Calf Muscles

Penn

Hey all,

Recently started working out, going to the gym about 4 times a week, trying to lose a lot of weight. Its tough, but also enjoyable and I feel much better afterwards. The only problem is the treadmill.

A few years ago, I had an accident with a lawnmower and between trouble with ingrown toenails and numerous infections on my right foot, I was pretty much limping on and off for about a year and a half. Anyway, going to the gym is grand. Rowing machine, cross trainer, bike. They're all grand. But if I walk too much or run my right calf muscle tightens really quickly and forces me to stop.

Like I said, I'm out of shape so I knew going to the gym would be tough, but its only really the treadmill thats giving me any trouble. I'm stretching before I get on any machine in the gym, a few general ones that the instructor showed me. Is there any particular stretches which could help or would it be a case of having to get a specialists advice?

Brian?

paddyirishman85 wrote: »

Hey all,

Recently started working out, going to the gym about 4 times a week, trying to lose a lot of weight. Its tough, but also enjoyable and I feel much better afterwards. The only problem is the treadmill.

A few years ago, I had an accident with a lawnmower and between trouble with ingrown toenails and numerous infections on my right foot, I was pretty much limping on and off for about a year and a half. Anyway, going to the gym is grand. Rowing machine, cross trainer, bike. They're all grand. But if I walk too much or run my right calf muscle tightens really quickly and forces me to stop.

Like I said, I'm out of shape so I knew going to the gym would be tough, but its only really the treadmill thats giving me any trouble. I'm stretching before I get on any machine in the gym, a few general ones that the instructor showed me. Is there any particular stretches which could help or would it be a case of having to get a specialists advice?

I'd get to a physio man. No idea why one calf would cramp and not the other, there could well be something structurally wrong.

The other thing is, you don't really want to be doing static stretching before exercise, you should be doing dynamic stretching. Its discussed here:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055454318&highlight=stretching

theluckyduck

When i tore my ACL, it took a fair old time to get better. During this time for some reason my injured leg favored using my calf (hence it is bigger than my healthy legs calf) over my quads (hence that is smaller than my healthy legs quads).

Not sure of the science behind it... but there were some flexibility issues that arose as well. Should definitely go to see a physio as soon as ya can. but in the mean time have a look at this over the weekend:

http://www.cmcrossroads.com/bradapp/docs/rec/stretching/stretching_4.html#SEC36

For some reason I find this form of stretching works well on me

Penn

briankeating wrote: »

I'd get to a physio man. No idea why one calf would cramp and not the other, there could well be something structurally wrong.

The other thing is, you don't really want to be doing static stretching before exercise, you should be doing dynamic stretching. Its discussed here:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055454318&highlight=stretching

Yeah I always start off with 10 minutes on the rowing machine before I stretch.

I might just avoid the treadmill for the next while til I have the chance to go to a doctor or physio.There does be a bit of tightening in my left leg, but its mostly the right leg, the one I'd been limping on.

Cheers for the advice and the links

puntosporting

Threadmills suck in my opinion !
Try jogging on your toes as much as possible on grass for a few weeks if you can!
For whatever reason there sounds like an imbalance between both legs!
Do some single leg calf raises with decent weight slow and exaggerate the movement going realy low and as high as possible !
There could also be some other imbalances with your quads and hams causing to to over compensate somewhere along the line!
A good physio would be able to pick up on it by watching you walk and examining your gait.
Best bet would be to work on building up your legs but work each leg seperatly to avoid you over compensating one for the other!
Someone mention ACL earlier and i had a similar prob but working the legs individualy helped me to sort out my issue!

Roper

There's some ankle/calf mobility exercises you could do which are quite hard to explain in writing. Basically though you should be spending a lot of time on one leg, much of what you're doing right now probably just reinforces the bad habits and inflexibility. Is the lawnmower related injury fully healed?

Penn

Roper wrote: »

Is the lawnmower related injury fully healed?

Yeah, no problem with it for a few years now. Just the way it affects that leg first makes me think that the way I had been regularly limping may have caused a bit of damage or affected my gait.

Cheers for the advice guys. Actually did 10 minutes today on an incline treadmill and no problem, but took it slow and didn't run. Did a few of the calf stretches someone linked to beforehand too. Guess it'll just be a case of building it up slowly

samurai kebab

When I was about 13 I broke a few metatarsal bones in my foot a section of one was even dusted as I like to say(about two inches was missing from it in the x-ray) now because of this I spent from christmasish time till the summer in a cast and on crutches and had to keep the crutches for awhile longer even when the cast came off.

So after about 9 months I had the all clear and was free to do what I liked. Now I could walk fine no problem but anytime I would run no matter how short a distance(running across a road etc) I would get a seering pain in my achilles. Now I left this for a few months probably 3 or 4 but there was no improvement and ended up going to a physio. Went to the physio for about 6 months regularly but it completly sorted out the problem and in all the years since i've never felt the slightest twinge in it.

Basically you might be better off trying to go to a physio sooner rather than later as you don't want to aggravate any problems and make them worse than they already are. Either way hope all goes well for you, good luck.