Calf strain. Bad news :(
Discussion
I'm sitting watching the Commonwealth sevens finals a bit glum tonight. Not because England missed a medal, but because I've got my leg raised, and an ice pack on my calf and am in a fair bit of pain.
I was at my regular Sunday morning social touch rugby session when it happened. I had the ball and was running sideways and sidestepped to straighten up and pass to a player who was looping around behind me. I felt a sudden whack on the calf and it felt like the player had clipped me on the way round
I had fallen over and and when i tried to get up i couldn't stand on my right leg, definitely couldn't run, and my calf was very sore. As nobody had touched me I guessed it was a calf strain of some sort.
So one of the other players is a physio, and said this was classic 'Tennis Leg', me being in my susceptible 40's with a woefully inadequate warmup, and he laughed at me looking behind for the culprit as it's a textbook symptom when you think someone or something has hit you. We worked out it wasn't my achilles thankfully and he recommended a lot of RICE then gentle stretching once the pain goes after several days, some strengthening and gentle exercise for at least another 2-3 weeks before getting back on to the field of dreams.
I'm not really looking forward to a layoff, but I guess it's better than further damage. But does anyone have any good calf strength or flexibility exercises to help with rehab and further prevention?
I was at my regular Sunday morning social touch rugby session when it happened. I had the ball and was running sideways and sidestepped to straighten up and pass to a player who was looping around behind me. I felt a sudden whack on the calf and it felt like the player had clipped me on the way round
I had fallen over and and when i tried to get up i couldn't stand on my right leg, definitely couldn't run, and my calf was very sore. As nobody had touched me I guessed it was a calf strain of some sort.
So one of the other players is a physio, and said this was classic 'Tennis Leg', me being in my susceptible 40's with a woefully inadequate warmup, and he laughed at me looking behind for the culprit as it's a textbook symptom when you think someone or something has hit you. We worked out it wasn't my achilles thankfully and he recommended a lot of RICE then gentle stretching once the pain goes after several days, some strengthening and gentle exercise for at least another 2-3 weeks before getting back on to the field of dreams.
I'm not really looking forward to a layoff, but I guess it's better than further damage. But does anyone have any good calf strength or flexibility exercises to help with rehab and further prevention?
Well a couple of day's rest and a bit of ice has helped, I can walk around fairly comfortably, but with a bit of a limp as I can't spring at the end of a step, running feels out of the question as I can sense the pain just lurking there waiting to bite if I overdo it.
It's odd, I don't really have any mobility issues rotating or stretching my foot and ankle until I put some weight on it. The calf is pretty tender still though
Anyways, I'll give it a few more days until the pain really goes to start stretching it out and doing some of the above strengthening exercises. 300 lifts a day looks like a good challenge!
This might also be a bit of a wakeup call for this weekend warrior to do a bit more decent, regular exercise beyond going out for a blast once or twice a week as I have recently. A decent warmup routine looks key too, I've heard a bit about Dynamic Stretching now, which I'll have a look into. I was always a static/ballistic type stretcher, which now sounds like I was doing it all wrong!
It's odd, I don't really have any mobility issues rotating or stretching my foot and ankle until I put some weight on it. The calf is pretty tender still though
Anyways, I'll give it a few more days until the pain really goes to start stretching it out and doing some of the above strengthening exercises. 300 lifts a day looks like a good challenge!
This might also be a bit of a wakeup call for this weekend warrior to do a bit more decent, regular exercise beyond going out for a blast once or twice a week as I have recently. A decent warmup routine looks key too, I've heard a bit about Dynamic Stretching now, which I'll have a look into. I was always a static/ballistic type stretcher, which now sounds like I was doing it all wrong!
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