6 Tips to Avoid Running Calf Injuries with Physical Therapist James Dunne
Avoid common calf injuries with these 6 tips from RunFarGirl
I'm excited to have James Dunne of Kinetic Revolution guest posting for me today. James is a physical therapist based out of Norwich, England who specializes in running injury prevention and rehab. James has a fantastic YouTube Channel with all kinds of helpful videos geared towards distance runners of all abilities. Be sure to check out his channel HERE. You can read more about James HERE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJtlwdHtwPo
There are a few areas of the body which us runners place under considerable stress and strain with even the easiest of training runs. When all is functioning properly these demands on the body are well within our physical capabilities. However, when there’s a weak link somewhere in the system, injury often unfortunately occurs.
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One such area which takes considerable strain with each step is the calf complex. I see so many runners every month with calf problems, many of whom have a repeated history of calf injuries.
Ultimately, if you’re like these runners with ongoing calf problems, you need to get it checked-out by your physical therapist. However, there’s a great deal you can do to help yourself also. Check-out the video above for specific advice on how to manage and recover from running calf injuries.
For the rest of this article however, I want to focus on prevention of calf injuries in us runners.
Warm-Up Properly
In many cases, when I ask a runner about their usual warm-up regime, I get a shrug of the shoulders and a wry smile. It’s something we know we should be doing, but often as time gets tight the warm-up gets brushed over! Now, I’m not suggesting you need to do an intensive 25min dynamic warm-up before every single run, in fact I’d just save those for before speed sessions. However if you have a history of calf problems, two minutes spent warming your calf muscles up before you run can make all the difference.
Here’s a fantastic calf warm-up routine to try:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zs4hh4cp98
Don’t Run Too Far Forward On Your Toes
Improving your running technique can be a great way to overcome niggling injuries, and help to treat through plateaus in training. If you’re transitioning from being a heel striking runner to more of a forefoot strike pattern, just be careful that you don’t end up running too far forward on your toes, like a sprinter. For us distance runners, adopting a aggressive forefoot strike will place a lot of undue stress on the calf and achilles. Instead, perhaps aim for a softer forefoot strike, where you allow your heel to touch the ground a split second after the ball of your foot.
Up Your Cadence
While talking about running form another important factor to take into consideration is cadence (steps per minute). Put simply, runners who run with too slow of a cadence for the given pace will place a greater time under tension for the calf complex with each step, due to the longer contact time with the ground that comes with the slow turnover of the legs. This is certainly another factor that adds to the strain on these soft tissues.
Cadence should increase and decrease with pace. Perhaps aim to run in the range of 172-180 strides per minute when running at easy pace through to tempo, and 180+ when performing speed workouts.
Free Your Hips!
Physically when thinking and talking about calf injuries, it’s understandable that much of our attention is focused from the knee downwards, but it’s important that we appreciate the link between hips and ankles, particularly when it comes to the propulsive phase of running gait.
The ‘push’ that drives us forward as we run should largely come from the big powerful extensor muscles around the hip, the hamstrings and glutes. They’re made to produce big powerful movements. However, if you have tight hips, hip flexors in particular, these important extensor muscles will struggle to be as effective in propelling us forwards.
Now that doesn’t result in an inability to run; our bodies are great at ‘cheating’! Usually we find another way to complete the task… only less efficiently. In this case, a common compensation is for your ‘pushing power’ to be found at the ankle, rather than the hip - meaning that the poor calf muscles all of a sudden have to do a whole load more work per stride.
Again and again, I’ve seen runners with long calf related injury histories overcome their recurring calf problems by learning to run ‘from the hips’.
Training Load
Of course, it’s important that I mention training plan design. It’s all too easy to get sucked into the complexities of running gait to look for the cause of calf problems in a runner, when in truth the more simple answer may be found in their training plan.
Running requires a certain amount of resilience from the legs; a resilience that is developed gradually over time by stressing your body just short of it’s limit then allowing it to recover and grow stronger in doing so. That’s the underpinning premise of all training.
If however we try to rush the process, and take too big of a jump-up in training load (weekly milage or long run duration in particular), often we discover our weak link. Frequently it’s the calves!
So be sure to maintain only a gradual increase in training load from week to week, and take regular recovery weeks in your running plan.
Running Shoe Selection
I was hesitant to include a section on running shoes as it’s a huge box of worms to open, and definitely a post for another day! For those interested in the topic, Dr. Kevin Maggs has created a great video
discussing running shoe selection
. What I wanted to quickly address is the multiplying effect of milage run in new shoes.
Different people will have different experiences here, but in my experience of working with many runners to resolve injuries, I know that one common factor cited as a causative factor in lower leg and knee injuries is a change in footwear. The story usually goes something like: I ran my usual 10 mile route, but did so in these new shoes, and now my [insert body part] hurts.
I’m all for running in a variety of different shoes. In fact, I think running shoe rotation is a great way of providing a varied workout for your feet. However, when running in a shoe for the first handful of times, I’d suggest keeping the milage low, just to get used to them.
I do hope this short list helps to get you thinking about how to better look after your calf muscles throughout your training. Do let me know in the comments if you have any questions.
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Good luck!
--James
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