In this video, I'm going to show you how to get rid of calf
muscle pain for good. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in Saint
Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to deal with
tight, achy, dull, painful calves and I'm going to break
it down into a very easy three-part guide. In the first
part, we're going to focus on a wonderful self-massage
technique. It might end up becoming your new favorite
therapy. In the second part, we're going to get everything
loosened up and moving with great stretching exercises for
the calves and the third part, we're going to focus on
strengthening those calves with very easy to do exercises that
may help lead to less instances of calf pain in the future. All
these exercises can be done at home, don't require any special
equipment and may give quick relief, even in as little as
thirty seconds. So, let's get started and get rid of that
calf pain right now. In the first part, let's try to focus
on getting instant pain relief into our calf muscles with what
is called Gua Sha or muscle scraping. It's a wonderful
technique at getting rid of muscle tightness, muscle
spasms, cramps, trigger points, you name it very easily and
very effectively. We need two things. The first being a large
metal spoon. I like one with a little bit more thickness.
You'll get better results. The next is a form of lubrication.
You can use any massage lotions or massage creams. You can even
use pain relief creams such as Biofreeze or Icy Hot. Just coat
pretty much from the knee all the way down to the ankle,
front, and back and when it comes to lubrication, a little
bit more is always better. So, after we've done that, what I'm
going to do is take my spoon. It doesn't really matter what
part of the spoon you take. I find that using the handle is a
little bit easier but you can use the rounded portion here.
Actually, experiment with it. Take what is most effective but
what I'm going to do is start at the bottom of the leg, right
at the ankle and when you do this, make sure to only go over
soft tissue. Muscle that you can grab onto, skin, stay off
any bony spots like this because that can cause
irritation and we definitely don't want that. So, I'm going
to take my spoon and I'm going to use the handle right here and
put it in about a thirty-degree angle and I'm going to press
into the point there's enough pressure that once I start to
scrape upwards like this, it will feel like a nice self
massage. We don't want this to cause discomfort. So, if it
does back off a little bit, only go to your comfort level
but just work your way up. When you do this, you want to go
bottom to the top. And you want to do about five to ten slow
repetitions in each spot and then once you're done with
that, just switch over to a different spot and repeat. You
want to go front to back and pretty much just target those
spots. When you do this all you might find that one certain
spot just feels very gritty, almost like sandpaper. That's a
spot of adhesion and you want to make note of that. That's
usually a spot that's causing tightness and possibly pain and
you want to break that up. When you do this also, you might
notice that pockets of redness form on the top of the skin.
That is completely normal. That's blood flow coming into
the area which is good. It's improving circulation and
bringing in blood to hopefully promote healing but once you're
done with that, really try to focus on the front here on the
shin. Shin pain is very common so really attack that but work
your way up into the calf all the way up to the knee front
and back when you're done with that you can definitely use
different parts of the spoon, you know dig in there and
experiment with it. You can also attack it at different angles
so instead of going up with it go at 45° forward and then go
45° backwards, take whatever you feel is working the best and
any spots that feel like they're, you know, locked up,
tight throw more repetitions in there to break up that muscle
tightness that spasm whatever you might have. Once we're done
with that, let's throw some motion into that calf muscle to
challenge it to open up new spots that might be causing
pain or discomfort. So, what I like to do is press from my
heel into the floor and then, I'm going to just take my toes
upwards towards the ceiling. What this will do is activate
that calf muscle. So, again, start to go over that and you
may find that new spots of tightness have formed or new
spots of pain can be targeted. So, really dig in
there and try to loosen that up I also like to do a little bit
more ankle motion so what I'm going to do is turn my ankle
inward repeat that and then once I'm done with that I'm
going to turn my ankle outwards and then repeat that also
because this just activates that calf muscle just a little
bit differently but go through all of those motions go through
all of the areas target spots of adhesion or any spots that
you feel are tight and achy, try to loosen that up and I hope
that that gives you a lot of quick calf pain relief. In the
second part led focus on getting rid of calf muscle pain
with some wonderful stretching exercises let's just get
everything loosened up this first exercise is called a calf
rock back, it's very easy to do. We're going to start off on all
fours on the floor just like this from there what I'm going
to do is go into kind of like a push up position I'm going to
put my feet out like this my weight is going to be placed on
my toes whatever side that we're focusing on let's say
that I have a little bit more off to my right I'm going to lift
my left leg up, keep my right leg straight, and then just
place my foot over the calf muscle on the right side just
like this. What I want to do from there is a rocking motion.
So, I'm going to rock forward that is with my whole body is
one complete movement rocking forward by driving through my
toes. When you do this, you're going to feel the muscles into
that calf really start to fire. Really focus on that as much as
you can. You want to feel it into the calves but hold this
position for about three to five seconds. From there,
you're going to try to then take the heel towards the
floor. Press with your hands right here too to lower your
heel down even further and it is a deep stretch into that
calf muscle. Again, hold three to 5 seconds, only to your
comfort level. From there, just do this for about fifteen
complete repetitions. With each repetition, always challenge
yourself to go forward and then backwards even more. It'll help
engage those muscles even more to hopefully give you more pain
relief and when you're done on one side, always switch to the
other to keep them both in balance. So, here is a great
calf stretching exercise that you can pretty much do anywhere
even at work. You just need to go next to a door or a wall. I
recommend doing it next to a door because you'll see why
here in just a minute. What I'm going to do is start off in a
scissored stance like this. Whatever side that we're
focusing on. In this case, I'm having right calf pain. I want
to place that one forward and then I'm going to put my toes
on the door and then lower my heel down into the floor for
stable anchor point when you do this too you also want to bring
the toes back towards you or raise them up on the door as
much as possible. Build an initial stretch into that calf
muscle. You want an initial stretch to begin with. You'll
get better results with this. You can then take a hand
whatever side you want. Grab on to the doorknob if you need to
for extra stability but what I want to do is keep this knee
straight, the side that we're focusing on. The other one can
go bent. I'm gonna use this back leg right here to push
forward with my body weight. So, I'm kinda lifting off like
this and pressing my body towards that door of the wall.
