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tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 9:39 am
by everything
So I tore my calf by starting a sprint while playing soccer. Middle age and sports are a bad combo, haha!

It's a "minor" tear as far as I know. Achilles tendon is attached and working. Pain is very minimal. There is some tenderness to the touch, and if I stretch (not doing it) it'll want to protect itself and go back to a tight position. I'm following the RICE protocol and keeping weight off it (using crutches for now) and not stretching it (allowing stiffness so scarring can do its thing before later getting flexibility back after the initial healing stage).

Anyway, anyone happen to have this kind of injury before? What was your rehab process and timing like if so? Not asking for medical advice/opinion; just curious if you had a similar experience you want to share. Thanks.

P.S. "health arts" instead of martial arts are getting more and more interesting...

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 10:28 am
by David Boxen
If it's a muscle belly tear you can try the Bill Starr Protocol:

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/10/12/rehab-muscle-strains-tears/

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:41 pm
by vadaga
calves usually heal quick- just dont do any strenuous exercise on it for 2-3 weeks and stretch to the limits of what is not painful and it should sort itself out

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 5:58 pm
by P. Li
Happened to my co-worker. He didn't give enough recovery time and re-injured it. Currently he's pain free running and lifting no problem.

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 6:41 pm
by everything
Thanks for sharing. Mine seems to be healing quickly, but I'll definitely not rush it.

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 1:12 am
by Taste of Death
Was it the calf or the soleus (the muscle just below the calf)? I have twice torn my left soleus and made full recoveries without a doctor's visit both times. Very painful though. Be careful walking down stairs.

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 6:55 am
by everything
I believe it could be the soleus, but not 100% sure. My PTs could manually squeeze my calf to verify that moves my foot via the achilles tendon, so the tendon seems ok. It's not very painful - unless I attempt to put weight on it in a non-flexed position, then the muscle wants to contract to be sure not to stretch. Any sore sensation is higher up than where the tendon attaches, AFAIK.

Seems to be getting well quickly, but it's annoying to use crutches, but it's more annoying to not move around so it's ok.

How did you tear your soleus those 2 times?

Edit: taking a quick look at this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697334/ - seems like "tennis leg" is what happened to me (only sudden acceleration playing soccer instead). So probably not soleus. It happened under fast twitch activity.

Edit 2: the main tender spot is right in the center. Hmm. No idea what that means.

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Mon Mar 13, 2017 10:36 pm
by Taste of Death
Stopped on a dime at full speed and pulled up for a jumper. Felt like someone hit me with a rock. I turned around to spot the culprit but no one was there.

The sprint 8. 3:00 jog followed by 8 all-out sprints for 30sec with 90sec recovery. I didn't make it to 8 that time.

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 10:47 am
by everything
Ah yeah, feeling like you got hit/kicked seems to be the classic description.

Luckily, it seems to be healing really quickly. However, I will get back into things super slowly. It's unfortunate because I was enjoying kettlebell swings a lot. I kinda suspect maybe I should gotten into the swings more slowly. My calves have always been tight so getting them strong and more flexible should probably take longer. Maybe the swings were putting too much stress (can't feel it) on them w/o me knowing.

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Mon May 15, 2017 7:58 am
by everything
So I've been doing rehab for about 2 months now and feeling pretty good. Never saw the surgeon for better or worse. Have done many calf raises and resistance band exercises. Adding weight slowly. A little jogging seems ok. Once my calf is normal sized again, I can possibly do some agility work and faster runs.

However, sports with extreme cutting may be out of the picture forever at this point, sadly. As much as we always make fun of and put down pushing hands, light pushing hands including throws, seems like it would be especially fun now. HELL, while I'm at it, pickle ball looks like fun.

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Mon May 15, 2017 11:51 am
by wayne hansen
When I was training rugby league teams I never used ICE
Only Dit da Yao and Zheng gu shui
Never had one player out the next week

Re: tore my calf. any experience here?

PostPosted: Mon May 15, 2017 12:17 pm
by everything
Probably what I should've done. Won't cure my middle-age slowness but there is this new Asian store around here so I should probably check for some of these liniments.