With so many people playing team sport, running and doing triathlons, we are coming across a wide variety of foot & ankle, calf, hamstring and buttock pains. What we are finding is very interesting – a huge common denominator is the calf complex.
What are we dealing with?
The calf complex is quite as it describes – complex. In the back of the leg there are 6 muscles that control the leg, foot and ankle and are divided into two compartments
The posterior compartment holds the large muscles that are most commonly know as the calf muscles (the gastrocnemius and soleus). It also contains plantaris muscle. The gastrocnemius is the most visible of the calf muscles. The soleus lies underneath. These three muscles attach to the achilles tendon. They all aid with plantarflexion (pointing the toes).
The deep posterior compartment is deep within the back of the lower leg. They are the tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus, and flexor hallucus longus. Tibialis posterior pulls the foot inward, flexor digitorum longus flexes the toes, and flexor hallucus longus flexes the big toe. All three aide in plantarflexion (pointing the toes).
When we run, we place an enormous load on all of these structures. For all the muscles to work and do there jobs correctly, their length, tension and function must be optimised. For most of us, every day we put the calfs in a huge disadvantage. As a female, heels may be worn at work. For the guys, that leather shoe that supports an inch heel is still sufficient enough to produce a change in function of the calf and foot to set the ball in motion. In fact any shoe that raises the heel from a foot flat position is changing normal function in some form.
What happens next?
Tightness, taughtness and weakness that develops over the course of the day becomes 7-fold over the course of a week, imagine what happens over the course of a month/year etc. If we don’t move, stretch and mobilise soft tissue (muscles/tendon/fasica) the connective tissue that surrounds all these deposits more fibres (we call this “fuzz”) over time, this causes a thickening of the tissue and we start to change function.
What can we do?
Stretching is a great way to start, but this will only create the start of the journey. The area of the calf that we really want to hit is the posterior deep compartment, as this area houses the smaller muscles that seemingly harbor the most dysfunction. Sports massage is a great way to assist in the mobilisation of this compromised tissue. Another way to assist the good that is done with the application of sports massage is to apply some release techniques that can be used on the foam roller. Essentially, this is like having a massage. This type of self help is becoming very popular, but we must be careful with its application as it is starting to be mis-used and we are starting to see more and more soft tissue trauma develop as a result. Always make sure that you have been shown that correct application prior to using a foam roller – used right it is very powerful.
If you continually suffer with foot, calf, hamstring, glute or back pain and you can’t get to the bottom of it – ask yourself the question “have you had the chaos in the calf looked at?”