Calf injury question

Hello. I will try to keep this short:
I am a long distance runner, and about a month ago my left calf muscle started cramping really bad while running. Took a few days off, but it kept hurting on and off. Yesterday, it hurt bad where walking was hard.. and when walking now, I have to do so on the "balls of my left foot because putting the heel down hurts. The pain is not the back of the calf but, the side. If any of you have experienced anything similar or might have an idea of the type of injury it is, it would be appreciated greatly.. and yes, I don't have insurance and will not go to a doctor.

reply to post by ReadyPower


Why won't you go to a doctor?

Worst case scenario is that you've torn a muscle completely off the bone, the only fix is surgery.

But I doubt you'd be walking at all if this is the case.

Go see a sports physiotherapist.

reply to post by ReadyPower


Yeah...If you're gonna need immediate medical advice there are better forums for it..

I noticed from your avatar you're from Oklahoma. Here's a list of free clinics.

www.freemedicalcamps.com...

If you can't walk on it normally and the problem has persisted you should get real medical advice.

He said why he can not. He has no insurance. That's about 80% of the USA. I use the emergency room as my primary care physician...... gotta do what you gotta do. So bud, if it's hurting that bad, go to the ER. For real. It's the un-insureds person's PCP, for real.

It sounds like pronation , under pronation to be exact.

Your shoes aren't supporting and the ankle is flexing outward more than usual which is stretching the out tendons in the calf.
Ice it to bring down the inflammation and wrap the ankle with an ace bandage for added support.

You could probably use new running shoes as well.

Very common problem with soccer players when coming over the ball to stop it and you roll the ankle..ouch !

A bag of frozen peas in a zip lock works great for icing...throw them back in the freezer when necessary.

It's not bad and do check your shoes thats the biggest causee of these types of injuries...running on bad shoes only aggravates it. Especially on pavement.

PEACE

Best advice I can give is ice it and use a heat pad (or microwave a wet towel for like 10 seconds) 2-3 times a day and stretch your calf as far as you can but stop if/when you feel pain. If you've pulled a muscle stretching can make it worse so if there is pain don't stretch. Resting it will be the only thing to repair a pulled muscle. Also make sure your stretching all your muscles in your legs, hips and back. This may not sound helpful but try to have good posture. Stand up straight with your knees slightly bent, ankles flexed making no more than a 90 degree angle with your shin so that your muscles (not your joints) hold up the force of your body. Take a few weeks to a month off of any running/exercise until you can walk normal again. If then it doesn't go away or you really can't walk then yeah like the others say go see a real doctor. Also when you can start running again, if you haven't already check out these bare foot shoes made by a company called vibram and look up running bear foot techniques on google. There's been a lot of recent studies that "running shoes" aren't the best things to use to run with, and that running bear foot is actually a lot better for your body as a whole (we weren't born with shoes on our feet). I've been running with these vibram shoes for over a year now and my whole lower body feels great running, and i've gotten a little more arch on my feet. I've read that some people that get shin splints and cramps in their legs started running with these shoes and those symptoms went away. But again the technique is way different than running with shoes i'd recommend researching it but basically, when your running you want to land on the balls of your feet and then land on your heels.

I'm not a doctor or anything but I've taken classes in anatomy and physiology and can say that there are a crazy number of muscles and joints around the foot and calf that should work together when running, walking or lifting. All your muscles in your body have muscles that counter ones movement so if one of those muscles is stronger than it's counter your gonna pull one of them.

To summarize, ice, stretch (only without pain), take off your shoes. I hope this helps.