Very tight gastrocnemius(calf) muscle?

August 10, 2006 3:49 PM

RunningFilter: What do I do about a very tight gastrocnemius (calf) muscle?

I'm on my 4th week of a 16 week marathon training plan (my first marathon), and my gastrocnemius gets tighter and tighter with each passing run. Assuming I understand this stuff, it's the gastrocnemius, because it's very hard to move my toes upwards ('dorsoflex'?) when my leg is straight, but easy when my leg is bent. I stretch my calves for about 90 seconds per leg, 5 times a week in the following manner:

I can't seem to get any decent amount of stretch from the against-a-wall leaning thing often recommended for calf stretching.

It's getting so tight that I can't do any hamstring stretches with a straight leg, because it feels like my calf is literally ripping in half. :P This is particularly painful with anything that even sort of resembles this:

(The seated hamstring stretches are a bit more managable)

Do I need to be stretching it even more, or what?

posted by anonymoose to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (10 answers total)

I've generally liked to recommend Pilates for improving flexibility. Ideally get an instructor to show you stretches and make sure you tell them what you want to work on.

The cheaper option is to get a good book on it. I've had this book recommended to me (it seems to have been essentially a course textbook for a coaching course in rowing, my pet sport), I bought it, and liked it, and now I recommend it on. Go for the easiest exercises until you're really confident, do them often, and build up from there. Other books are probably good too.

Little and often though - avoid risking injury and don't push yourself.
posted by edd at 4:07 PM on August 10, 2006

I did a medical study this winter which was the first time I was, since grammar school, jogging for exercise. (I keep to the ellipticals since my 14th ankle sprain.) The trainers noticed that I was doing the same thing and told me to massage it nightly, preferably with a tennis ball, and after jogging. When I remembered to do this, it helped a lot. When I forgot, I ended up limping down the track the next day.

One of my trainers also did some awesome massage; she dug in hard between the calf muscles and held it for a moment until it all of a sudden felt soooo much better.
posted by cobaltnine at 4:40 PM on August 10, 2006

I hit this problem a few months ago and what worked for me was a combination of a foam roll after every exercise session, backing off a wee bit on the running and getting professional massages about two weeks apart.
posted by ambrosia at 4:50 PM on August 10, 2006

Are you getting enough potassium? When I'm not, I always get the same kind of pain in the calf that you're describing. Eat bananas!
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 5:38 PM on August 10, 2006

Also, doing some partner assisted dorsi flexions would be beneficial. Besides stretching and strengthening, a study was published (I can find the article if needed) that showed that doing partner assisted dorsi flexion helped prevent shin splints.
posted by Loto at 5:50 PM on August 10, 2006

In my experience, this is one of those tightnesses/injuries that you need to stretch and stretch and then stretch some more. I spent a lot of time letting my heels hang down off of stairs (toes on the stair and heels below, similar to the first picture posted). Be gentle with yourself but also be perisistant - since the muscle has remained tight, stretch it even more.
posted by lumiere at 6:49 PM on August 10, 2006

My physical therapist recently told me to stretch my very tight forearms (which are overworked, like your calf) for 30 seconds 3 times in a row every HOUR. This is way more than I've ever stretched anything, and honestly I haven't been doing it that often, but it's something that might help you. I've also heard that strengthening the muscle opposite the clenched-up one can help balance things out. In your case, you'd want to strengthen your shin muscles, probably using a resistance band.

When I used to have horribly tight calves as a dancer I always wondered if a "night splint" would help, which passively stretches your calf all night while you sleep (they're generally prescribed for plantar fasciitis, but tight calves are one of the causes of that) but I never bought one. You might ask around/ask a doctor about that.
posted by nevers at 7:02 PM on August 10, 2006

Either active isolated stretching or very gentle and very persistant (a minute or two) static stretching. If you're near the DC area, I know a great guy who teaches active isolated stretching. Email's in my profile.
posted by callmejay at 8:52 PM on August 10, 2006

the banana suggestion is excellent, potassium is very much needed
posted by matteo at 6:34 AM on August 11, 2006

I'd second active isolated stretching, although it's best to get someone to teach you how to do it. I used this system during a time when I drastically increased my training miles and it's the only time that I didn't get shin spints or any other injury.
posted by jefeweiss at 8:15 AM on August 11, 2006