Help for my poor calf muscles?

swsays

I am in the early stages of re-discovering my inner athlete and have found that impact exercises - things as easy as jumping jacks for instance - caused me a huge calf problem which almost felt like something was being injured, rather than just the usual muscle fatigue and soreness. I also seem to have tendinitis in my left Achilles. Have had it looked at and I don't have an injury or any damage to my Achilles or calf muscles. So I tried to start the c25k a few months ago and the first day was hell - felt like my left calf or parts of it were coming unattached - so I took a few weeks off and tried again. Not as bad and I ran a few times but it was still really painful afterwards. I stretched a ton before and after and tried the foam roller, but I would go a couple days hobbling after running. So then I thought perhaps I just needed to get some more weight off before I started running, and I just did something else instead, but today my Friday morning class turned into an outdoor circuit training run (those tricky instructors who tell you it won't be all running and then just keep you running and running!)

Anyway, the good news is that my lungs and all of me but my calves handled it just fine! Great NSV for me! Bad news is on the second sprint leg, I felt that same popping pain in my leg as my calf seized up. It was early on and I made it through the remaining 35 minutes and hills and stairs etc. with a mix of jogging and power walking, but no more sprinting and I did low impact everything else. Now - a couple hours later - I am very stiff but it still isn't as painful as it was back in January, so that's good! I have a date with my foam roller when I get home and will be stretching all day today.

And now the question - finally! My instructor runs a lot and swears by her calf compression sleeves. Is this something that a novice running would benefit from? I would really like to add running to my exercise routine, and I suspect over time I will strengthen these calves and things will get better, but if the compression sleeves would help that process, I'm all in! Any thoughts or advice?

cfsmith60

I'm sorry to say that I can't help you, but I'm having similar problems when I do jumping jacks. Calves start hurting within 15 seconds and don't let up. I couldn't imagine trying circuit runs.

I'll be reading this topic closely. Thanks for sharing and stay injury free.

-c

runnergrlfl

Compression sleeves won't help strengthen your calves, but they will help blood flow/circulation and help speed up recovery. For me, they also help reduced cramping in long runs.

I might suggest doing some actual calf strengthening exercises like seated and/or standing calf raises, jump squats, etc.

froeschli

Do you wear heels a lot? That can shorten the tendons in the backs of your legs...

This year, getting back into running, I've noticed more soreness in my calves as well, especially since I added cycling for cross training (and am only running in minimalist shoes, not alternating with cushioned ones).
My approach has been stretching, and taking it down a notch. No need to injure myself.

Clearly your body is telling you that it needs time adjusting to your new activity so just go at it slowly, don't avoid the "offending activities" altogether, but increase their volume slowly.