My Calf Started Hurting Out Of Nowhere

by Christian

My calf started hurting out of no where, i don't recall injuring it anywhere.

Only thing i remember doing differently is putting new shoe insulators for my running shoes.

I just feel a real soreness and inflammation in my calf, i heard that if i stretch it out, soak it, or put ice-packs on it.

I was just wondering if there was anything else i could do to help it go away. I have a state cross country meet this weekend and i just needed to figure out a better solution to help speed up the healing process.

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Joshua Answers:

Hi Christian.

So....it sounds like you are a competitive runner, had no pain or problem, started using new shoes and suddenly had calf pain, and you're worried about future running hurting you more.

Yes?

I imagine that due to running and training, your muscles got tighter and tighter (in a specific pattern), connective tissue started shrink wrapping down, and your body got very efficient at a very specific set of motion.

Then you got new shoes and moved a little bit differently. And your nervous system and/or body didn't like that. Maybe you got a little tear or something, but more likely a little part of muscle that wasn't used to so much work got overworked and went into a pain/spasm cycle, and now you have an acute Process of Inflammation and soreness because the msucle is essentially in constant spasm and pain enhancing chemical from the inflammation process is flooding the area.

Probably you're short on Magnesium (info and suggestions) too.

You have a meet -this- weekend? Like today? Or next weekend?

What to do?

Get your magnesium levels up, as directed on the page the above link points to.

2. Ice. A lot. Ice Dip the whole lower leg in a 5 gallon bucket as direct on the How To Reduce Inflammation page.

3. Massage. With hand or other tool, start rubbing the calf. Do that for a few minutes, then start digging in and finding the hot spots/hard muscle spots. Don't hurt your self, but start pestering them, picking them apart, holding constant tension, etc. Explore, and learn.

Do that throughout the day, 5-10 minutes at a time. You need to get circulation in and out, soften the tissue, and send new information to the nervous system.

I doubt that you have Tendonitis, I doubt that you even injured yourself, but your body is responding like you -are- injured, and that's just as big a problem.

Get the inflammation out with ice and massage. Loosen up the tissue with ice and massage.
Magnesium.

See: What Is Tendonitis?

Watch out for the Pain Causing Dynamic

More questions, more answers.

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