Pulled Calf Muscle
As you may be experiencing, a Pulled Calf Muscle can be a very painful experience.
My question for you is, do you have a calf muscle pull (rip/tear) or an Achilles tendon rupture of some size?
In many ways it doesn't matter. The important point is that there's an injury, and you want to heal as optimally as possible.
What Is A Pulled Calf Muscle?
So what is a pulled calf muscle, you ask?
Great question.
It's not a calf muscle spasm or cramp. It's not 'tweaked' (meaning it's uninjured but very unhappy). It's not hurting due to nutritional deficiency.
Two factors make up a calf muscle pull.
- A pulled muscle in the calf hurts because it's torn (or ripped) some amount. Technically there needs to be at least a 5% tear to qualify as a 'pull'. In the real world nobody gets that specific about it. We just call it 'injured'.
- A calf muscle must be torn, as opposed to the Achilles Tendon. This mostly happens where the calf -muscle- tissue blends into Achilles tendon tissue.
It is extremely rare for the body of the calf muscle itself to tear.
The 'calf muscle' is made up of two muscles: The Gastrocnemius (the big muscle you see bulging) and the Soleus muscle which is underneath the Gastrocs and do most of the work.
We often feel pain in our calves, especially if we're active on our feet, whether that be office work or athleticism.
In our culture we've been trained to believe that if there is pain, there must be injury.
The GOOD NEWS is that that isn't true. Just because you feel pain doesn't necessarily mean that there is actual rip or tear.
I'll say more about that farther down the page.
Pulled Calf Muscle Symptoms
What are the symptoms of a pulled calf muscle?
Pretty simple.
Pain.
And the worse the 'pull' (rip, tear), the worse the pain.
And of course the worse the pain, the worth the accompanying symptoms like:
Limping Inability to walk/run/jump without increase in pain Inability to walk/run/jump due to limiting pain Burning sensation (from pain enhancing chemical from inflammation) Deep Ache Swelling from a Process of Inflammation
Most websites are going to list out a few symptoms. You'll notice that those are the same symptoms as every other injury.
That's because physical injury for the most part results in only two things:
- Pain
- Limited movement
A pulled calf muscle is no different.
KEY CONCEPT: The bigger the rip/tear, the worse the pain will be and the more limited movement will be.
Remember I said that you can have pain but no injury? Guess what? The pain can feel EXACTLY the same.
See: There Are Two Types Of Tendonitis
My point is, just because you went for a run or whatever and now feel pain, DON'T PANIC. Just because it hurts doesn't mean you're injured.
Pulled Calf Muscle Treatment
Treating a pulled muscle in the calf is the same as treating a tweaked calf muscle.
Due to the Pain Causing Dynamic that kicks in (and was already present before the pull) and the Process of Inflammation in place, you feel pain, stiffness, etc.
Those two mechanisms are present anytime you feel pain. They are WHY you feel pain.
So whether you actually pulled a calf muscle or just have an unhappy calf muscle, you need to fulfill the following requirements to reduce pain.
- Learn How To Reduce Inflammation. It's an Ice Dip for you!
- Self massage. Rub your calf. If you find something that hurts, if you find something that's tight....massage it. Repeatedly throughout the day.
It's like squeezing a sponge. If you keep squeezing the sponge, you'll get irritant and pain enhancing chemical out, new blood and oxygen and nutrition in, and soften the too tight tissue.
Simple, but highly effective. Don't knock it.
Anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen will help get you through the day, but are NOT a fix nor a cure.
Rest doesn't heal anything, though it is useful for reducing new irritation to an irritated ecology.
Once things start feeling better, it can't hurt to do some Eccentric Heel Drops.
You REALLY want to make sure that you effectively rehab a pulled calf muscle. Small tears later become big tears. So get to work. Don't just hope that it'll go away. It won't. That's just injury works.
Return to the top of this Pulled Calf Muscle page.
Go to the main Pulled Muscle Symptoms page.
Go to the main Tendonitis page.
Go to the www.TendonitisExpert.com
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