calf heart attack

40yo who ran 4:30/15:30. It's a strength deficiency. Fix the deficiency. 4 minute circuit that should have your calf (singular, do both legs) screaming by the end if it's weak (but if done 5x a week over 1 month, will fix the deficiency):

-1min theraband ankle pumps

-1min sitting single leg continuous calf raises w/25lb kettle ball on knee

-1min split squat isometric hold on your toes with front foot (and back knee NOT contacting ground to cheat)

-1min standing isometric hold on single leg, on your toes, with 12lbs in each hand

Hey Z. I'm an expert on this issue, having experienced my (un)fair share over the past 10+ years. This article is very good - following the protocol helped my return to running after repeatedly failing for many weeks. One of the crucial parts of the process is the very gradual reintroduction to running, with run/walk/run approach. It's that cumulative cyclical eccentric contraction that reaggravates it, so breaking it up with the walk intervals helps by interrupting this. Listen carefully to your calf and shut it down as soon as you feel that very subtle pre-heart attack tightening. It does happen and your mind will say "I'm not sure if that really was anything or not so I'll keep going" - override that temptation and shut it down. Run every other day for the first couple of weeks to allow the calf to recover well. You can do this!!! good luck.

That’s like saying you need a wrench.. All you said was you need a particular tool… What is needed is a better way to move after finding the bottle neck; the why; the cause of the disfunction. ART is a helpful tool, but not the strategy to find and solve the mystery. If you don’t find the missing link .. you’ll be continually disappointed and chasing the symptom. Think stability not just mobility.

Oh dang, you must be an expert then. Thanks for including that incredibly useful information.

I dealt with this exact thing many times in my late 20s and throughout my 30s. I’ve been able to keep it away for the last 4-5 years though.

my theory on this is that it’s an age/lifestyle thing as we get older. We lose hamstring strength and hip mobility in general from too much sitting. so more of the extension work is shifted to the calf muscle to compensate for the weaker and less mobile hamstring. Treating the calf doesn’t address the cause. Do the strength and mobility work to get the hip moving well and the load will shift away from the ankle.

good luck, it’s an incredibly frustrating experience. One minute everything is fine and you’re feeling good and 10 seconds later it happens and you’re out of running 2 weeks minimum.

Yes - great point. This is where working with a good PT can be critical if you're not resolving this on your own, or if you want a more comprehensive approach to avoid potential delay of healing or recurrence due to missing some underlying cause of instability or biomechanical, structural, or functional imbalance that needs addressing. They can do a head to toe evaluation to find the weak links that may be contributing to the cause of the injury, which can reduce the chances of recurrence of this or development of different injuries in the future.

We also lose calf strength and Achilles tendon elasticity with age. Every calf strain also leaves a little scar tissue in its wake, which reduces its pliability.

Thx you, that’s what I’ve practiced since 2007. Most are treating the symptoms not finding the missing link in the movement patterning. I would also suggest 5 weeks of ‘rest’ depending upon the degree of injury. This is not a strength issue; it’s a movement pattern; the chain of command all the way from the calf to the neck.

This issue with my chronic calf issues were the shoes I was wearing at work.

Yep. This is why a GOOD (emphasize) PT is worth their weight in gold. They can also guide your return by safely testing your injury status and progressing your recovery/return to activity accordingly with appropriate exercises for what stage you are at and what the calf can take on at each follow-up.

Did you figure that out on your own? All part of a comprehensive evaluation and history taking.

not exactly sure, but...

runningmagazine.ca

Nick Willis' advice to injured runners - Canadian Running Magazine

Brittany Hambleton

The two-time Olympic medallist knows a thing or two about rehabbing an injury

Open link

Magnesium spray can help.

A strain will come when the load is more than the muscle can handle. You pointed out a lot of solid things to get back to running. What I have come to find out is that you need to load the lower leg. There is no way around it. Heavy calf raises. Yielding and overcoming iso holds. Hops and jumps. David Grey has a great lower leg program that helps tie in the foot, lower leg and hip.

I'm following because I also have a calf problem.

I haven't experienced the 'calf heart attack' but I have had what feels like a very tense rope in my left calf for a year now. Massage helps but doesn't fix it. Foam rolling also helps a little but again even consistent foam rolling doesn't fix it.

In the gym, I've been doing single leg calf raises and isometric holds. They haven't fixed it either. I've just started adding in some extremely light plyometrics so I will build those up and hope they help.

I will take a look at the RW article and see if I can take anything away from that. I've also ordered some calf sleeves after seeing that they helped some of the above posters

DVT?

Your posts are interesting...

Because frequent re-occurrence of this particular injury is what put me out of running.

I am also a PT... and while maybe not a good one... I had access to treatments and modalities...and exercise programs... but none of it kept this from happening every year or two... which would put me out of running for a couple of months. Towards the end it was happening frequently and I switched to full time cycling.

I say all this to say that I am pretty convinced that I had... and most people who can't shake this.... have Posterior Compartment Syndrome as opposed to a standard calf strain or tear.

This was decades ago for me... but I would recommend these days that if a person keeps getting this... that they consider a fasciotomy of the posterior compartment.

Data indicates that it is only about 50-60% successful in runners... But it isn't a dangerous or complicated surgery.

PT is fine if it works... but if it doesn't... that is what I would recommend.

If you don't take any suppliments, consider some magnesium (often coupled with calcium) - it helps with soleus strains (which is what I think you may have done).

I previously had been running 100 mile weeks (high of 132) including many races, track, road, and 36 marathons and never had issues with my calves, with 2 exceptions.

When I went out for track in 10th grade, I was doing well and started to do calf raises at home. Then when I went to track practice my calves were so tight and painful that I was not able to run at all for several days. I stopped doing them then won the league 880 finals which was a big event for me.

The second time was in my mid 50s. I was running 70 miles a week, and my calves would seize up in the middle of runs and I'd have to walk home, sometimes several miles and it was quite frustrating. I figured the problem was my shoes, and it was.

I cut out the heels of the shoes, glued in 1/4" slabs of wood, let them dry and then started running in those. They were awesome. Within a few days I went out for a 10 mile run and blazed right through at a relatively good pace. I kept wearing them and had no more issues with my calves. The problem was the shoes, and the solution was firm heels.

The heels did make a clack clack sound from the wood, but other then that they were fine.