Pulled Muscle in Calf

[Guest guest]

Hi Dan, congrats on the excellent health changes. I have been running for 18 years and I am quite familiar with the pain you are experiencing. When I strain or pull something it is usually my lower calf muscle. What I do that seems to help includes lots of massaging of the sore area. I can usually trace the soreness to where the muscle attaches to a tendon or ligament and I also gently massage there also. It seems to loosen the tension. I use lots of anica gel. It is much better than a placebo on my body so I highly recommend it. I increase my intake of MSM whenever I experience pains from running whether they are joint or muscle issues and this helps me also. I take a few days off if I'm in pain during a run and do all the things I mentioned. Then when I run again I decrease the time or length of my running and note whether I've altered my stride or changed my pace to "baby" the injury. If so I know I have to run short and slow to keep from making the injury worse. (I'd rather run a little than not at all.) I also make sure to take a day off between runs if the muscle still feels tender during my massaging after a run.

I don't find it unusal that you re-experienced the same injury. It has happened to me and I usually figure it just wasn't fully healed and I strained it again. I just repeat all the things I wrote above until it goes away. If you go easy on the running and lots of massaging my guess is you may still get to run the race. My caution is that if you go out really hard in a race and your calf isn't ready you may need to stop the race.

I stopped warm up stretching after a couple of calf injuries. It's easier on my legs to just start up slow and let the body warm up and stretch the legs out afterwards when they are loose. It is discouraging when we get injured but I'm in this for the long haul. I've overcome these occasional injuries and continue to run for health and enjoyment. As disappointing as it is to miss a race, running really is about our health and well being. I sometimes forget that (when I'm driven to run) so I figured I'd mention it to remind you too!