Calf muscle pain ?soleus?

[guy909uk]

Hi,
I am looking for some advice. Over Christmas whilst sprint training for rugby, I felt a sharpish pain in my calf/achilles. I stopped the session and hobbled home. The next day it was sore but bearable and went skiing 2 days latter with hardly any discomfort. After christmas, the fist rugby session back, I felt some discomfort in my calf but completed the whole session. The next morning I was in real pain, and was limping around. The top part of my achilles was sore aswell as the mid calf. I rested and was unablt to return to rugby for 7 weeks. I played for a month with very, very occasional discomfort but nothing else. As the season finished at the end of April I was jogging and felt a sudden pain in the calf again. Once again the next morning it was very sore, and I have been struggling since then to recover. The pain is not so bad to walf short distances, but is triggered when I flex my knee under pressure (bending down). The pain is now very specific to the middle of my calf and feels "deep". My achilles also is a little sore at the top when walking. Someone told me I may have a soleus muscle tear and that is due to overuse? I do train hard and most days (when not injured!), and am finding this very frustrating. I have not even jogged since end of April to allow it to recover. I have been walking alot though, due to a travelling holiday, which was uncomfortable (but had to be done).
I was just looking for advice really. Should I be stretching? strengthening? resting?. At the mo I have just started swimming to keep fit and this doesn't cause too much discomfort.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Guy

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[jayyappanbpt]

Hi,
I am looking for some advice. Over Christmas whilst sprint training for rugby, I felt a sharpish pain in my calf/achilles. I stopped the session and hobbled home. The next day it was sore but bearable and went skiing 2 days latter with hardly any discomfort. After christmas, the fist rugby session back, I felt some discomfort in my calf but completed the whole session. The next morning I was in real pain, and was limping around. The top part of my achilles was sore aswell as the mid calf. I rested and was unablt to return to rugby for 7 weeks. I played for a month with very, very occasional discomfort but nothing else. As the season finished at the end of April I was jogging and felt a sudden pain in the calf again. Once again the next morning it was very sore, and I have been struggling since then to recover. The pain is not so bad to walf short distances, but is triggered when I flex my knee under pressure (bending down). The pain is now very specific to the middle of my calf and feels "deep". My achilles also is a little sore at the top when walking. Someone told me I may have a soleus muscle tear and that is due to overuse? I do train hard and most days (when not injured!), and am finding this very frustrating. I have not even jogged since end of April to allow it to recover. I have been walking alot though, due to a travelling holiday, which was uncomfortable (but had to be done).
I was just looking for advice really. Should I be stretching? strengthening? resting?. At the mo I have just started swimming to keep fit and this doesn't cause too much discomfort.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Guy

i understand u r condition very well. you should traine gradually. dont do vigrously.. you can do warm up exercise(like strecting,isometrics ) before training or play.
thanking you

[jayyappanbpt]

understand u r condition very well. you should traine gradually. dont do vigrously.. you can do warm up exercise(like strecting,isometrics ) before training or play.
thanking you

[guy909uk]

Many thanks for the help given above.

I would like to ask one more piece of advice if I may? I have been struggling with a painfull left hip for the past 2 years, which I have learnt to live with. It irritaes me, but I can do most activities fine, although it just feels restricted. I have had an orthapod look at the hip in the past and had an x-ray and MRI arthrogram, which found no labral tear. The main thing that frustrates me is the loss of internal rotation and to a lesser extent extension. I had given up on trying to resolve this with medical help and have worked on core stability and hip strength, although I seem not to be getting far.

My question is this, should I see a physio about this and do patients with limited internal rotation respond well to treatment (obviously depends on cause?) or is this something I should get on with and hope that continued activity will stretch the hip and improve? The reason I ask is because I have been told that limited internal rotation of the hip is likely to have implications for the future, and as I'm only 23, if there is a way of increaasing range of movement and reducing the stiffness and pain associated with this movement in particular, I would be stupid not to see someone about it!!
Your opinions would be greatly appreciated,
Many thanks,
Guy

[jayyappanbpt]

thanks guy,
i read u r mail. if u met any any accident around u r hip joint?,
how to the symptoms onset?
i mean sudden or gradual?.
how much u r hip external rotator muscle power?
pain is constent or occassional?
if u have felt any radiating pain in ur left leg?
how much u r hip ROM ?
what is u r gait pattern- u have any toe out gait?


ok guy,
send me u r answer ,, i wait for u r answer.. bye,,,,,bye

AGAIN THANKS FOR U R REPLAY

[guy909uk]

Hi Jayyappanbpt!!
Thanks for your reply.
I havn't ever had any significant hip trauma. The only time a can recall hurting it a little was 2.5 yrs ago when I was skiing and fell, forcefully externally rotating my left hip. It was sore for a few days and then settled down. I managed to play half a season of rugby without even thinking about it after that. The season was stopped prematurely though, when I had a knee injury. I had a grade 3 tear of my left lateral collateral and tore bicept femoris from the distal intertion. I had these repaired surgically and was in a full leg cast for 6 weeks.

