alright, i tryed emailing you eric, and it wouldnt work. You also dont have the ability to accept pm’s so i’ll post it here and hope for a reply. Also anyone who could help me, your more than welcome to reply as well… this is just a cut and paste from the email… here it is:
hey eric,
i have a question for ya.
I’m a college football player, and last season i started having probs with both soleus muscles. It got to the point that i could barely go 60 percent of a sprint, the only time they didnt kill me is when i was sitting. Then when the muscles hurt they hurt so bad that it made me wanna throw up. The only reason it stopped before was because i havent ran sprints since last fall. Now that summer is here i’m working back into sprinting, neither soleus has started being sore yet, but i can tell its tender. My right one feels like it did last year a day or 2 before i ran on it and really inflamed it. I had such a hard time with it after there was a problem that nothing helped. I just had to deal with it…
This year i’d like to nip it in the bud.
I have worked seated calf raises into my workouts on and off the whole off season. My buddy went down to train with Joe Defranco a couple weeks ago, and even Joe said the best thing to do is calf raises… So i’m just wanted to know if you would have any little tricks, thoughts or any input at all with this muscle that would help me. Including any lifts other than a seated calf raise to strengthen them. Basically just as much info as you can give me… thanks so much in advance.
I had this problem too. Every time I would do heavy sprint workouts I would pull a muscle in the calf, usually the soleous. Stretching definitely helps but there is one stretch that seems to really target that area. After warming up the calf muscle, bend over in the donkey calf raise position. Then with locked legs proceed to stretch the muscle. I use this at the track and also in the gym on the leg press machine with weights. I have been doing it now for about 2 months and haven’t had a recurrence.
Also, I have started wearing a compression sleave when I run and of course a good massage targeting that area helps as well. Believe it or not, the girls at the local massage parlor do just as good a job as the masseur at the gym. Good luck.
see the only problem that i would forsee with that is that the soleus muscle is only in use when the knee is bent. But I will try it anyways and see what happens
Can you be a little more specific as to the nature of the problem? Is it up in the muscle belly? Or, is it an issue down at the Achilles tendon? What kind of pain are you feeling: sharp, dull/achy, “raw,” or pressure?
If it’s pressure, I wouldn’t rule out compartment syndrome. If it’s the Achilles tendon, we can definitely do a lot to help you out.
Shoot me an email at ericcressey@hotmail.com and we’ll figure things out.
[quote]Papercut wrote:
I’m a college football player, and last season i started having probs with both soleus muscles. It got to the point that i could barely go 60 percent of a sprint, the only time they didnt kill me is when i was sitting. Then when the muscles hurt they hurt so bad that it made me wanna throw up. The only reason it stopped before was because i havent ran sprints since last fall. Now that summer is here i’m working back into sprinting, neither soleus has started being sore yet, but i can tell its tender. My right one feels like it did last year a day or 2 before i ran on it and really inflamed it. I had such a hard time with it after there was a problem that nothing helped. I just had to deal with it…
This year i’d like to nip it in the bud.
I have worked seated calf raises into my workouts on and off the whole off season. My buddy went down to train with Joe Defranco a couple weeks ago, and even Joe said the best thing to do is calf raises… So i’m just wanted to know if you would have any little tricks, thoughts or any input at all with this muscle that would help me. Including any lifts other than a seated calf raise to strengthen them. Basically just as much info as you can give me… thanks so much in advance.
[/quote]
You e-mailed me as well, but I’ll respond here.
Like Eric said, you have to give us more info for us to help. Does the muscle feel strained? I would also be interested to see what your flexibility/muscle tonus is like along the posterior chain.
Let us know.
Stay strong
MR
I never got that email, FYI; I’m normally very good about responding to reader inquiries.
I emailed your eric.
Here Mike, see if this helps.
Last year it hurt at the bottom of the belly of both calves. The pain was very bad, last year when i would run it would be just two different levels of nausiating ache that pumped. level 1 pain being less severe would occur in dorsiflexion of the sprint, or walking, level 12 pain happend in flexion/pushing off. Currrently I dont have that kind of pain, they are tender and a bit sore, so i’ve been icing, but it feels like (same as last year) that the ice doesnt get deep enough. Last year these muscles did not recover at all until after running stopped. I seriously never ever wanna feel that pain again, So now i’m babying them, aka i am not even sprinting… Which needless to say is something i need to do. I think thats as deep into it as i can go, if i missed something crucial that you need to know tell me and i’ll tell you anything else, i just want this shit to go away.
thanks alot guys
[quote]Papercut wrote:
see the only problem that i would forsee with that is that the soleus muscle is only in use when the knee is bent. But I will try it anyways and see what happens[/quote]
I thought the same thing and tried just about every stretching exercise I could find. Tried strengthening the soleous and vigorous massage as well. So far however, the stretch that I outlined above has improved my condition and I am able to sprint without any recurrence of the soleous problem which I have had for a couple of years now.
