I hate complaining but my calves have been an issue for yrs, I need help.

Stretching the calves is not enough. You need to strengthen them also. Do toe raises six days a week. Start with both legs at once and try to do an additional 5-10 reps more after it starts to burn a little bit. Use stairs when possible to increase your range of motion. Add 10-20 reps a day after each week until you can comfortably do 100 at once. Then switch to single leg toe raises using the same principle using a wall for balance. This will really help eliminate plantar fasciitis as well.

stretching won't help and will probably make it worse. You need to massage using the stick several times a day to break up adhesions and crosslinks in the muscle groups. You also need to do standing and seated calf raises to strengthen. A machine is preferable, but you can also do as the man above suggests on stairs.

You have no idea how much I appreciate your post, thank you very much I will do this.

I keep coming across references to calf strength being key to health and speed - there was a fascinating study of teenage girl runners - there was a direct inverse correlation between calf strength and # of stress fractures. In other words, the girls with strong calves did not get stress fractures.

I think I will add sessions of toe raises at my desk at work

You don't say what you are currently doing for your calves. You absolutely MUST use the foam roller, when you wake up and before bed, if not more often. That's forever.

Buy the hard black foam roller - it costs $25, will last a lifetime, and makes a huge difference.

You may be running with poor form - leaning forward too much, and putting extra strain on your calves and achilles. Try to run "erect."

Good luck.

wertryin wrote:

Most of my injuries are related to my calves. Either they are soar/tight or sometimes Ill get pain in my foot(under the foot at random spots), caused by the calves not working properly.

I have been fighting this for years, I have been told I am not stretching them enough, or I have weak calves. My question is, is it possible that there is another muscle that would be weak causing the calf to do more work so no matter how strong or flexible it is, it breaks down? (Like hamstring/quad ratio for example)

Thanks

I recently switched to the Mizuno Universe Wave 3 which is a minimalist shoe. Within a week, my calves were sore. I slipped in a pair of Powerstep Pinnacle insoles and the problem disappeared almost immediately.