4th week of Insanity-- Extremely sore calf muscles?!

liz_walkerrr

Just as the title says, I am in the 4th week of Insanity and I am finally able to keep up with the workouts.. However, I have HORRIBLE pain in my calf muscles as well as the arches of my feet. Really, the pain radiates from my toes, up the backside of my leg, to the bottom of my knee.. I had general soreness the first week, it went away, and then it came back again a few days ago. It hurts so bad that I have to stop for a few seconds and then begin again.. They begin hurting as soon as the warm up begins, but then it goes away after the stretches. I do try to stretch my calf muscles before and after the workout, as I don't think there is enough stretching included in the program. I have also been working out barefooted on carpet, because my cross trainers kill my feet. Any thoughts on what else to do? I don't drink the results and recovery formula, because I do not want to pay for it! I have searched the threads for someone else with the same experiences, but everyone else just complained about soreness during the first week. Sorry so long!

piejin

I went through the same thing the first time I did Insanity! By the end of the first month my calves were just killing me constantly. I thought that the recovery week would help, but for me it actually made it worse because doing the same workout every day meant putting the same strain on the same muscles every day when they were already tired! What I eventually ended up doing is taking a few days off entirely after the recovery week finished/before starting the second month. That way I could give my legs a serious, real break that they desperately needed. The other thing you can do in the meantime is modify some of the exercises to make them a little lower impact... Like for the power jumps, instead of bringing your knees up all the way, just focus on jumping high instead, or putting a step in between switch kicks and things like that.

auntscrewy

Be careful. Too much too fast results in achilles tendonitis. And then you won't be able to do much at all for months while it heals.

westendcurls

I take insanity at my gym. The instructor is constantly reminding everyone to keep their heels down for this very reason. Sorry your sore. Try to keep reminding yourself, Heels down!

fast_eddie_72

Careful. I got a really bad calf muscle right before my last half marathon. I cut my training back and ran the event, but I swear it took two months for it to heal. I'm sure it would have been better if I hadn't run the event, but I just wasn't going there.

I had good luck using the elliptical while it was getting better.

kelfran1

I have also been working out barefooted on carpet, because my cross trainers kill my feet.

I don't mean this in a mean-spirited way, but you paid $$ for a workout DVD set, now you need to spend $$ on quality shoes. Workout shoes should not kill your feet.

mmm_drop

I had a similar problem when I first started T25. I replaced my shoes and the problem was solved.

CharlieSmurfetteFarley

I've trained barefoot for years in the martial arts. There is a great deal to be said for the bio mechanics of the foot. Barefoot training itself shouldn't cause injury as much as unsupervised, one size fits all dvd exercise programmes do. Look at it this way; we are all different shapes and sizes and have different nutritional needs right? Everyone accepts that and adjusts their macro and energy targets accordingly on here, so why is it different with training? We shouldn't all be doing the same exercises as each other, at the same intensity... and yeah, just realising I wanted to rant on about poorly programmed exercise DVDs and the risks that come with unsupervised training and yes, I'm biased. kthanksbye.... Go and get it looked at though really x