Whilst rehabilitating from this I was free from hip pain for about 6 months. I was pushing rehab quite hard for the start of the new season. It started insidiously as I started running again. Don't know whether the running caused it or that I just didn't notice it whilst in cast etc. The pain was anterior and I had reduced internal rotation (have about 15 degrees). The hip pain has been there since (about 18 months/2 years). I do not get any pain whilst cycling or swimming, but running is uncomfortable, although bearable. When I stop training it is more sore and feels "tight". It seems to be when I reach extension whilst walking that it becomes painful and feels like it is "catching".
I recently I have been trying to increase the ROM especially int. rotation although these stretches seem to aggrevated in the short term (settles down when I stop stretching after a short while).

I know have pain intermittently on twisting or internal rotation, as well as dicomfort on extention whilst walking. I am not sure whether there is any intra-articular pathology, although MRI arthrogram has suggested no labral tear. I do realise that the arthrogram is about 80% specific.

Could this be a muscle imbalance thing? I would like to get this sorted as it has gone on for the best part of 2 years and is beginning to wear me down a bit! Ideally I would like to restore the lack of int.rotation, although efforts so far have been fairly futile!

I am sorry for the long ramble, but I am trying to give you as much info as possible. Please let me know if you would like to know anything else.
Many thanks,
Guy

[rockin ronnie]

hey guy, physio will definately help you, whether it being capsular stretches, muscle releases (gemelli/piriformis) or lumbar spine mobilisation, don't waste ur time any longer...

RR

[jayyappanbpt]

thanks guy ,,

i read ur replay,,, now iam come to my conclusion,,,,,,

i think u have 1st grade articular pathology,,thos may due to either previous trauma or abonormal adaptation or muscular imbalance......i rule out you didnot have any soft tissue pathology because u didnot having any pain while u did cycling or swimming..u have pain only jumming and walking this indicate when hip joint have intraarticular compression increased pain also exist.....u have any other lower limb abnormalities ?,better u compar to normal limb....

my opinion;
continu u r treatment protocol,,,,,,
u improve u r hip joint muscle power....then correct u r hp joint abnormalities.......u can apply wax before u r treatment..........

thanks guy......take care........thanks for u r replay

[guy909uk]

Thanks for your help guys. I have taken your advice and have booked a doctors appointment for physio referral on Friday morning. Thanks again,
Guy

[guy909uk]

Hi Guys,
Just thought I'd update.
Went to the Physio for initial assessment yesturday. He took a detailed history and on examination found that I had about 10 degrees int.rotation on my affected left hip. Ext.rotation was 60 degrees. On the good side he noted that int. and ext. rotation were both about 40/45 degrees which he said is a little reduced, but I have no problems here whatsoever, so class this as normal.
He said I have a "capsular pattern" of pain/restriction in my left hip. Extension is also less.
He has provisionally given me some stretches with the hip in extension, however there are a few things I was wondering.
Being 23 it seems that having restricted painful Internal rotation with a loss of extension is a bit suprising. Obviously I don't have the experience you guys have with things like this. Should it be possible to expect to gain full ROM in this hip through stretching (and perhaps strenthening)? The physio suggested that stretching the hip capsule is very difficult to do and maintain. Is there anything I can do to increase ROM. Also he mentioned that this could have occured following being in plaster for a knee injury (2005) having lost muscle mass, and thus any compensatory mechanism for a hip that has always been a bit restricted? Having been extremely active all my life, I would have though I may have had symptoms before the knee injury?
Thanks again for your advice. I really appreciate it.
Guy

[tdonbelay]

I thought I was the only one who experienced this strange injury until i started searching the web. The weird thing is I can go months of hard exercise (mainly running) and have no pain, and then - without notice WHAM! - it feels like I get stabbed deep in the calf and I hobble home. I have generally been able to recover in one week or so, but it is frustrating to say the least

I found this gem on the web and this runner described my problem quite well, as well as how he treats it. I hope it is found useful by anyone who is interested.

Calf Muscle, Muscle, Pain, circulation, Strength, Flexibility,

I also found an article that suggests the following regarding self-massage in this case:

"Most massages don't get to the soleus muscle or the tibialis posterior muscle, both of which are under the thick gastrocnemius muscle that forms the calf. You can treat them with your opposite knee, which is most effective at reaching this spot. The problem with stretching when there is a knot in the muscle is that stretching won't release the knot, and it will actually make the spasm more complicated while overstretching the fibers on either side of the spasm. You really need to release that spasm first. The most effective way is direct pressure onto the spasm, and hold it for 60 seconds."

