Topic: Calf Pain?

[Jeff Roark]

Question for the lifters and trainers here. I am having some really bad pain in my calves when I hit the bottom of the squat positions in both the lifts and all squats. It feels like it originates where the gastroc ties in with the soleus(sp?). From the it seems like it spreads right up the side of my leg along the soleus to the knee and even down towards my achilles tendon. I have started to do more stretches for my calves and I hope this may help relieve the pain a bit. I would like to know if anyone has seen the same thing what is the cause of this? I am shifting my knees to far forward at the bottom of the squat positions and putting a ton of strain on my calves? I have even thought my lifting shoes could be to blame but I had this pain in the past when Olympic Style squatting. If I squat and focus on pushing my hips further back powerlifter style the pain isn't that bad, but if I try to sit down between my heels like a lifter does i get some intense pain going on.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Rob Gray]

I get this too and it really sucks

I usually get it when volume on heavy cleans and front squats goes up.  sometimes I uses muscle rubs or "blue heat" horse lotion which seems to help a bit but usually I try to work through it and it goes away after a few more training sessions.  but I don't have a solution as it has been reoccurring for the past few years off and on.

[Jeff Roark]

Hey guys this was posted at the P&B by a net friend of mine...sounds very simliar to what I feel.

Jeff,

I'm not quite sure what kind of pain you have in your calves. It sounds like it might be quite a typical form of nerve pain. This is caused by the nerve at the top back of the lower leg (can't remember its name) getting squeezed between the lower and upper legs in the deep squat position. Given that the shoe heel puts your shin in a more horizontal position and thus increases the pressure, that would make sense.

I've had a few bouts of this inflammation. It takes a few weeks to heal. It is typical for those who full squat a lot - or pick berries for a living.  I've had it so bad that I couldn't walk normally. Doctor's orders was basically "screw it, it'll heal over time" (she was a powerlifter herself). Don't take my word for that, though.

I have a stretch that me and my fiancée use when we have it. It's hard to decribe, but I'll try:

You'll need a scarf or something else for help. Lie on your back. Lift your right leg up. Hold the scarf by its ends with your hands, around the sole of your foot, so you can control the movement of your leg with your hands. Lift the leg as high as you comfortably can while keeping the knee straight. Pull a bit more with your left hand so the foot tilts to the left. Now, start rocking the leg left and right at a slow pace, taking maybe 1-2 seconds each way. You should feel the nerve tightening as you bring the leg left. This is what you want to feel. Do 15 reps and switch legs. Do 2 sets for each leg twice a day. Remember never to hold nerve stretches, keep going back and forth at a comfortable pace.

If your problem is the same as mine, this stretch should really alleviate the pain.

Rolle

[Mike Wittmer]

You could experiment with a small heal lift inserted in each shoe and see if that helps.

[Rob Gray]

my shoes are three years old

[Rob Gray]

The calf pains that I got sporadically actually returned about a week after this was posted when I resumed heavy cleans etc...  
 
found that stretching helped a bit between sets but the final solution still eludes me?  
 
I remember that one day training over a year ago one of the mothers of another lifter gave our coach some liniment.  Some type of product in a secondary container so we didn't know what it was.  I put it on my calfs because it was really bad and at that point I thought it was worth a shot but we were both skeptical (this is a pyramid company product I think).  I started to lift again and the pain actually went away!?  
 
I am going to try and get some more of whatever this stuff was and try it again.