Severe Soreness in Calves

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Hey everyone, im a semi lurker, but this has been bothering me. Im doing Waterbury Method, with some cardio on the inbetween days. Nothing fancy, just building up my cardiovascular system with 3 to sometimes 5 mile jogs. ( i make a gaterade/whey shake half before, half after, and another equivalent to a half of that to sip during… )

Im not trying to ‘cut up’ or ‘tone down’ or that nonsense (although with clean eating + the g flux concept , its working anyway). I just like the cardio, and am building up to where i can do some decent HIIT. Plus i hate walking, so if i get my vo2 max and resting heart rate bumped up/down respectively my ‘low intensity’ cardio will be at the pace i actually enjoy. Any way…

maybe its that the weather can be kinda cold outside, maybe that my calves are just taking a pounding doing so much running all on pavement, im not quite sure. Its to the point that ive cut out the direct calf work in WM to allow my self to run the next day. Today i attemped some HIIT, did 3x 30/90 sprints then had to jog afterwards instead of continue because the calves were SHOT and for somereason my knees (behind the cap) were killing me too.

I’ll admit, i definately do not stretch out before and after properly, if at all sometimes. Could this simply be it, or is there more i should look into or lay off cardio for a while for?

Maybe this is just a shameless plug to up my post count (kidding, but now that im done, it seems like a pretty useless post). But do i push foreward for an increased frequency type method, hoping it subsides/stimulated growth/gains, or rest a while?

2

take a rest my man, and for christ sake stretch after your workouts, i had same problem with calves killn me a few months ago. A good cool down with a few mins of stretching em after workouts did wonders.

3

Yeah, stretch your calves and anterior tibialis. If it’s tight it’ll be putting a lot of stress on your shins and calves.

I’m sure you know that running on pavement is one of the worst things you can do to your knees and ankles. Make sure you’ve got good shoes!

4

Thanks guys…knew it in the back of my mind. Just hearing it from a T-Nation’er makes me know ive gotta do it

5

A while back I did a set of 100 reps on standing calf raises, after not having trained them in 4 weeks- just for shits and giggles. For the next week, I shit you not, I could BARELY walk. My calves were so shot that they swelled up a bit, and were so painful I could barely run my finger over them without feeling pain.

All in all, it was a good experience :slight_smile:

6

excellent. im thinking of some high rep very low weight calf work inbetween running days/on resistance training days. Its definately what was mentioned , and i will be stretching them out since i am also feeling it in my shins. Thanks again.