How Long Should it Take For A Calf Strain To Heal??

My calf strain took 3 months to heal. Sucked, but taught me to have a bit more patience than I normally have.

Good luck.

Check out this article:

It took me about a month. Pulled mine trying to race in teh snow. My calf became black and blue. I didn't run a step for almost two weeks after, because it took that long to make the swelling go away. I actually had no discernable calf for about 3 weeks. Then I just jogged easy on it until it started hurting and then I'd walk home. Gradually, after about two weeks of this I was able to run about 4 miles without it hurting. So I just kept running a little bit more each day and it was fine soon. Haven't had a problem since.

Thanks. Just read the article. This sounds exactly like my problem. I guess racing is out of the question for at least a month or more. I suppose aqua running and cycling are fine as long as it doesn't cause any pain.

I took 6 weeks off a couple years ago and have had no problems since. Before the six weeks, I screwed around

5-6 weeks before realizing it wasn't going to heal without a long layoff.

rip van racer wrote:

I took 6 weeks off a couple years ago and have had no problems since. Before the six weeks, I screwed around

5-6 weeks before realizing it wasn't going to heal without a long layoff.

I'm coming around to this reality. It just pisses me off. I was overseas last year and I've been back 4 months now. I'm just at the point where I'm starting to feel really fit. You know the point where you start to really smoke the intervals and recover quickly? It's enough to make a person want to quit serious running.

Getting old sucks.

Welcome to the club. Im 43 and started running 1 1/2 years ago after a long break. I have had this calf injury 7 or 8 times since coming back. Each time I'm off from 3-6 weeks. Sometimes its the left calf and other times its the right. It is extremly frustrating. And it always seems to happen just as I am getting in decent shape. It just happened again about a week ago so I am currently resting it.

I have tried various things to prevent it but nothing seems to help, so far. Ive tried calf raisers exercises, heel inserts, limiting my mileage to 50mpw, cross training breaks, and new shoes. I am always open to new ideas so please post anything that you may find that helps.

When injured, I have found that the Eliptical machine is a great subsitute to running that does not strain the calf. It's boring but seems to keep me fit.

Good luck.

OldSchooler

From personal experience with calf trouble ... find another x-training method other than cycling.

Oldschooler,

I've been having the same troubles as you. I tried lifts, reduced mileage, and calf raises with no long-term luck. However, I've recently come across a set of eccentric lower leg exercises that have helped my calves (and, as a result, reduced my achilies pain to zero).

I was having trouble with tight and sore soleus muscles. The pain eventually spread to my achilies. The exercises on page two of the link below helped after a couple of weeks. I started slowly with the exercises and now do them every other day. They're a bit awkward at first, but have made a HUGE difference-- I'm now totally pain free.

I actually found out about these strengthening exercises on this site (letsrun), and I'm very grateful to whomever posted them. So, I thought I'd pass the info along.

Good luck.

I agree, this is one frustrating injury. I am just getting over it again for about the 20th time. I will say that this time I followed the advice in the "calf heart attack" article and it cut my recovery time in half. After 4 weeks I was back to where I was before the injury.

One thing to note is that this is not an injury that you can run through. As soon as you feel even a twinge of pain you need to stop and walk or you will make it worse and increase your recovery time.

I have found warming the muscle up before running with self massage, walking, toe raises etc. to be helpful. The preventative stuff like stretching etc. seems to help a little bit.

I still don't really understand the injury. Do we all just have weak, tight calves? Why is the calf muscle so delicate?

Interesting. The consensus among the 3 Docs I've consulted on this is that if the exercise causes no pain, it's ok and certainly better than no activity.

Did cycling actually re-injure the calf in your case?

Based on my personal experience the following holds for most injuries:

recovery time = r for age ``= 30

recovery time = r + r(age-30) for 30 < age <= 40

recovery time = r + r(age-30) + r(age-40)^2 for age %% 40

where r depends on the type of injury, and is about 3 days for the calf injury you mentioned.

My fear is that future emperical evidence will force me to add a cubic term for age > 45.

I just turned 40 and was 38 when I had the calf strain.

I was running 60-65 miles a week when it happened. This past year, I changed to running 36 miles a week and stairmastering 42 miles a week. The 36 miles included an interval day, tempo, race and steady hour. The stairmaster workouts replaced the easy runs. I had no injuries for 10 months and raced much faster. This past winter, I went to basebuilding and was doing 60 miles running and another 60 miles on the stairmaster with no problems. It just takes a long time to build the calves up and are the first thing to give problems when overtraining.

Unfortunately, I had a non-running injury and haven't run for a couple months. The calves will be my biggest concern when I start running again.

Hey.....thanks for the link on the calf exercises

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0125.htm

I plan to try these out. Anything, at this point, is worth a try.

Rip......60 miles a week on the Stairmaster!....Wow....that has got to be the most boring workout! How long does it take to do 10 miles? I thought the Elliptical was bad! I'm glad to hear that this has worked for you. Currently, I do one of my weekly workouts on the Elliptical ( 10 miles) but I may have to throw in 2 in order to prevent further injury.

I agree with some of the other posters: As soon as you feel a twinge of pain it is best to stop and walk it in. This dramatically cuts down on the recovery time.

Another tip for When to return to running after being injured:

Initially I would return to running as soon as I felt zero pain in my calf ( by applying pressure, with my fingers, to the area of injury). I found, after & error, that it is better to wait at least 3-4 days after zero pain because if it isnt healed 100%, its another 1-2- weeks off.

Good luck to everyone.

OldSchooler

Just getting back from exactly the same injury your symptons are what I had. I basically went to a physio and got on an exercise program of light plyometrics to try and strengthen the calf. I wwas also having a massgae at the end of each plyometric session which I found really helped particularly tyhe next day. It has taken around 8 weeks to get over the problem and I am now up to running 30 minutes. I have done some light track sessions as well. Be patient and whatever you do don't run just get to a good physio.

Over the past ten years I've had a ton of old-calf injuries myself. I call them old-calf injuries because they are very different from calf injuries I had as a young (read 15 - 40 years) athlete. As a young runner I remember straining my calf at the 18 mile point of a hilly run in the snow. As an old runner, I've strained my calf on a slow half mile jog.

One very helpful adjustment I made had to do with foot strike. I learned that I had to pay more attention to the mechanics of my leg action. I had been running "too low" which increases the pull on the calf. The remedy is to stay taller, that is, reduce the angle of the knee upon impact. I'll try to illustrate below, but the key board is pretty limiting.

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bad better

Illustration didn't work - looked decent when I typed it in, but the spacing didn't hold upon posting. Damn these computers.

Maybe never. I strained mine a few years ago and whenever I stess my body too much (i.e. miles or speed), it returns. One word of advice. If it acts up, just stop and walk home. If you continue to run on it you may never completely heal.

I had the same problem. Exacly as the running times article described. But I stopped running after it got the injury for 2wks. I tried to cross train in the pool, but it wasnt the same. After two weeks of that I tried running again, after the 3rd mile I felt it again. It was very frustrating.Then I just stopped exerciing comletely for a week. Im doing some research on the Oxysox product , and since the article said that it was because of poor circulation, I wore the compression socks for like 3-4 days strait. (Washing them when needed) Also, you need to messsage the heck out of the calf,even if it hurts and don't stretch. Wait till there is no more pain and then stretch.

I started running again this week and feeling pretty good, running up to 35min in the morning and 45min in the afternoon with no pain or strain. I am staying on the treadmill this week just to be safe, and will start my usual routine outside next weeek. Well hope this helps. I think the compression socks really helped speed the recovery up.