Calf tightness...

[eldorado]

Looking for some advice...*

I'm 44, and have jogged most of my life, to counteract a short, stocky frame.

The last two years though, I've had a recurring calf niggle, that has seen me mostly stop jogging (and put on way too many kilos)

It's certainly not a tear, doesn't seem to be much more than a deep 'tightness'. Whenever I feel it, I stop jogging. I give it a week or two rest, start jogging again, it tightens up again

Tonight, it happened again, but as I'm now getting pissed off with it, I kept jogging.

It didn't seem to get worse.

I'm thinking I might just jog through it from now on, as it doesn't seem to be going anywhere in a hurry.

My question for the physio types: is am I likely to do genuine damage to it by jogging through it? My pace is very moderate (at least until I get some fitness back up)

Is calf 'tightness' a signal that you're on the verge of serious tissue damage, or something that continued exercise would eventually counteract.**






*Roswell, this means your wisdom is required...Henry Jnr, your snide comments are not.



**I'm aware that all cases are different, and more info is probably needed

 

[Henry Jr]

What about... oh never mind

Ah screw it. I was just looking for a thread like this one.

Why not take off the 9 gold chains around you neck whilst doing the running Eldo?

Dude... Are you really 44 years old

I see that Echols now has his own picture on the chains now...

 

[eldorado]

(sigh...)

 

[mattyflux]

Hey mate,

First thing you need to know is that your muscles don't just spasm or tighten for no reason, something has to trigger it. So I would say that they are either too weak and they tigthen because they are being overloaded or they lack flexibility and tighten because they are being forced close to their limit of stretch repeatedly with your jogging. Or possibly you have an old calf tear there which is being aggravated when you run.

What you need to do is get a good deep tissue massage froma physio or good remedial massage therapist. Then you need to stretch properly. Both calf muscles which are called your gastrocnemius and your soleus. Most people know how to do a standard gastroc stretch but a lot neglect the soleus. You can stretch soleus by basically doing the same stretch as the gastroc but with your knee bent.
You also need to strengthen your calf concentrically (when the muscle shortens) and eccentrically (when the muscle lengthens). Easiest way to do these strengthening exercises at the same time is to do a single leg calf raise off the edge of a step. So you start with your forefoot on the step and your heel off the back of the step.....push up onto your toes as far as you can nice and slowly (concentric)............. then lower your heel down past the height of the step nice and slowly (eccentric) as far as comfortable. If you want to run you need to be able to do at least 30 of these on each leg before you have to stop due to pain or tightness.

Calf tightness and tears are notorious for recurring so it is important that you take the time to get it right otherwise it will just keep niggling away. I would give yourself at least a month just focussing on getting it right, then gradually get back into the running starting off on small runs and building up to what you would normally do slowly.

There are other things that can contribute such as irritation of your sciatic nerve and othe back related problems as well and as much as you will hate me saying this you are at an age where they are very common. Its due in part to a loss of fluid in your muscles thereby making them more prone to tear than stretch plus a lot of people put on a few kg's during their 30's and 40's.

Hope that helps buddy. Good luck!