[hrjones]

Great thread!!

This is definietly me. I have all of the above and have had for about 3.5 years. The problem is in my RIGHT soleus. In addition I have had Gilmore's groin surgery (1995) (LEFT) side and wear orthotics (since 2001). My internal hip rotation is not good on my RIGHT side. I also have a hyper mobile Sacro-illiac (I can crack it back in either side by tensing my Gluts).

In my latest episode of Calf heart attack (coined somewhere on t'internet) I have played 10 weeks of touch rugby, had a two week rest and completed 8 weeks of a 10 week beginner 10k program before I went pop on Sunday. On the day in question I had completed 5 min warm up run and was in the faster phase (no faster than anything done in the last 4 weeks). Was running on even grass.

My feeling when starting running were:
1. My sacro-illiac feels "out" but not in an comfortable way. Shall I stop and crack it back in: No because:
2. My right hip was not showing ANY signs of mild discomfort (which it almost always does).

As soon as my soleus "went" I cracked my Sacro-Illiac back in and trudged dejectedly back home.

Any tips for which areas I need to improve in order to prevent this from happening again will be greatly received

[tdonbelay]

Coincidentally I ran a 10K yesterday and early in the race I felt the "catch" trying to kick-in. It was an uphill course and I worried that if it really did catch, I would be out of commission for the race and at least one week.

I kept running and focussed on keeping my toes back and striking with my heel, for all intents and purposes keeping my calf in a stretched position as much as possible. It eventualy went away and I dodged a fairly signficant delay in my training.

I've thought about this and wondered why did it want to do this in a race when I've trained for a couple of months with no issues. Two things:

1. Race pace - I was pushing harder than normal - earlier in the run than normally.
2. Different surface - I do almost all of my training on trails in a park near my house. The race was a considerably harder surface than my training surface.

I'm thinking that number 2 above is the main culprit, and it has to do with the jarring of the muscle on the harder surface more than the pace of the run.

Anybody else have simlar observations?

[Physioash]

I would like to join in! 5 and a half years of left soleus repeated "heart attacks" I am runner and ex triathlete. Have rested from running and tried various formulae to get back to running, but have failed avary time, today after 3 months of 2 x weekly trail running I had a little hick up again, so I'm back to rest and wondering if I will ever solve my "chronic" calf tears.

Interesting reading all your posts, I have to go now and will add more later....

[rabia]

hi good discussion .pls help me also i have seen the case 32yr old lady met with minor accident but not suffer from any problem at that time but after 20 days she feel pain in calf.and difficulty in walking.she said when i start walking pain inc and there is heavyness in my calf and thigh.we gave her ultrasound for pain relief and streching for her tight tA and hams but no relief.pls help.

[George792]

Hi all I have been reading all of your advice with great intrest as I have the exact same problem. Mine started whilst training for my first sprint triathlon, After playing rugby for many years then weight training never having any problems then I started swimming, biking, running after one running session tight cramp like feeling, after physio and light training managed my first race problem free. after a week break started light training again then wham!! stabbing pain, i went for a second opinion and the new physio gave a very deep massage finding a deep knot on my soleus this seems to have eased it a little but have no confidence in it not going again!!. I was thinking of trying your exercises and some ultra sound would be interested if anyone has any further advice or success stories with this injury right now feels like it will never be quite right. sorry for rambling on.

[tdonbelay]

Other than what I posted above earlier on this thread I have no suggestions, but I do feel it is absolutely imperative to stay well hydrated and to keep the sodium and potassium levels up to avoid any kind of cramping. Also, I'm now walking for five minutes at a good pace - briefly stretching - and then starting to jog.

You know, all of those things that we SHOULD do each time anyway!!!

[[email protected]]

I see that maybe you could suggest something for my sons problem of what is diagnoised as Compartment Pressure Syndrome and the problem has recurred....he has undergone a release but now they suggest decompression..or alternately do a muscle biopsy.
Mr. Andrew Mathias 24,has been operated one year back in Mumbai by orthopedic surgeon, who did a fasciotomy bilateral because the pt. has compartment sindrome. but the pt. did not get relief. in december i was in holiday in goa and i came across to his problem. I sent him the necessary studies he had to do so we could a diagnossis, but now we have to a stage were he has to go for a muscle biopsy(immunohistochemistry,ultrastructural study,and genetic), so please take my request in consideration and do th e necessary ....