The more that you do this, go forward, the more intense the
stretch is going to be felt into the calves. Only go to
your comfort level. Hold this comfortably for twenty seconds.
From there, relax, take a breather, and then repeat this
up to five times. With each repetition, try to drive your
body weight forward even more. Because it will only help
stretch those calves out and hopefully lead to more pain and
tightness relief. If you want to take this one to the next
level, what you can do is stretch into it but then pull
forward even more with the doorknob. So, I'm using my hand
right here at the doorknob to pull myself forward even more
and this can become extremely intense of a stretch. So,
again, only to your comfort level. If you want to take this
one even to the next level, move over to the door frame
right here. Open the door, grab of that door frame and pull
yourself forward even more but again, only to your comfort
level. Go through those, take what is most effective and
remember, always switch to the other side to keep them both in
balance. So, without a doubt, if we want to get rid of calf
pain for good, we have to strengthen all of those muscles
to hopefully future proof them from pain and tightness. This
one is best done next to a staircase but you can also use
something like a yoga block and I will get grief for this but
you can use a stack of hard cover books or just a block of
wood. I call this the calf smashing circuit and if your
calf had a butt, this would kick it. So, I'm going to step
up onto that stair or that yoga block to the point where my
heels are going to be off, my toes are going to be on. If you
are in a staircase, just take your hands, grab off to the
side right here on those walls for support. If you are doing
it next to a wall, just grab onto it like this. What I'm
gonna do first is a simple calf raise. That is just lid up with
my feet trying to take my heels up towards the ceiling. Try to
focus on feeling and activating those calf muscles through all
of these exercises. You should really feel it into the calves.
So, what you want to do is go to a comfortable point of
activation of those muscles. Hold this for five seconds.
From there, come back down, relax, take a breather, and
then repeat this up to ten times. With each repetition,
really focus on driving up even more to challenge yourself to
help strengthen those muscles. From the we want to do the
opposite. So, let's go all the way up and then do a heel drop.
That is just slowly coming down to the point where my heels are
going down towards the floor. Do let them touch the floor
though. Just let them hover. This should take you about 5
seconds from going to the top all the way down to the bottom
and really fight gravity and your body weight. What you want
to do for this one is ten complete repetitions. If this
becomes too easy, what you can do from there is just take one
leg off and then repeat those exercises. It'll become more
challenging because you have more body weight to deal with.
Once you're done with that, what we want is to focus on
more dynamic movements. Challenge those muscles through
different motions. What I'm going to do is what is called
an eccentric calf raise. So, I'm going to tilt my body just
a little bit towards one direction. In this case, my
right, and then I'm going to repeat that calf raise. When
you do this, you'll notice that the muscles get hit just a
little bit differently. And you want to repeat this one again
for five second holds for ten repetitions. From there, go all
the way towards the left and repeat. Experiment with
different angles. If one feels very weak, like, let's say when
I go to my right, it just feels very weak compared to the left.
I make note of that and I throw more repetitions in to help
strengthen those muscles to hopefully again future proof
them from pain and tightness. You can also do circular
motions like this but you just wanna do that and then from
there, switch to doing the heel drops and do that same motion
all the way towards the left, go down a little bit, and then
go all the way towards the right and focus on any motions
with that heel drop that feel a little bit more weak and if it
does feel like it's too easy, just take one leg off and
repeat this. But whatever you do on one side, always switch
to the other to keep them both in balance. So, if you stuck
around to the end of the video, you're going to be rewarded
with a great exercise that's not only going to target the
calves but pretty much the whole legs, glutes, buttocks,
core muscles, and lower back. This one is known as the calf
bridge. It's best done on the floor. Let's lay it flat on our
back. Put our head down like this. What I'm going to do from
here is raise my heels up towards the ceiling as much as
I can and drive my leg weight into my toes into the floor for
a stable anchor point. From there, hands go on the hip and
I'm going to lift my butt up towards the ceiling as much as
I can. You want to pretty much have your knees to the hips to
the shoulders in a nice straight line. Really focus on
feeling into the calf muscles. If it doesn't feel like it's
really activating them, what you need to do is lift the
heels up even more until you feel it. Once we hit that very
comfortable activation of the muscles and I'm telling you
what, it activates a lot of muscles in this exercise. Let's
hold this for five seconds. From there, relax, take a
breather, and then repeat this one up to ten times with each
repetition. Drive the heels up towards the ceiling, lift the
butt up even more to challenge those muscles to hopefully
strengthen everything. Again future proof things from pain
and tightness if this becomes too easy you can take one leg
off like this and repeat and it becomes extremely challenging
so try that one and remember whatever you do on one side
always switch to the other to keep them both in balance. If
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