Pulled muscle or Stress Fracture?

Could you be a little more specific? Where exactly in your lower leg does it hurt?

it's about the middle on the outside of my leg. if it's a muscle i think it would be this one (or one near it)

http://www.realbodywork.com/learn/ankle/peroneus.JPG

BUMP...i'm looking for any advice i can get here, guys

I have pain in my muscle or tendon in the exact same place on my right leg. It started about two weeks ago and I have been icing it and deep massaging it myself. I can ride a bicycle and it won't hurt but if i run it hurts afterward.

I'm not a doctor and if this keeps up I'm going to go see one but I read of this problem in that area of the lower leg called compartment syndrome. It is where a muscle grows too fast for its sheath and pressure builds up inside there. Do a search on this and see if you think it is your problem.

I think I either have that or tendonitis, or myofasciaitis...which is where the fascia covering the muscle that hurts has become rough and scarred so as it rubs other muscles when we move it again becomes raw or stays inflamed.

Again if my problem persist another week i'm going to the doctor and good luck......BamaCoyote

i did just make the switch to flats and went to a forefoot stride, so would something like that cause the muscle to grow too fast for the sheath? that could make sense if that's the case...

I had a problem with that muscle about a year ago. It turned out the problem was with my popliteus muscle, which is is behind and a little bit below the knee. The popliteus lets the tibia rotate when you run (more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popliteus_muscle). Due to an old hamstring injury, the muscle was really tight, and so it wasn't letting my leg rotate properly, and so when I ran I was using the peroneal muscles (the ones on the side of the leg) more than the main calf muscle. I wasn't sure I believe the physical therapist when he told me that that was the problem, but he made my leg feel better in about 10 minutes than it had in several months. If I were you I would try massaging that area behind and below the knee and see if its pretty sore. If it is you might have what I had. Also, try to stretch your upper legs out. Hamstring tightness was what did me in, and improving that has helped keep the popliteus problem in check.

The switch to flats I think could because of less heel on them than a trainer. I think this will stretch the calves and lower leg more. I do know this switch generally requires running less mileage for awhile or run a mile in flats then the rest in your usual trainers and slowly increase the mileage in the flats and decrease time in the trainers.

I need to just stop running period for a week or two and just ride my bike for it doesn't hurt it.

I have also been working my lower leg muscles with weights and stretching my hams, calves, soleus, etc.

The soleus stretch I do is just like the wall calf stretch except i bend at the knee on the rear leg that i'm stretching. I can then get a good stretch and rotate or twist my hurt leg that I'm stretching right and left and i can find that real sore spot in the stretch and hold it...give this a try for sure. Good luck, BamaCoyote....Auburn Al.

does it hurt in hot water? if so, probably stress fracture. i'm thinking not.

The hop test is usually a good start for indicating a stress fracture.

Also, does it hurt to rotate at all? Try just twisting the leg. That has always killed when I had a stress fracture.

This is wild, my Peroneus Longus hurts exactly where the line goes to in the photo or drawing the poster posted.

I hate it for I have deep tissue massaged it really hard and it is so tender I could make myself cry if I wanted to by applieing more pressure but i can only bear so much.

I also ice it in a five gal. bucket every day and rode a bike for a week and didn't run and the pain was gone BUT,

then i took a one mile run and the sob came right back. I miss running in a bad way...the bike doesn't really do much for me, it is better than anything but I love to run.I guess i better go to the damn doctor.

I can relate. Anyone have any advice on how long this took to heal and what exactly one should do?

Got a tuning fork - 256 C works ok (but not 100%) for clinically diagnosing stress fractures (meaning, short of a bone scan or MRI).

Circle both hands around your lower leg with your thumbs along your tibia. Start up near your knee and work your way down the bone, squeezing your thumbs against the bone. If you hit a point on the bone, a very specific point, where it is very tender, it suggests a fracture. You can then 'thunk' that area of bone with your middle finger and it should really hurt.

If you have a muscle pull, you should have pain when you move your foot up and down, back and forth, or invert/evert it, as the muscles in your lower leg are connected to the ankle and foot.

Having said all that, it can still be tough to diagnose.

MRI is the imaging mode of choice and does not require you to be injected with anything. Plain xrays generally do not show anything, as the fractures are usually tiny and have little inflammatory component. If someone is telling you you need to be injected with radioactive dye, they are wrong. Up until recently, bone scans requiring injection with radioactive tracer were the test of choice, but MRI has supplanted them, and is more sensitive and much easier and safer to do.

Good luck.

Thanks. I applied pressure as you said and no pain anywhere along the tibia. It can be a pull because I can flex and move my foot with no pain in any direction.

Whenever I try to run on it I dont really feel pain until I stop. The pain is weird. It feels like its at the top left of my left foot, radiates around the ankle bone and up along the left side of the outer calf. Its hard to describe.

If it helps im 26 and have been running 50 to 60 mpw. I have not run in two to three weeks.

when i switched to flats for workouts a few months ago, my entire lower legs would be incredibly sore for days after i wore them. i stopped wearing them after a few weeks of this, but then i started having pain in the same area that you do. i took a few weeks off and when i returned to running it went away, but a few weeks later it started up again in the other leg, and it turned out to be a stress fracture.

i think the sfx probably started out as a tight muscle like you suspect you have, but the muscle kept pulling on the bone and eventually cracked it.

Look up a certified provider who does Active Release Technique in your area (www.activerelease.com). I do ART and have treated quite a few runners with lateral leg issues (peroneus longus, brevis, etc)..including myself. It is very treatable.

I had a pain like that 6 weeks ago, on the outside of my lower leg, and i had no idea what it was. I kept running through it and then finally after a race on it got really bad and i couldnt even put weight on it.I got a mri and It turned out to be a fibular stress fracture. 6-7 weeks no activity.

So go see a doctor now about it and ask for an mri to know for sure. Fibular stress fractures are a lil odd as its not a weight bearing bone but they do happen. Especially if you started using flats recently u mighta have stressed the muscles pulling on your fibula more than usual eventually fracturing it.

Fibular stress fracture is a good thought. I've never seen one in my practice but I suppose it could happen.

If I were seeing you in clinic I would just get the MRI and you'd have an answer before next weekend.

If you are not a competitive athlete your other option, of course, is just to not run on it until it is completely pain free, as that would be the treatment for a stress fracture and is also likely to resolve most other issues like muscle soreness, tendonitis, etc.

F***, I swear to god if its another stress fracture im going to die.