If you did get some advice from Eric Cressey or Mike Robertson I would appreciate if you share it as well.
Again, what is your flexibility like in you erectors, hams, calves, etc.? Not only as individual muscles, but as a whole?
Without being able to evaluate you, I would think all that strength/running work is continuing to shorten the muscle/fascia, and thus why you are getting pain. I could be totally wrong as well, but let us know what the length/tension are like in the above mentioned muscles so we can get you fixed up!
Stay strong
MR
[quote]Mike Robertson wrote:
Again, what is your flexibility like in you erectors, hams, calves, etc.? Not only as individual muscles, but as a whole?
Good point. I used to work quite a bit on flexibility and then when I was in grad school I had to shorten my workouts.Of course tretching was one of the first things to go. I have since started stretching more but have never regained the flexibility that I used to have. Overall,I would say that the area that needs the most improvement is the hamstrings. It’s difficult to give a more definitive assessment because it is so subjective.
I made the point earlier about stretching the calf muscle from a bent over position. From that position I can feel the calves being stretched, the hamstrings and the glutes. I can see the point that you allude to when you say not individually but as a whole. There is not other stretch that I do that has the same effect.
In retrospect, I believe my problems began when I stopped working calves from the bent over position. Not necessarily from a strength perspecitve but from the stretch that that work gave the calves and the hams. For now at least, my problem seems to be under control. Any additional insight or advice would definetly be appreciated.
Here was my initial response to his email, FYI:
[quote]
Good to hear from you, although I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances.
Interesting fact about soleus strains…contrary to popular believe, it generally isn’t just an acute injury during the take-off or toe off of jumping or running, respectively. In most cases, soleus muscle strains develop after one has had tight calves for an extended period of time.
I suspect that this is probably the case with you; otherwise, you wouldn’t be dealing with it bilaterally (unless one occurred after the other as a compensation, but you seemed to imply that they both kicked in at the same time). I’d be willing to bet that you’re someone whose heels come up off the floor during deep squats; am I right?
I think that your best bet right now is to do the following:
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Work on gentle flexibility exercises for the calves with the knee extended and slightly flexed.
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Incorporate DB dorsiflexion exercises daily to teach activation and restore a proper length-tension relationship. A few sets of 20 twice per day should do the trick. If you have access to a DARD, definitely take advantage of it.
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Start working with 3x15 long eccentric single-leg calf raises twice per day. High velocity and force movements are what is going to give you the most problem right now, so if you can significantly cut back on your sprinting for a few weeks, that would be ideal. The long eccentrics will do a lot to promote connective tissue health.
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As always, ice after all activity. If you have access to ultrasound, definitely take advantage of it.
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In the meantime, you’ll also want to work on flexibility at the knee, hips, and lower back. Often, the calf strain is just the manifestation of problems further up the kinetic chain. Do plenty of prehab work for the glutes (supine bridges and mini-band sidesteps on a daily basis) as well, and make sure that you’re hammering your posterior chain. No olympic lifts for the time-being, though.[/quote]
[quote]Mike Robertson wrote:
Again, what is your flexibility like in you erectors, hams, calves, etc.? Not only as individual muscles, but as a whole?
Without being able to evaluate you, I would think all that strength/running work is continuing to shorten the muscle/fascia, and thus why you are getting pain. I could be totally wrong as well, but let us know what the length/tension are like in the above mentioned muscles so we can get you fixed up!
Stay strong
MR[/quote]
I am above average definately, but not as flexible in my posterior chain/overall as i should be.
For the record, i found out about 2 weeks ago that the sides of my hips (abductors i believe is the term, but there is a 50/50 chance im wrong) are so unbelievably weak its amazing i squat as much as i do. I found this out while trying to perform my first ever set of cross-over step ups onto a box. I figured 135 would be a good weight to start at, to my suprise i could barely do the exercise with just my own bodyweight, no bar nothing… so do you think that could be a contributing factor to the probs i have?
As a side note, do you know any specific stretch that targets your spinal erectors?
thanks mike