29 Sep Calf ‘Pulls’ & ‘Tears’
Pulling your calf may seem like an catastrophic injury…limping in pain will make you feel like recovery is months away. In actuality it is not, as long as you receive the correct treatment from the beginning.
The trick is to restore a normal, non-painful gait as soon as possible.
For this to happen the key is beginning gentle non-painful stretches and movements once the area is warmed up. Many doctors will tell you not to stretch. This is horrible information and will actually hold you back from healing. Restoring normal gait cannot occur this way, and leaving the muscle as-is will also delay healing. This is akin to the advice doctors used to give for back pain…to just lay on the couch. Research and anecdotal evidence shows early movement is key to healing in the musculoskeletal world.
Slowly stretching the calf and the posterior leg muscles as well as targeted therapeutic massage and muscle release by a therapist is the way to go. Manual therapy includes joint mobilization of the ankle to encourage a normal gait pattern and modalities to decrease pain are also used.
Instructions on proper shoe wear and possible inserts like a small heel wedge may also expedite the process. So might taping strategies and gait analysis and education. A manual therapist who is used to quickly recovering these injuries can quickly cut down your time away from sport and your time in pain. Unless the entire achilles tendon is torn, immobilization via a boot or other restrictive item can actually lengthen the time they take to heal!
All in all, calf strains are one of the easiest things to treat, if done correctly and with an experienced manual therapist from the beginning!