hey charlie, i was wondering if ben ever suffered with DOMS in his soleus muscles at any time while training?
i ask because 1 of my athletes has this problem every time he sprints or does plyo. do u know anything about this? i would greatly appriciate ur input.
DOMS is always dependant on overload and the later the onset, the worse you feel (and the worse the overload that caused it) So, if you feel it the third day, it’s always worse than if you feel it the second day.
Ben seldom ever felt it
bt y is it that only 1 of the athletes feels it, with almost any kind of load that has got 2 do with sprinting or jumping. i know 4 sure that it’s not shin splints. and it’s in most cases just the soleus muscle. what could help get rid of it?
Rest and ice to begin with. If training load isn’t the problem (which in most cases it is), then get the kid’s feet checked. He may need insoles to help out. Start by cutting back the volume and then brinign it up again. If only one athlete has the problem, then they may just be weaker than the rest and need more time do develop.
i’ve tried cutting the volume and working back up bt it did’nt help, what i can’t understand is y only the soleus. it’s a very strange soreness because he can walk,even on his toes without experiencing pain bt as soon as he starts running it kicks in. he is 1 of the senior athletes and has suffered with this problem for yrs.
If he’s had it for years, it’s probably the second problem Herb outlined.
in that case i will isolate the muscle and let him hit some weights . thnx all 
how will you isolate the muscle? For weights? I thought it only bothered him when he did plyos and sprinting.
well, i figured that if the problem is a weak soleus i will let him do some seated calf raises 2 isolate and strengthen the soleus.
Is it a weak soleus, or does he need inserts for his shoes? I would say back off from working it because if he does anything at all, it is going to be worked the most already. Less work on it would be better I think. It might just need more time to recover, and not necessarily more volume of work.
he is usually fine with about 2 days of rest, that is , he has no pain at all until the day after the first training session of the week. so i was thinking of changing the programe 2 adress the problem. because weight training does’nt have the same affect.
Sounds like he needs inserts for his shoes then - or at least his shoes need to be checked (like Herb said).
running—>pain
weights—>no pain
Stands to reason that it is the style of running (whether forced by some problem in the foot or otherwise) that is causing him problems.
just a quick up date on the sore soleus problem, we resolved it through the isolated resistance exercise.
the stretching from doing weights on the calf’s can be a blessing in disguise. Some people have chronically tight calf’s, regular stretching does not affect. Whack on 100kg on your shoulders then feel em stretch, particularly if you can go one foot.
Also, arnie, you will or should notice that before, when his calf felt fine walking and such after 2days rest, if you had massaged it, it would still have been tight. Hence problems as soon as he started to run again. Just because there was no pain, does not mean they were not tight. Hence the reason why weights fixed the problem. The calf wont strengthen noticeably after only 3weeks, unless it was chronically tight and as it relaxed over time, it had more muscle available to work.