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Rona,
Check out http://www.mindfulness.com/of1.asp
You can use a railing, edge of a table, back of a chair to massage out the calf muscle. During training runs, I have my groups stop along the way and show them how to massage out the calf muscles on the various railings, picnic tables and other assorted benches along the way.
If you sit down on the ground and put the belly of the calf over the knee of the other leg _/\----- you can massage out the calf with the knee.
When muscles are sore they contract to protect themselves. If the muscle is tight and you attempt to stretch it, you'll find that you stretch the muscle fibers on either end of the know and then when they get overstretched they join the knot that was protecting itself from your unthinking stretching.
Using the railing along the way keeps the calves from tightening up.
If you're running with an overstride which means you're landing on the back of the heel of the shoe...slightly in front of your center of gravity, your shins may be getting tight.
The result is that the calves have to work against shin muscles that won't relax totally causing the calves to have to work harder.
If you're ever in San Diego give me a call in phone book under Austin Gontang and I'll direct you to the San Diego Marathon Clinic on Sunday mornings at 8:00am and we'll work on your form and style. This past week was the 30th year of the clinic. It's free and always has been.
Here's some stuff to do about your calves:
Dealing With And Preventing Injuries To Calf Muscles
A look at ways to prevent injury to your calves. Thoughts about what it
means to stretch properly. Ways to massage out the calves to release knots
and remove excess strain and tension. A dialogue to become friends with your
calves and not strain your relationship with them
Dealing With And Preventing Injuries To Calf Muscles
by Austin Gontang,
September 27, 2000
A Folkloric Core Dump On Calves: A Dialogue in Progress
c. 2000 Austin "Ozzie" Gontang, Ph.D. & Denny Anderson
Paul Doughty wrote to rec.running::
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:I have tried to start back running several times over the past couple
of years. I will begin by running 2 or 3 miles a day but within 3
weeks I have always injured my calf (it has occurred to both my left
and right calf). My calf will feel fine and then with one stride
there will be a sharp pain right in the middle of my calf. Even if I
stop immediately, it takes at least 3 weeks before the pain will go
away.
Sylvan Smyth answered:
Quoted message said:Have you gone for any really deep massage? Maybe try Ozzie G's calf
plan: lots of rolling. I use a Stick(tm), because I got one as a
present, but a rolling pin works just as well. See if you can find
some knots in there, and just grind them out. Whatever it takes,
thumbs, knuckles, elbows...
Sylvan Smyth
This got me thinking and I brought together my thoughts over the past 20+
years as a beginning to sharing my folklore about calves and running and
injuries to calves.
As mentioned in an earlier post, your calves are being stretched more
because there's lower heel lift in a running flat. The problem is that the
calf to protect itself will contract...and then the fascia shortens around
that portion of the shortened calf, and then the tension caused by the calf
only being able to partially stretch to its full tonic state will begin to
pull on the tendons. The tendons will take it for a while and then they'll
start to get irritated.
You'll do some stretching as recommended by many and you'll find that you
now begin to strain the muscle fibers around either side of the knotted
muscle encapsulated by the tightened fascia. The end result is that the
stretching most, likely improper, ( you can't stretch a weight bearing
muscle) will allow the overstretched muscle fibers to shorten to protect
themselves...and they'll join the knotted area. And then people will tell
you that it's because of the fact you've run in racing flats.
1. The up against the wall stretch where you push one leg back to stretch
the calf is improper if you can lift up your front foot. If you can lift up
your front foot, the weight is on the back leg, and therefore the back leg
is weight bearing...and the calf can't be stretched. Feels great but it's
like opening your hand and trying to close it at the same time. Great
isometric strain.
If you're up against the wall keep the weight on the front foot so that you
can lift up the back foot at any time. Stretch away from the back foot as if
it's nailed to the ground and you're attempting to pull the foot out of the
nailed down shoe When you do that, then you'd be stretching the calf.
Doing the heels off the curb in my mind's eye is causing the same problem.
Once you're taking the calves beyond the stretch reflex and if the fascia
around the muscle won't let go, you end up straining good muscle fiber and
tendon.
Therefore here's a reason for using the railing to massage out the calves.
Transverse Friction, that is rolling the calf from side to side over the
belly of the muscle to gradually work the fascia and the knotted muscle
(often referred to as adhesions [for the fascia] and scarred microtears of
the muscle).
