Thanks for bringing up the compressions socks, rainy.here. I Went to the local walmart/riteaid/walgreens and all I saw was inexpensive diabetic socks that didn’t look like they gave much support. Any recommendations?
Judgement call on your part on how much to spend (if anything), since they may help, but they may do nothing.
2XU and CEP make very good compression gear, but they are also pretty damn pricey.
I would be wrapping her calves each night with heat , then wrapping them with cellophane ( or other plastic wrap) and then wear track pants to bed or lightly wrap the outside of plastic wrap with loosely fitting tensor bandages. I used to do this for issues with hamstrings and or calves. It’s slightly annoying but less annoying than being injured.
Try not to feel rushed to get better as it will fog your judgement. Do not forget there are many ways to get plenty of work done without any running or pounding. Save the calves for the highest quality work and utilize the bike and pool and medicine ball for extensive work around the body.
I can’t comment on compression socks.
Try to get time lines out of your head. How does that help you or your daughter? Focus on what you can do , take your time and use this time to do things you might not be doing when everything is going smoothly.
sit up circuits, depletion push ups and extensive medball circuits would be what I would be doing.
Thank you Angela for your suggestions. Is the cellophane loosely wrapped, or just slight tension? I really appreciate your help.
Yesterday I took my daughter on the 3 hour drive to the Seattle area to her appointment with the doctor who has each and every time worked ‘magic’ with her.
For over 4 weeks she has had pain in her right calf working its way even around the Achilles tendon…painful to the touch, you can feel the tightness… I have large hands and she has muscular calves… I can just reach the circumference of her left calf with my hand, but the right calf it is very obvious that it is about 15 to 20% larger in diameter than the left one… no way does my hand reach around it.
In the past 4 weeks, she has been only able to run a couple short tempo runs @ 50%, and even then, her calf was tight and hurting, so running stopped each time.
We told the doctor the history, starting with her painful (both shins suffered deep scrapes/bruising/swelling) shin injury doing box jumps and landing very hard on her shins on the top edge of the box 2 days before her last track meet, which at first I assumed she got a calf strain from running in the meet, as the pain first showed up running in her last event…
The doctor had her do different movements both standing and laying on the table making his assessment…
Then he started with the ‘magic’… physically ‘resetting’ her body by using chiropractic skills, but the ‘magical’ part is watching him use his fingers manipulating ‘pressure points’ both in on the roof of her mouth and on her head to reset her body and relieve pain.
Each time the doctor activated a pressure point, my daughter would get a big grin or make a comment… she could feel the sensations in the different places the doctor was working… multiple times she felt the tingling sensations in the exact same areas of her calf and Achilles tendon area where she had so long felt pain before.
After about 15 to 20 minutes of work, she got up off the table, with a huge grin, moving her body in all different ways saying how good she felt… how relaxed her whole body felt…and no tightness or pain in the calf anymore. Of course, no real knowing of how this would be for sure until she actually tried running.
The doctor explained that the injury she sustained to the shins had also injured related nerves to the soleus and gastrocnemius muscles and that when she ran in the track meet 2 days after injuring her shins, this caused the muscles to go into spasm, which they have been in that state since the day of the meet.
Today she ran the small tempo circuit smiling the whole time… and afterwards… no tightness, no pain… just tired… and very happy to be healthy again.
I have posted about this doctor here before, and something I have yet to fix myself, is the fact that this is the 5th time my daughter sustained an ‘injury’, which I took her to the best medical professionals in my area, and each time told of how the ‘injury’ would take a long time to heal and needed certain types of rehab… then finally taking my daughter to see ‘Dr. Magic’ and have him each and EVERY time ‘reset’ her to ‘new’ condition in a matter of a few minutes…
Every time I go through these same motions and go to the doctor I should have gone first… last… (thanks for the reminder Tyrone!)
I get strange looks each time I tell the stories of how this doctor uses these pressure points on my daughter time and time again… but hey, over the past 4 years this man has worked a miracle EVERY time …each time a supposed injury needing time and rehab, only finding it’s just her body needing a ‘reset’.
This doctors view on how ‘modern’ medicine is practiced, is that most doctors treat only the area injured instead of treating the ‘whole’ injury…which most times requires more/all of the body to be taken into consideration.
What is the doctor’s name?
Private message sent…
Wow. Let us know if the issue stays gone!
Day 2 after doctor visit.
Tempo again today, she ran big circuit.
No tightness, no tenderness or pain… felt great afterwards, everything fine so far…
does this guy have a website? sounds like he should. it would be great if he has a few articles about what he knows…
Private message sent…
Anyone else that would like contact information for this amazing Doctor, please feel free to send me a private message.
Especially for those who have been frustrated with traditional medicine… My daughter over the past 4 years went to the best sports Orthopedic Doctors in the area, the best sports Chiro/ART doctor in the area, but each and EVERY time she was always told she needed weeks of therapy, each time, that the ‘injury’ was injured tissue…
And, as I told before, after becoming frustrated each time… finally going and seeing this Doctor and each and every instance being ‘fixed’ in a matter of minutes.
I must admit, the past 3 times that I repeated this cycle, I felt quite foolish, and my daughter was not happy one bit that she had wasted so much time and training doing ‘therapy’.
Anyone within reasonable distance of the Seattle area should consider trying this doctor, the results are amazing.
In retrospect, I feel bad for my daughter how much time was actually wasted not seeing him right away.
I’ve just returned to the track and have had two sessions. my right soleus/achilles area have been a little bit sore after the second session. part of it is possibly due to the firmness of the track, part could be due to the fact that I have been focussing a little more on calf stretch.
I treated with anti-inflam cream for a couple of days and it has worked to take the edge off the soreness, btu I still feel as though the muscle could be a bit hyper-tonic. it just over contracts every time I take a step. I’ve given it some gentle massage to try and help it relax but I haven’t had much luck. I feel as though it is going to flare up again the next time I run.
any suggestions for how I can get it to settle down??
The best things I’ve found for me was to fix the Tibialias anterior muscle. Lots of massaging and cupping etc.
It took about 10 session for me as mine were completely stuffed…
That was Jan / Feb this yr.
Zero lower leg issues since. Which is an all time 1st for me. I’ve always had lower leg issues.
static or sliding??
pfft! now I feel like an idiot for even asking. of course cupping is the answer. it always is.
done. feels 90% better…
1st static.
For me, I couldn’t slid for a few sessions.
The pain was like knifes being thrown at me and that was just static.
Once the pain just became pain and no more stinging then I was able to slide.
The slide brought back stinging. …
Eventually the muscle lost the war and pain from cupping subsidies.
Since then , only quick touch ups have been needed.
That was my experience.
I have only come across one other person whose tibialas anterior was in the same ballpark of pain as mine were… so hopefully you’ll respond better and quicker than I did.
Just doing the soleus, I didn’t get pain, only pleasant relief. I found that the part where the gastroc joins the flatter portion is where I was tightest. Got a few lumps to work on…
Soleus injuries can take a while to heal, I found using a thermoskin bandage effective.
Compression wear works pretty good when you’re suffering doms. Sleeping in it helps too.