How to ease tight calves
Tight calves are a common problem for runners, especially if you start running later in life. You might experience slight pain to excruciating cramping that feels like you’ve been shot in the leg at close point range.
ight calves are a common problem for runners, especially if you start running later in life. You might experience slight pain to excruciating cramping that feels like you’ve been shot in the leg at close point range.
Like most injuries they are treatable and preventable
4 reasons you might have tight calf muscles
1 Overuse – running too much, too soon, too fast with little recovery
2 Muscle strain or pulling a calf muscle
3 Lack of warming up
4 Poor biomechanics in the foot
Overuse
Like all muscles in the body adapting to an increase in running takes time, it you do the Terrible Too’s (too much, too soon, too quickly) without allowing your calf muscles to recover you are at risk of picking up an overuse injury
Muscle strain/pull
Two of the biggest muscles that run along the back of your lower leg are called the Gastrocnemius and Soleus muscle. A muscle strain is when a tear occurs in the muscle fiber and the pain and tightness of the calf will depend on the severity of the tear, you will know how bad the tear is by the symptom of the muscle strain – does it feel like you’ve been shot or is there just tenderness around the muscle.
Lack of warming up
Luckily the days of just jumping out of the car and running as fast as you can with your running buddies is long gone and we now know how important a warmup is. If you don’t stretch your calf muscles regularly then your muscles might shorten and become tighter.
Feet!
Feet! How are your feet, do you look after your feet and ankles, or do you just ignore them? Your running style and the way your foot hits the ground combined with your ankle mobility could contribute to calf tightness. The strength of the foot is vital for lower limb stability and strength.
How to release tight calves
1 Stretching
2 Compression
3 Foam rolling your calf muscles
4 Sports massage
Stretching
Stretching regularly can relieve the pain and tightness of your calves and it’s important to stretch after you’ve run whilst the calf muscle is still warm.
Compression
Compression socks can help although the scientific research is certainly not conclusive, however if it works for you then do it.
Rolling your muscles
Form rollers are effective if you use them correctly, they can cause discomfort and it is quite hard to do on yourself as it is painful. My advice is to form roll wearing jeans, it gives you a bit of a buffer between your muscles, body weight and a foam roller
Sports massage
Having regular sports massages can help relax your muscles and improve your flexibility, you don’t have to wait until you are injured before you go for a sports massage, putting this regularly in your calendar will benefit your overall running.