Check out the picture: http://www.mindfulness.com/of1.asp for massaging the
calf muscle. In that article you'll realize that most Achilles tendon
problems are calf problems. The Achilles problem is the result the calf
being too tight or knotted and unable to go through it's normal range of
motion.
Also work out the anterior shin on the bar. Face the bar and turn your body
45 degrees. Put the closest shin upon the bar and start making a small
circle with the foot as you slide down the shin. Often the shin may be
overworked with the running in the racing flats. The reason for working out
the shin is that if the shin can't relax, the calf has to work against a
semi-contracted muscle which makes the calf strain all the more.
With the idea that Denny Anderson has been passing on about the short quick
steps to work on form, it may be that if you're overstriding the strain on
the calves is due to the vertical lift and the immediate deceleration as the
landing foot touches down. I'd use Denny's technique to practice. He
mentions running on eggs, I think he meant egg shells so softly that you
wouldn't break them or like Caine upon the rice paper in Kung Fu style so no
tears occur...or an image I use is running on a extremely hot surface so
that you are always focused on lifting up you foot as soon as it touches
ball/heel. The heel lightly touches and is instantly lifted up because your
center of gravity is in front of the foot as it lands under you
Picture yourself going "ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh," lifting your feet off the
ground the instant the heel of the ball/heel touches. Remember that the heel
must be touching as it is the platform of the ball AND heel from which the
rest of the body is catapulted forward.
It would be the reflex you'd have when you touch your finger to an iron just
before ironing to see if it's hot, and the reflex pulls your finger away so
fast because while you thought it was just warming up, it was ironing hot.
Following in the footsteps of Denny and others, running in racing flats can
be helpful to improving your running style and becoming aware of how you
land to become lighter on your feet...and therefore the rest of your lower
legs and then the rest of your body.
If you saw the Boston finish over the last few miles, you saw the way the
upper torso leaned forward on one of the Kenyans, to the erect posture of
the other Kenyan. Minimal vertical lift, the foot landing under the center
of gravity, and keeping the body propelled forward in its fall at a 5 or
sub-5 pace.
If you learn to run lightly, you'll have a great time running fast.
Flexibility will be your biggest aid in getting faster once you learn the
rapid turnover of the 180 steps/minute.
Remember when the foot touches the ground it should not stop the body but is
like the pushing foot of a skateboarder as he or she maintains a steady
speed or accelerates. Or in crew, if you watch the coxswain, his or her body
glides forward when the rowers are maintaining the constant speed or
accelerating. If you see the coxswain jerking back and forth you know that
every time the oars are put in the water they're slowing the boat and then
powering it ahead. You also know that the crew are lacking somewhere in
their form and style.
Another picture is you spinning a bicycle tire. Spin it with your hand. If
your hand is slightly slower than the spin of the tire, you slow it down and
most likely will get a burn on your fingers. That's where a lot of blisters
on feet come from as people get tired in the marathon.
Anyway I hope the pictures are a little helpful to get your calves back into
shape. Remember if your calves are having to push your body forward then
you've most likely stopped yourself from being constant in your running
speed.
Let us know what you experience.
Oh, run slowly up a hill with the quick steps so that your back foot or
pushing off foot doesn't weight the calf. Once you can do that, you've
absorbed the other words. Now you have the feeling and the experience. Your
calf is being used to bring the lower leg off the ground quicker to get it
through the cycle faster as the knee goes back and then come up and forward
with the lower leg bent back at greater than a 90 degree.
So from the front, when the leg is coming forward, it looks like the runner
for a short moment has only a knee stump. As the knee comes forward and
lifts, you see the lower leg and then it goes down so that in the majority
of great runners you don't see the heel of the shoe.
Now the above is a core dump. I'll have to go back and see what I said. I'm
interested in finding out where I'm wrong or am explaining it incorrectly.
Help me clean up my word pictures.
Again, it's folklore. If it works for you, use it. If not, find someone who
makes better sense and whose ideas work for you and use them. Or create your
own images that work great for you, and please share them with me and others
of rec.running so we can educate ourselves better.
In health and on the run,
Ozzie Gontang
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Maintainer - rec.running FAQ
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/rec/rec.running.html
Director, San Diego Marathon Clinic, est. 1975
Mindful Running http://www.mindfulness.com/mr.asp
