Calf pain help - any suggestions?

mkakids

I need some help. About 2 weeks ago I noticed that I was both walking and running on the outside edge of my left foot. Putting almost no weight onto the ball of my foot. This was a new development - I usually have a solid strike when running.

I wasn't in any pain, and could deliberately walk on the full foot without issue, but if I wasn't paying attention I went back to the outside edge.

I consciously changed the way I was walking/running for a few days and developed calf pain. Its mostly along the shin and the lower calf near the back of my ankle. Its not SUPER painful, but its constantly there whenever I am walking or running. Its a nagging pain. Worse when I have been sitting for a while and stand up to walk.

I feel like it a muscle issue and not a major injury, but I'm not sure. I have a deep tissue massage scheduled for this afternoon to try and work it out.

Any other suggestions on what it can be or how to relieve some of the discomfort? I did order a foam roller the other day, but its not in yet. I do plan on adding that to my routine.

lporter229

How old are your shoes?

5512bf

lporter229 wrote: »

How old are your shoes?

After how old are the shoes is answered were you fitted at a running store who analyzed your running? I got fitted for a pair of shoes after a hockey injury to help with ankle stability and as the ankle got stronger these shoes made me run more on the outer edge of the shoes, which broke them down much faster. Going to a shoe with a little less stability the next time made the foot strike better.

mbaker566

if you have a tennis ball, or any sort of hard ball, you can roll it. like a massage/foam roller.
i have tight calves and i find warmth helps the muscle relax. and lunges and foward folds(touch your toes) stretch also stretch out the muscles and helps. imo

mkakids

My shoes are a little under 1 month old and were properly fitted at a running store where they did a gait analysis. They only have about 80 miles on them.

lcyama

I recently suffered a sore calf muscle as well! Mine was most likely an overtraining injury caused by adding an extra day to my run training schedule. I did three things to make it feel better, and I don't know for sure if one or all were what did the trick, but here they are:

1) compression sleeves + elevation [put my foot on my desk ]
2) stretching [especially after a run]
3) strengthening

you can google "calf stretching" and "calf strengthening", but here are a couple of links to get you started:

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/strengthening-calf-muscles
http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/stretching/the-5-most-effective-calf-stretches.html

i hope you feel better soon.

MobyCarp

First you try rest, and all the other things mentioned earlier in this thread. If the problem persists in spite of doing the cheap/easy stuff, get checked out by a physical therapist. The PT's area of expertise is how everything in the chain works together in motion. That can identify a root cause that you never would have figured out on your own. Fix the root cause, and many of the problems simply go away.

Been there, done that, and it was well worth my time and money to be told I needed to work on things that didn't seem obviously related to where it hurt. [Details deliberately omitted, because whatever issues you have are almost certainly different from the issues I had.]

mkakids

Thank you! i ended up getting a deep tissue massage which worked wonders!

FromHereOnOut

Is it possible that the new shoes you were fitted for "changed" your gait/form so that you were setting down on the outer edge? Then you forced yourself to work against the shoes in an unnatural way. ? I don't know. I clicked this thread because I have ongoing achilles & calf problems. My only solution has been to stop running , walk only in Converse All Stars, and do eccentric heel drops (especially bent-knee)...but I'm still working on it. But from your story, it seems that your gait "suddenly" changed to the outside of your foot around the same time you got the new shoes (even if you didn't notice it immediately), so sounds like that was the culprit and then forcing yourself to land in the middle worked against the shoe and may have caused your problem. You might want to ditch those shoes. Definitely start eccentric heel drops immediately if you still have problems. The sooner you start, the better.