Calf pain can be caused by issues directly related to the muscles themselves, or it can be a symptom that is caused elsewhere in the body. Calf pain can also affect posture and movement which is made worse when exercising or playing sports.
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What Is The Calf
Your calf muscles are at the back of your lower leg and the two main muscles are the Gastrocnemius and the Soleus. These connect to your heel via the Achilles tendon(1). Their job is to flex your ankle joint, such as when you stand up on tip toes. Because the muscles also connect to the femur bone of your thigh they also play a part when you bend your knee. For example, when walking or running.
What Causes Calf Pain
Calf pain can have many causes but usually it involves tightness in the muscles. This is often a result of prolonged sitting, which puts them in a shortened position and reduces length. Walking can make this worse, especially wearing high heels, and jogging or sports that involve running. This leaves your calves susceptible to other causes of calf pain.
How Massage Can Help
Calf pain that is caused by tightness in the muscles can be helped with massage. It will loosen them up and increase flexibility. This will stop the problem developing into something more serious and is often all that’s needed to get rid of your calf pain.
Calf Pain From Muscle Strain Or Tear
Calf pain caused by a muscle strain or tear will come on suddenly, usually when doing something strenuous like exercise. But something as simple as using the stairs can cause injury if the muscle is already at risk. Besides sudden onset, this type of calf pain will bruise at the source and the muscle will not fully stretch until healed.
How Massage Can Help
A massage therapist can help prevent strains or tears occurring. However, if the injury has already happened, the muscle should be iced for 72 hours first. After this, massage can help to promote healing and prevent scar tissue from forming. If the injury is more serious it is best to wait a week before receiving treatment.
Calf Pain From Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
This type of calf pain is brought on by a level of activity the muscles are not used to. This could be starting a new exercise, suddenly increasing intensity, or going for a longer walk than normal. As the name suggests, this type of pain will not be immediate but will come on over the next 24-48 hours. After this it will start to ease off over the next few days. Unlike a strain it will be the whole muscle that is sore, rather than a specific point.
How Massage Can Help
Tight and inflexible muscles are more likely to experience delayed onset muscle soreness so massage can help prevent it. If you are already experiencing DOMS, massage improves blood flow to your calves and speeds up recovery.
Calf Pain Caused By Sciatica
Sciatica is a pain felt along the sciatic nerve, which runs from your lower back down into your lower leg. If your calf muscles are tight or inflamed they can put pressure on the nerve and cause calf pain. But it’s also possible the nerve is being affected closer to the spine. For example, lower back issues can often trap the sciatic nerve and feel like calf pain. This often leads to the symptom being treated rather than the cause.
How Massage Can Help
Many people have tightness in their calves that can be helped with massage. But the source of the pain could be the hamstrings, glutes or the lower back. If this is the case then massage in this area will treat both issues at the same time.
How Calf Pain Can Cause Other Issues
Calf pain itself could be enough to stop you doing certain activities, but if you are able to continue you could be creating other problems. For example, if you like to do squats in the gym, calf pain could affect your technique without you realising. This could mean your heels lift up off the floor as you squat, causing pain and further problems elsewhere in the body. To read more about squat technique click here.
Calf pain could also be the cause of knee pain. As mentioned earlier, your calf muscles extend behind the knee up to the femur in your thigh. So if you have pain at the back of your knee it could be caused by tight calves, which can be relieved with massage. For more on knee pain click here.
Book A Mobile Massage
If you would like to book a mobile massage in York please contact me on 07713 250352 or email david@massageinyork.co.uk. Includes sports massage, deep tissue massage and Swedish massage. For more information on booking click here
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Effective calf massage instructions, thanks for sharing useful information
So I’m contemplating on getting physio. My injury happened on a hard court playing basketball. After about an hour or so I started to feel tightness, kinda like a strain. This was about 3 weeks to 1 month ago. I still have the pain mainly cause I’m stupid and play TRL which is a full on running stop starting sport and play every Wednesday. When I play (just before I start playing) we warm up kicking the ball this that. No pain at all mainly cause I compress it. But the pain then comes when I get into the game I get this sharp almost crippling pain in the middle of my right calf and it’s deep but I continue to play anyways. It’s been like I said 3 weeks at least. Walking doesn’t hurt too bad it’s just the palm of my foot right where my toes begin that’s where I’ve found the pain to be stemming from. So not where the big toe is but around the 3rd and 4th toe, when I press just around there at the palm of the foot where the toes start(not toe nail but at the base your my toes) or try put pressure it kills mainly cause I think I’ve not let it heal properly. My question is why is it that I can almost do every other daily task fine with maybe little stretches of pain but then it’s ok once I start walking, why is it when I get into my TRL that it kinda feels like a stitch you get when you’re unfit up just for the middle of the calf why does this pain stay and will physio help heal and strengthen?