Hey guys its JP and this time we are going to look at simple and practical ways to work
the calf muscles to help improve your running! For those who don't know, I will be going
over great exercises that work key muscle groups for runners that can be easily incorportated
at home. I figured this would be relevant considering that there can be limited access
to gym equipment at this time. During this video, we will be going over ways to work
one of the muscles involved in the calf muscle complex, which is the GASTROCNEMIUS! This
a key muscle to work on as they contribute to absorb forces in the early phase of running
and THEN, push against the ground to propel the body FORWARD! The more force these muscles
can produce, the farther you will go with each step, which ultimately results in increased
SPEED! This area, also known as the ankle plantarflexors, is very crucial to work on,
especially as one gets older, since decline in power most notably occurs here.
Now, lets go over some exercises that are simple and practical that you can try and
why I tend to incorporate them. The first exercise we will go over is Heel Raises. This
is a staple exercise seen in many training program that aim to target this area. One
big reason I like them is because they are simple. All you really need to do here is
raise the heels up and down. However, I do add some details to this to really get the
most out of this exercise. One cue I use is to keep the knees straight. This prevents
a common compensation of using more of the quadriceps by letting the knees bend, then
straighten as you perform the heel raise. A second thing I look out for is curling from
the toes. When doing a heel raise, many people do so from curling the 4 outer toes. This
can be a compensatory strategy for limited strength from the calf muscles. To prevent
this, I cue people to drive down from the ball of the foot or the big toe. This really
engages the calf muscles and works a motion that is more running specific. Another detail
is following a certain tempo. I typically tell the athlete to perform the heel raises
in 2 second intervals. I find that without this cue, some people lift the heels up, then
just let them drop without control. It is especially important to control the descent
of the heels as this works this muscle eccentrically. These muscles are typically worked in this
manner most of the time during the running cycle, so it is important to work them this
way. Also, there are plenty of ways to modify this exercise to challenge yourself. One obvious
way you can do this is to carry more weight. Kettlebells or dumbbells are typically used
here, but you can get creative and hold a pair of grocery bags or backpacks filled with
items. Another way you can further challenge these muscles is doing this from a step or
another elevated surface. This can be an option valuable to a runner as the calf muscles seem
to generate most of its force at around 10-15 degrees of ankle dorsiflexion, where this
motion causes the foot to come toward the body to 10 degrees of plantarflexion, where
this motion causes the foot to go away from the body. By doing this on an elevated surface,
this allows you to work the muscle in a more dorsiflexed position and work the muscle in
a manner more specific to running. Now, another simple way to further challenge yourself with
heel raises is through changing the tempo. To increase difficulty through tempo, you
can increase the speed of the time it takes for the heel to rise, then decrease the speed
of the time it takes for the heel to lower.
Those are some easy ways to modify the heel raise, but you can also try some different
variations of the heel raise to further challenge yourself in different ways. One of my favorite
variations of the heel raise is the supported single leg Heel Raises. Shoutout to Chris
Johnson for introducing this one.. Now, people typically jump toward single leg heel raises;
however, this may be an option to try prior to the Single Leg Heel Raise as this involves
way less BALANCE demands. This could be a way for you to really work on the strength
of the muscle as you don't really have to think about trying to keep your balance as
much. Now, similar to what I mentioned about the standard heel raises, try to make sure
to keep the knee straight and maintain control as you lift and lower the heel. However, there
are a few more things that you may need to pay attention to. You need to watch the way
the body moves as the heel raises. A common compensation is for the body to move forward
and lean into the foot on the elevated surface. This is why I typically tell people to try
to stay vertical and pretend like you are trying to hit your head on the ceiling. Now
another tip I commonly give is that you can use a small ball under the foot as shown to
prevent you from putting too much weight on the support leg and make sure its mostly used
for balance.
The next variation of heel raises you can progress toward is the Single Leg Heel Raises.
Compared to the standard Heel Raise, this requires increased strength AND balance demands.
This may be important considering you are pretty much on ONE LEG at a time as run!
Now, one last thing I wanted to add in this video is a simple plyometric exercise, which
are Pogo Jumps. The reason why is because running involves constant energy storage and
release. This is a simple way to work on that. Now the difference between pogo jumps and
regular jumping is that you are actually trying to keep your knees straight and stiff. This
difference focuses activity less on the knee and more at the ankle. This ends up biasing
more of the achilles tendon, which is an important structure that helps generate so much force
as you run. When doing these, I typically incorporate a metronome to control the quality
of the movement. For example, if I want to increase explosiveness, I typically slow down
the beats per minute as this will require you to have to stay in the air longer...aka
jump higher. You can also switch to different variations such as hops, which I talk more
about in a previous video. If you want to further know more about my thoughts on plyometrics,
you can check out that video as well. Now, I do want to warrant some caution when doing
these are doing too many of these may not be worth it. For example, depending on which
research articles you read, mechanical stimulus to build structures like bone or tendon may
actually plateau around 30-40 jumps or hops. Doing more than that may not stimulate much
more gains than that. Of course, I will just say that this also largely dependant on the
relative intensity to the specific individual. Being in a rehab setting where I help athletes
work through and manage injuries, I'd rather try to get at least the minimal effective
dose to build resilience in those areas rather than try to find that maximum benefit as you
may be putting yourself at a higher risk of injury. In other words, the juice may not
be worth the squeeze. Though I will say that context is important and it may be beneficial
to consult or work with someone to layer in plyometrics properly.
And those are some exercises to try and why they can beneficial to help you run faster!
I know this video was way longer than usual, but I hope you guys enjoyed this one as I
shared more of my insight here. I'd love to hear your feedback as well as any questions
you may! Feel free to give suggestions for other specific topics youd like me to discuss.
Also, I would really appreciate it if you subscribed to my channel! If you already did,
I AM VERY GRATEFUL! And as always...THANK YOU FOR WATCHING!