UKH

I have been getting a sore muscle in the inner calf after running. It doesn't feel like an injured muscle, but I would like to keep that being the case!! I can't work out how to warm it up or stretch it out after. If you were to look front on at a lower leg, it's the bit of muscle that bulges in towards the other leg. The upper bit is where I am feeling it.

Any thoughts? 

In reply to girlymonkey:

I find the most effective calf stretch is where you place the underside of your foot against a wall with your heel on the ground and then move your body towards the wall keeping your knee straight (one leg at a time). I’m not sure I’m explaining it very well but if you look up Kelly Starret on YouTube he has lots of videos regarding tight calves. You can concentrate the calf stretch on either the inside or outside of the calf by angling your heel either away or towards your body. 

In reply to Anti-faff:

I had tried that but without the angling, maybe that will make the difference. I tend only to stretch after, ant tips for warming it up?

In reply to girlymonkey:

My warm ups consist of ‘running-slow-and-thinking-about-food-for-a-bit’, so I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer in that regard, sorry.  

In reply to girlymonkey:

Google tennis leg, it's the none technical name. Sounds similar, although it's typically a middle aged weekend warrior injury. Yours sounds like the opposite side of the calf though. 

What condition are your shoes, or always run on the road facing the traffic(road camber issue)? 

In reply to girlymonkey:

Have you tried using a foam roller on it?

I find this works my calves better than stretching. No idea why as stretching seems to work fine on every other muscle group...

In reply to girlymonkey:

Hi,

I’ve got the same problem. Been stretching by standing on a step and dropping the heel for 30/40 seconds in 3 different positions i.e. Pidgeon toed, like a duck.

But to be honest even though it feels tight i’m not convinced it’s the muscle.

I’ve been using a foam roller every night and that would appear to be helping.

In reply to girlymonkey:try straight and bent leg calf stretches to see if one 'gets in' better than the other.

On, off road? Shoes? I warm up by starting gently. Are you it's not just fatigue after changing something?

In reply to wbo:

Predominantly off road but canicross, so wild dog pulling like a train! Gentle start isn't an option as he is too excited! It is always an explosive start! It would be good to find some way of warming it up first before I attach the crazy.

I will try the stretches with toes in and out

In reply to girlymonkey:

Just a guess

Rather than keep stretching it, increase the number/quantity of strengthening exercises for the affected region (as well as a reasonable amount of stretching). You are probably at capacity and feeling it as a result. I would add calf raises (straight and bent leg) three times a week - make sure you get a bit of DOMS - but not too much and see if that slowly improves the situation. Also make sure the calf isn't working more due to flatter shoes, very old shoes or a lot of hill work.

HTH Steve

In reply to girlymonkey:what shoes?  Cushioned or hard? Forefoot striker? 

You might need to warm up without the dog

In reply to girlymonkey:

Angle your foot out when stretching? Foam roller?

In reply to SouthernSteve:

Stretches - the second for before the run specifically

https://www.kinetic-revolution.com/great-calf-stretch-to-target-different-a...

youtube.com/watch?v=7Zs4hh4cp98&

In reply to SouthernSteve:

What is DOMS?

There is usually a bit of hill (can't avoid it really) but nothing serious.

In reply to wbo:

Innovate roclite shoes. I guess they would be medium cushioned? Not really sure. It's my first pair of trail shoes so not much to compare them to. 

Not sure about forefoot striking. I presume you are asking which bit of my foot hits the ground first? I have never thought about it, I just run and hope I don't fall over! Lol

In reply to SouthernSteve:

Thanks. That looks useful 

In reply to girlymonkey:

Delayed onset muscle soreness. Not something you should get from normal training or stretching. 

In reply to summo & girlymonkey:

Re the DOMS as summo says – you should know you have done the exercise - be a little bit stiff for 48 hours, not be waking down the stairs backwards (me after an Ultra!).

In reply to SouthernSteve:

No, it doesn't sound like that. Kinda more normal muscle soreness, but I get it all the time. It's not super sore and I can do everything but it doesn't seem to stop hurting after a couple of days

In reply to girlymonkey:

The stiffness I meant was as a result of the strengthening exercises. Generally if you elongate a muscle under load if gets this kind of stiffness quite easily - think quads after running down a steep hill if you are unpracticed. 'Just a little' indicates you are getting good effect without being too sore or needing to stop exercising for longer than normal resting between bouts. It is usually seen early in an exercise programme and then gets much less common. As the Americans say stress + rest = growth. Apologies Rather rambling comment.

In reply to girlymonkey:I'm ok. Well to be honest if I went running regularly in shoes with limited cushioning, and with a pretty hard start I'd get sore legs as well. 

In reply to girlymonkey:

Calf raises might help but I would be cautious about trying that first as you might agravate the problem. Whenever I have been advised to do them by a physio they have always suggested only training them eccentrically. Normal running, especially anything fast or uphill will train your calves concentrically quite enough. That kind of concentric training is usually prescribed after recovery not at the beginning of having a problem. If your issue stems from overuse or the function of your calf muscle being hindered by another issue then training it with calf raises is putting extra strain on something which is already hurting - not a good idea. Eccentric loading may well help but it still causes stress to the muscle so I would go easy with it and not use additional weight until it was healed.

The other things that have helped me are isometric stretching and self administered myofacial release. Some people seem to be able to achieve the latter with a foam roller but for me the best way I have found is to dig my thumb into the muscle and then flex my ankle back and forth. If you're tender already then the goal isn't to hurt yourself with it but it is quite uncomfortable. Isometric stretching is very easily achieved with the calf muscles by standing on a step and letting your heel drop into a stretch then activating the muscle to raise yourself slightly out of the stretch, holding and then releasing back down and repeating. Best performed after the massaging as you will increase your range of motion. As others have said you can experiment with different degrees of knee felxion not just with a straight leg. The position of your toes has an effect as well, if you have an incline board (or a bit of wood on some steps) then you will notice the extra strain by having your toes prevented from curling down.

In my (limited) experience most muscle pains are caused by a problem somewhere else, quite often that muscle making up for an imbalance, weakness or tightness somewhere else. The only way you'll fix that is by seeing a good physio. Your body should be capable of doing what you're doing with flat uncusioned shoes as long as you build up to it slowly and don't have any pre-existing conditions which the extra strain might bring out.