Calf not improving...Next steps

[billclinton854]

Hi, looking for any help suggestions about what's turning out to be a really long term calf issue...

A few months ago I was just doing a normal run (one of two or three I did a week at anywhere around 4"30 for a total of 25k per week) and felt something in my right inner calf. Stupidly, I kept going and did another two runs until I woke up the next day and figured something was properly wrong.

It didn't sort itself (though it did get slightly better) so I went to see a physio and he gave me some exercises to do, mainly calf raises. I started doing the calf raises and things took a big turn for the worse because that's when the pain spread to being the whole of the right calf and also the outer left calf. I went back to see him and he gave me some more stretches which I've done but again, having got slightly better, it hasn't fully healed. I have been able to walk, and so have been doing walks most days and that doesn't make anything worse but it hasn't helped.

So I'm currently stuck in a situation of basically chronic, very low-level calf pain. If I try to run, the pain is more noticeable but hardly agonising. I haven't been able to exercise properly for months now and I've just had to spend a week in bed with illness and despite literally doing only 100 steps a day, there's been no change.

I'm really close to my wit's end, I haven't been able to exercise in months and its riddling me with anxiety, and feel like I've tried everything... walking, resting, stretches. Has anyone got any advice, recommendations or anything that they think might help me?

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[Guiydo]

Hi billclinton854,
It seems like you may have lesioned your muscles. It may have been muscle tears that may have not healed properly. A proper, progressive muscle strengthening program may help you with your problem although a great amount of time is passed since the beginning.
Generally a muscle program starts of with isometric contractions, then concentric contractions followed by eccentric contractions. Finally plyometrics and core stability may be added. This should be integrated with stretching and other exercises

[billclinton854]

Hi guiydo, thanks for the reply. I have been to see the physio and this sounds similar to what they have suggested - they thought I would need to do stretches and then slowly build up with some strengthening excercises. She said she can feel thickening of the calf muscle where it was originally hurt and thinks that the calf raises might have caused the pain in both outer calves.

She started me off with some new stretches which seemed to be going okay but then got me doing some plantar flexion with an elastic band and since I've been doing that for a couple of days, the pain has started to return! So I think I'm going to need to go back for another set of sessions and start from the beginning again. Hopefully, this time I will get a better outcome. But, I am not hopeful