely without calf strain? )
3) Since 3 years I have slowly moved over to using zero drop shoes. 1 year ago I started with zero-drop every-day work-walking shoes. I thought this was a slow enough transition, but as walking stretches the posterior chain, and my time walking is small compared to running and rowing, I think I need to consider myself still in transition. (Remedy: either small heel lifts or wear my 11mm drop shoes when walking to work)
4) When I’m not on the IC, I run 2-3 times per week, row 4-5 times per week, do stretches after each workout. But all that exercise does tighten up your muscles. That’s a good thing, unless you cannot relax them and stretch them back out enough, ahead of the next row or run or walk. This is of course the source of the suggestion that doing sport gives you injuries. Couch potatoes usually don’t get hamstring injuries, do they? So it’s important not to let the muscle tensions build up run after run, row after row, to suddenly reach a point of failure within a movement practice where muscles already need to be long, e.g. in my case walking. (Remedy: get back to rolling out whole posterior chain. Integrate poses such as down dog in post workout stretches.)
5) Amongst all my three key activities (running, rowing, walking), it’s walking where I often don’t have the time or take the time to warm up, as most of my walking is during commuting from or to work, or between campuses at work. So one of the great ideas my physio came up with was to focus on finding some warm-up exercises I could do on the train, or when sitting at my desk. She gave me four of these, and I’ll be trying to find a few more. (Remedy: use the train commute to do seated leg-warm-up exercises).
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SECTION 02 : My immediate recovery plan
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So what was my recovery plan? Well it’s ongoing and can be divided into phases.
1️⃣ Phase 1: Days 1 - 3 RICING
- RICE (p): I rested. I iced (Cold compress to accelerate healing (20 min in first 3 days). I compressed. I elevated. I didn’t need painkillers.
Don’t s: I didn’t stretch, which can tear at already torn muscle fibres. Didn’t put heat on it, which increases inflammation and overburdens the system. It then cannot heal.
Do’s: Gentle massage, but if painful, avoid tender area. Relative rest, e.g. depending on strain, walk slowly or don’t walk at all. I hobbled around.
2️⃣ Phase 2: Day 4 - 9 post injury
Knowing that scar tissue can build up, I use a roller lengthwise AND side-tilting (or cross-fibre massage with your thumbs), moving across the fibres. In the past, I’ve used a massage gun, but this time around I’m reverting to a roller. It feels as if it’s more effective.
When needing to walk, I donned my old 11mm drop shoes for work. And I will get some heel wedges to put into my other shoes to relief my muscles a bit at times. The 11mm shoes helped enormously.
I have recently started to wear compression sleeves when rowing/running and wearing one during this phase is suggested to be good. But I haven’t whilst RICE-ing, so need to start this. Tapes or bands are also possible if you know how to use them.
I’ve started doing some gentle exercise, as per below, but I try to pull back when it feels too much. That is sometimes harder than it sounds, especially for rowing, as there is no pain when rowing, I only feel that I’ve done too much afterwards.
3️⃣ Phase 3: Beyond the early days
With physio advice, I have just started doing gentle strengthening and mobility workouts, adding prevention and recovery, as per below.
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SECTION 03 : Preventative measures
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This took some time to work out. We knew what my diagnosis is, just not how exactly to prevent it from happening again. But I continue to try.
1️⃣ Warming calf muscles on the train
The physio had the great idea to look up some seated exercises I could do on the train, before I do my commuting walk to my work place. These should also work when seated at my desk. They should help to warm up my calves before I take any walking steps? Here’s hoping.
1) ankle plantarflexion, dorsiflexion, inversion, eversion : rolling onto your heels, than onto your toes. Than inside edge than outside.
2) Ankle circles seated.
3) Seated calf stretch: sit upright and slide one foot back underneath chair, as far as possible with foot flat on ground.
4) The physio also mentioned using sticky warming pads, but looking these up, I have found they were single use only, so want to avoid them. I will rather focus on warming compression sleeves and warm up exercises.
2️⃣ Prevention or adding to my stretch routines
The physio suggested to add a few key stretch movements to my post-workout routines, and we discussed the merits of rolling vs massage gun, her preferring the roller to work on those tight areas.
1) Add “down dog to Up dog” to post-workout stretches (or Tibetan Rite No 5)
2) Add rolling calves, hamstrings and lower back to daily routine
3) Add ankle mobility stretch
3️⃣ As usual / keep on doing these:
I’ll be continuing doing the following, which I can only be a good thing. Physio thinks so, too.
1) Do dynamic calf stretches before runs
2) Wear flexible walking boots
3) Use a roller or massage gun to smooth out those knots
4) Consider including jeffing if you need to be gentle with your calves whilst running
5) Adapt slowly when transferring over to zero-drops
6) Break up your desk-sitting as much as one can. Long time sitting is the worst for tight calves.
4️⃣ Optional things for me to consider in the future
So here comes a wish list of all things I might consider trying out, some of these have been on my list since quite a long time for all sorts of other reasons and I’m saving up for the two most expensive items:
1) Heel lifts, to give a bit of relief when walking at work
2) Warming compression sleeve (non-electric)
3) Treadmill, to help with walking (and running) any time if day (this is a big one, and I have been thinking about a treadmill for ages. If I had one, it would help. But I don’t, at the moment, so another reason for putting this on my wish list)
4) Standing desk or rather desktop standing desk contraption, as standing should also stretch my gastroc more. This has been on my mind for quite a while as well, as it is said to help with back strength.
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Conclusion
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So there we are.
Another “off the injury couch journey” in the making.
Hope you forgive my list-y ramblings as I recover, and would love to hear any experiences you may have had on calf-related recoveries. Will post some video links of exercises I find.
Happy working out, everyone!
