So I was flipping a tire I’ve flipped 9000000 times for years after a heavy front squat workout and I heard a loud pop coming from my leg. Instantly limping and the upper muscle belly of my calf hurts and I can’t push off my toes.
I find I have full function and ROM of the ankle (dorsiflexion and opposite motion) but I can’t push off the toe without pain. It appears it’s a muscle belly tear and a moderate one at that, and I have a contest in 2 1/2 months and I’m not sure what exactly I should be and shouldn’t be doing for rehab. Atm, I can limp around with little pain or discomfort and it makes the injury feel a bit better, while sitting does the opposite. Clearly I won’t be training anything but upper body for a little bit (1-2 weeks maybe).
Also, using T-nation exclusively as my doctor which is sagacious, I know. I feel like a physio is just gonna tell me everything I can find online since I do not believe this needs surgery and it certainly is not a tendon rupture.
So yeah, any advice? I know it’s a common injury but I’m looking for some anecdotal stuff, would be very appreciated.
I’ve torn both mine. The left I didn’t go to the doctor and limped around for 3-4 months. About half my foot turned blue. I think it was deep since the calf itself didn’t turn blue. Soleus maybe?No direct calf work or jogging for 5-6 months.
The right one was gastroc and plantaris. I still have a large visible divot in the gastroc. I went to Dr on this one. Lots of swelling. The lividity was mid-calf and behind the knee. I started doing easy calf extensions with a band at home three days after the injury and it helped. Since this injury was at work though, I was sent to do PT. Basically band extensions, heat, and range of motion tests at the PT. After a couple of weeks, I did toe raises on a block. Maybe 8 weeks til 100%.
Second left calf tear was caused by locking my knee pushing a heavy prowler. No dr, just limped for a month.
I wouldn’t do anything for three days and maybe see where you stand. A doctor won’t do much for soft tissue except a work note and meds. The MRI didn’t even show anything on my right one even though it was obviously torn, swollen and livid. I did do box squats around 5 days after tearing it.
Unlucky timing mane. Absolute best case with a minor injury your calf will be recovered, rehabbed and fairly well conditioned for your comp in 8-12 weeks. Unfortunately by the sound of it your injury is a bit more serious so even if you do everything right you’ll still have a decent risk of re injury by the time comp rolls around. Anyways at this early stage its hard to tell.
If I was you I’d be preparing for the possibility of pulling out of the competition depending on how risky the events are and maybe leaving it to the last minute to gauge where I’m at.
For now we can’t really do anything other than manage symptoms, protect the injury and monitor how it’s going. Maybe in a week give or take a few days the symptoms will clear up and we can run some tests and see where we at. Most frustrating part of the game IMO but all we can do for the next few days is take it easy. Like bighdx touched on low body work of some description might be back sooner than you’d think.