2nd stride of 2nd of 6 150’s…BANG!!! Right calf tear, gastroc/soleus insertion. Straight home to ice for rest of weekend (Today is Saturday). 3 months I’m thnking before able to be running fast again. Thoughts?
Are you suspicious of a calf tear or did you get diagnosed with it? if not, then I wouldn’t jump to conclusions, but at the sametime I wouldn’t overlook the problem. Get it checked out…
Definitely needs to get diagnosed. Though, having said that, the feeling was incredible, like a horse kicked me in the leg…
AAAHHhh that sucks! I’ve done it myself, I feel for you.
After icing lots over the weekend, get to a physiotherapist ASAP. With he or she’s hands on look at it, they will have the most accuate prescription for what you need to do next.
When the swelling goes down, the main thing is going to be to work out the scar tissue. I can't lie to you, this hurts. I suggest a Chiriopractor who does ART specifically Lower Extremity. Make sure they are acredited. Check this site where you can find a practitioner in your area>> http://www.activerelease.com/providerSearch.asp
Once you're starting to heal up, and you are getting some mobility on your calf again. You may want to find a Chiro, or a Physio who does, and is good at acupuncture. Acupuncture, or needling with light EMS could be considered a cure all.
Take care of yourself.
I agree with Hammy.
I ripped my left calf severly 6 months before the Salt Lake Olympics… needless to say that was the end of that meet for me (that’s the bad news)
My tear was so bad that it had to be wrapped to keep the skin from ripping (I had never seen anything so swollen in my life). It bled up behind the knee & down to the ankle & when I would put it on the ground after elevation, I thought I would pass out from the pain. That said, we know it was really bad…
-Ice & elevation as many times a day as you can (I even elevated it in my sleep on a pillow).
-Get it diagnosed asap.
-It may be too tender for ART just yet but accupuncture was started immediately on mine. Deep needling & the use of TENS with it was worked in.
-MSM… I took huge amounts of this for the anti-inflamatory properties, I swear this was a biggy in my recovery
-I was in the pool deep water running 6 days after the injury (remember I was still trying to go to Salt Lake) but it helped in the mobility/stiffness. It felt weird as hell at first as the water movement on the muscle almost hurt but did not injure it more. Again, this was very important in my recovery. I did this every second day for a few weeks & then continued occasionally after that
-Vit C was increased to help in the recovery. Vit A & Zinc lessen the formation of scar tissue from what I have read, might want to look into that.
I followed this religiously… I was running 6 weeks after the injury altho it was not 100% for almost a year (ART 2X/week during all of that).
If it’s a bad tear, expect to baby it forever… I still have to ice it after track sessions & long flights. Doctors I saw had never seen anything this bad before (blood pooling behind your knee & ankle is a little too freaky for me, shoulda taken a pic) but I have come back faster than ever so stay posative.
Let us know what the doc said & get on the ice/proper nutrition right away.
How do you tear your calf muscle? Looks and sounds terrible, I wouldnt ever want to get one. I think ankle injuries are bad enough.
No prior warning, 6 x 150s with walkbacks, 1st one was quick, with no signs. Walked back and fired the next one off. 2nd stride (left foot 1st stride)…BANG!! The horse kicked me in the leg. A bit better today. Have been icing/compresson bandage for 24 hours so far…
Mine had a warning…
I had changed my nutritional program 5 days before a testing camp & my carbs were lowered (don’t know if this affected it all that much) as per a new nutritionist.
I didn’t increase my h2o & was very thirsty in my warm up.I could not drink enough to qwench it. My warm up was great otherwise & was strong & fast & then on my first step of my 30m, my cralf exploded (I heard it & felt like someone had hit it with a baseball bat!)
I could not get off the ground…
A devastating feeling, to say the least & the second calf injury for me (2 years before I ripped my right calf at the achilles, not a severely tho).
Amazing when you see whaT a body can come back from… :eek:
On a bit of a tangent I know - but is it possible that drinking coffee b4 training increases risk of injury thru increased dehydration of muscles - I’ve had 2 injuries this year and wonder if this might be a contributing factor.
I drink coffee every morning & sometimes in the afternoon. I am very careful to hydrate (no kidding after that injury!!) so I can’t say. Coffee has a diurectic effect so… increase water?!
Remember Andre Cason tore his soleus in the '92 Oly trials and came back to win the silver in the '93 world championships.
I would also recommend enteric coated enzymes to help with inflammation and tissue healing. I severely strained the muscles inserting into my sacrum about a month ago while squatting (during the warmup no less) and relied very heavily on enzymes to reduce the inflammation. Almost all of the pain (which was initially excruciating and almost paralyzing) was gone within 72 hours.
Just a thought. Did any of you with these calf injuries ever work your calves in the first place? If so what were the rep/set/intensity numbers?
In the same vein, what kind of stetching and soft tissue work did you do for your calves regularly?
Until recently I used to stretch the calve muscle statically against a pole/wall/etc whatever I could before doing the exercise and also before track.
Now I find that just doing heavy squats can stretch it pretty good but I don’t make a habit of actually stretching the calve just yet. I’m still researching various methods. I also found that just because you can stretch your calve muscle against the wall doesn’t mean you have great calve muscle flexibility relative to other exercises and sprinting positions (which are always taken for granted!). I now prefer to stretch dynamically and my calve muscle (effective) dynamic/static stretch is much better than any I’ve ever encountered.
I first do dynamic hurdle squat unders and lunges under hurdles for dynamic mobility for my squats. Then before doing squats I throw on 95lb (or 25% of my 1RM) I and full squat to the bottom position with a little (very little) bouncing and then rise up, after doing 5 reps or so I then go down in the same full squat position and push my elbows against my knees to increase not only the calve flexibility but also leg flexibility as well (for 1 min duration). I find this is very effective in increasing my calve flexibility for squatting which I’d always be on my toes before. Know I can full squat like I’m taking a shit in India. :eek:
I also train my calves like any other muscle group, I do standing calve raises on free wts against the supporting racks and also off a 6 inch box platform.
I also find that this increases my calve flexibility as well.
P.S. I’ve never torn my calve or had any pulls whatsoever; although, I did find my teammates usually having some sort of shin splints or some calve soreness. A chain is only as strong as its weekest link!! 
DOPR calf progress;-
7 days after the injury, and I’m starting the massage/hot and cold treatment, and will start some EMS treatment from tomorrow. Has been quite achy and sore the last few days. I’m thinking that it’s from lack of use/stretching over the last week.
Progress slowed a bit due to work committments and working in a constant pressurised environment, so compression tights are the order of the day from now on.
Pool/bike sessions for the next few weeks, combined with light stretching/body weight calf raises, as plantar flexion is not a problem.
DOPR.