Pain-Free Calves

Q: I struggle with recurring calf injuries. Could it be because I’ve moved to a hilly suburb and now end up running hills all the time? – Bianca B.

A: Yes. When you run hills, your quadriceps, or front thigh muscles, have to work extra hard. This might lead to shortening of the connective tissue around the quadriceps, resulting in shortening of the muscle.

As soon as the quads shorten, the calf muscle lengthens, leading to weakening of the calves. A weaker, lengthened calf muscle will use muscle spasm to simulate a muscle contraction and you will end up with tears and ‘tight’ calves.

To prevent this, it is important to keep changing your running routes between hilly and flat. By running the same type of route all the time, you develop a certain group of muscles, in your case the quads, without developing the rest of the muscles. This leads to imbalances and injury.

Secondly, don’t stretch your calves, even if they feel tight, and rather focus on stretching the quads.

To strengthen the calves, you can use the same hilly route, but this time walk it instead of running. Walking hills works mainly the calves and that will cancel out your imbalance.

The important thing to remember is how much the muscles of the legs are interconnected. If a certain part of the leg hurts it’s almost always because of an imbalance somewhere else.

Visit www.benitadewitt.com (benita@enviroafrica.co.za).

Benita de Witt is a sports therapist who treats many international athletes, including Elana Meyer, Conrad Stoltz and double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes.