Hey everybody it's Doctor Super Jo and Super Remy,
and today we're gonna show you some stretches and exercises for a calf
strain. I know! So let's get started.
So the first stretch is gonna be a calf
stretch, when I stretch my calves, I like to put a little roll or roll up a towel
and put it right above the ankle, and that's just to make it so my heel
doesn't touch the floor, so I can have some movement in there. Take a strap or
if you don't have a stretch strap, use a belt or dog leash, something that has a
loop is really nice, put it around the ball of your foot. If you put it up on
the toes, then it's gonna not work very well if you put it down too low, that's not
gonna work very well either, so try and get it right there in the middle. Relax
your leg, this is a stretch, so you don't want to pull your toes towards you
with the muscles, you want to pull your toes towards you with the strap, so just
relax that leg and pull with the strap until you feel a good stretch in the
calf. Now if you have a strain, this might be uncomfortable, so you just want to
stretch until you feel a little bit of tension, you don't want this to be
painful because you don't want to you know tear any of the muscle fibers even
more, you just want to stretch it out because what that does is that helps
reset those fibers and lay them down flat, so if you have a strain they're all
balled up and you want to get them nice and flat, so that's why you want to
stretch it hold it for about 30 seconds relax and do that 3 times, so just
getting that nice stretch in there nice and comfortable, a little bit of tension
a little bit of pain is okay, but not a whole lot of pain. After you stretch that
out, then you're gonna do some exercising. Take a resistive band, make sure you know
what the colors are, you probably want to start off with the lightest color and
the thera-band series the lightest color is yellow then the next one is red, so if
you don't have this brand, another brand, make sure it's the lightest one to start
off with because if you have that strain, you don't want to do a whole lot to
start off with, if you start using the resistive band and and you decide that that's too
much, and it's painful and uncomfortable, you can do the exercise without the band,
and so we're just going to be pushing down like we're pushing on a pedal, so
that's to get that calf exercising right there, so I like again to wrap it around
the ball of the foot. If you put it too high it might come back and hit you,
slip off your foot and hit you, so make sure you've got it good and steady.
Sometimes with the socks it slips a little bit, so be careful, and then you're
just going to push down as far as you can. See how it's sliding a little bit, so
I like to spread it out and that helps get it a little bit, so push like you're
pushing on a pedal and then nice and controlled come back, so when you're
going down, don't just let it pop back up, try and
control it because if you're wiggling like this when you're doing it, that's
just a sign of some weakness and you might not be ready for that resistive
band or that heavier resistive band, and if it feels too tight, you can always let
the tension off a little bit and that should help some as well, but you want it
to be a pretty smooth controlled motion, so just starting off with about ten of
these and then seeing how it goes from there, and then you can do two sets of
ten ,three sets of ten, if you can get up to doing twenty - twenty-five and it's
easy, then you can go up to the next resist of resistive bands. So after you
do that, you're going to go into side lying and exercise the muscles, now some
people are like "why go into side lying if it's my calf?" But the calf muscles do a
lot of work in certain ways, so getting the exercise in a bunch of different
ways is really good as well, so if it's the top leg, you're going to go into a
side lying position, take the bottom leg and just bend it a little bit and try
and keep your body in the straight line. The top leg is going to be nice and
straight, so if you pull up your toes that helps lock everything out, now
you're probably going to feel that in the calf a little bit, so if it's a
little bit uncomfortable that's okay but you don't want it to be painful, so then
what you're getting here is when you lift that leg, turn so that heel goes up
a little bit, so that's going to help activate that calf, that's going to work
those abductors here because at times when you have that strain the
rest of the muscle is up in the hip kind of take over, so you want to work those
as well, you want to keep those strong too, so lead with your heel and
then kick back just a little bit, so you're going to go up and back this way,
so it's not up and forward because that's changing the muscles that you're
working. You're going up and back, and so you can see I'm not going super high, you
don't have to go really high, but really try and keep everything locked out and
lead with that heel. So again just starting off with 10 to 15,
if you get up to 20-25 and it's easy, then you can add a little ankle weight. So the
next exercises are going to be standing up. So now that you're standing up, you're
gonna do a runner's stretch for the calf. For a runner's stretch, you want to make
sure you have something nice and sturdy to hold on to, so like a sturdy chair,
a counter top, or you can even do it against the wall, just something that you
can kind of lean into. Take the foot that you want to stretch and put it back
behind you. The front one, you want to have that knee bent a little bit. Make
sure both toes are pointed forward, sometimes people want to kind of go out
at an angle, but then that's not really stretching the calf, so make sure they're
pointed forward, and make sure that heel is down, so if you're coming up, again
you're not really stretching those calf muscles, so make sure that heel is down.
If you need to go back further a little bit that that's fine, and then keeping
that heel down, bend this front knee and go forward, so you're just kind of
leaning into it, and you should feel that stretch right through the back of that
leg in that calf area right there. So holding this for thirty seconds,
coming up, taking a little break, and then doing that three times. So really getting
that nice stretch in there, if you, if this is too much, if you bring your foot
up a little bit that won't be quite as much of a stretch, so if you're back here
and you can't get that heel down, bring it up just a little bit and then do that
stretch. Then the next one is going to be for the soleus muscle which sits
underneath that calf muscle or that gastroc, so same position but this time
you're gonna bend the back knee as well, so the front knee bends and the back
knee bends like this and then leaning forward, so
you can see it doesn't have to be a big bend, but it changes the stretch a lot.
Some people feel it a little bit more in the ankle, a little bit more in the front,
but that's getting that soleus muscle to stretch it as well it's equally
important when you've got a calf strain because they're so close together, and
they're actually all kind of connected, so bending that knee, keeping that heel
down, and then leaning forward again holding that stretch for 30 seconds,
coming back up, straightening in stretching it out a little bit, relaxing
and then Bend those knees again, and then bend forward into that stretch.
Then for some exercises again to get that calf working again, to get it
stronger, if these are a little painful you probably aren't ready for them yet,
go back down to doing the ones where you're sitting down on the floor because
those aren't as much weight on the calf muscle or as much strengthening on the
calf muscle, though when you're ready for these, again you're gonna have something
nice and sturdy to hold on to, a chair, counter top, if you just need a little
bit about it so you can do it next to the wall and just kind of hold on to the
wall. Put your feet about shoulder width apart, and then just come up on your toes,
but make sure it's a nice slow controlled motion, so you're gonna come
up on your toes, and then the most important part for this one is the going
down, this is the eccentric motion of the calf, so we call them eccentric
lowers, where you want to come down nice and slow, and this is the controlling
part of the muscle. The concentric coming up, that's easier for the muscle
to do, you can use momentum a little bit, but the slow eccentric coming down is
really really important to help that muscle heal, so you want to go nice and
slow for these. This is not a fast motion at all, nice and slow and controlled so
again just starting off with about ten of these if you can get to 20-25 and it's
easy, and it's not hurting that calf, then you can start doing it with one, but
really make sure you're controlling that back down to get
eccentric movement that's almost more important than the going up, so coming up
nice and slow, coming back down the same thing start off with ten, work your way
up from there. The next one is going to be a single leg stance or a balance
series, so this is kind of working the ankle, working the calf a little bit, it's
really important because these are the smaller muscles those finer motor skill
muscles, and they're really important to work as well while that calf is healing.
So again something sturdy to hold on to, that way you can work yourself up to it.
Start off just holding on with both hands and start off with 10 to 15
seconds, work your way up to a minute. If that becomes easy, then just hold on with
one hand, same thing work your way up from there,
and then that becomes easy, you can just use a little finger for some balance as
long you're not pushing down on that finger, just kind of holding it there, and
then if that becomes easy, then doing it without holding on at all, and so you can
see that my ankle is moving a little bit, my body is moving a little bit, that's
completely normal, that's just those muscles trying to find my center of
gravity, and so if you're if you're wiggling a little bit that's okay. If
you're wiggling a lot and it's painful, then go ahead and hold back on because
you're probably not quite ready for not holding on at all. Okay so the last
couple ones are gonna be a little bit more intense strengthening exercises, I'm
gonna move the chair. You might not be ready for these yet, so I wouldn't try
these the first time you see this video. Make sure you do some stuff and you're
almost ready to get back to doing regular things, and then you can try
these exercises. So this one is going to be a squat with a heel raise at the end,
so it's working on balance, it's working on strengthening, and it's just
working on the core in general, so it really helps out with strengthening calf
muscle, but again if you're not quite balanced with the other things, you're
not going to be ready for this yet because you really want to do it without
holding on, so if you need to hold on a little bit at first that's okay, but this
is for again the higher level exercise when you're almost ready to get back to
doing normal everyday things. So you're going to start with your feet about
shoulder width apart. You're going to go into a squat and
remember those squats are really sticking that booty back, keeping those
knees behind the toes, and keeping your back straight coming down into that
squat. So it's not this, it's coming down with that booty back, and then when you
come back up, you're gonna come up on your toes, so see if you come forward
like that that's okay as long as it's not painful, but really try and keep that
balance. So I'm gonna do the full motion and concentrate on it because if you can
see it it's a little tough to do, so you're coming down in that squat, coming
back up, coming on those toes, and then as you come down, come back into that squat.
So you want it to be a pretty smooth motion, and going up and down, so it's not
this, this, this, this, you want it to be one controlled fluid motion. So coming
down, coming up on your toes, down and back, so again you can see this one's a
little bit tougher, you might want to start off with just doing five and then
working your way up from there. So the last one, I don't know what it's really
called, I call it sneaky lunges I think it's got a fun name, so it's almost kind
of the same concept except now you're doing it in a lunge, but you want to stay on
your toes the whole time. So I always tell my patients, you're doing the sneaky
lunge like if you're sneaking up behind somebody. You want to be really quiet on
your toes. So get into that lunge position, one foot front, one foot back,
make sure you know the good technique so upper body stays nice and straight the
whole time, back leg bends down, but the front knee
doesn't come in front of the toe, so if you need to spread yourself out a little
bit that's fine. So regular lunge, this, sneaky lunge,
you're up on your toes for the front leg as well. So you're coming down and you're
staying on your toes the whole time, so down and up. Sneaky lunge. So you can once
you master this, then you can actually put it into some movement as well, so do
a couple lunges forward, turn around and come back. So those were your stretches
and exercises for a calf strain. If you want to help support my channel find out
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be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.