The gastrocnemius muscle provides movement of the foot in the sagittal plane and stabilizes the body during movement. Sharp pain in the calf muscle can occur for many reasons. Doctors at the Yusupov Hospital, when examining a patient, find out the cause of pain using modern examination methods.
Once the diagnosis is made, treatment is prescribed. Therapy is aimed at eliminating the cause of severe pain in the calf muscle, the mechanism of development of the pathological process and eliminating the pain syndrome. Rehabilitation specialists prescribe modern physiotherapeutic procedures, massage, and acupuncture. The senior instructor-methodologist draws up a special physical therapy program and conducts individual and group classes. Their goal is to relieve muscle spasm, increase the tone of the calf muscle and eliminate pain.
Aching calves: causes of discomfort
Sharp pain in the calf muscle at night or during the day can occur for the following reasons:
- damage to the calf muscles after excessive exercise;
- pathologies of blood vessels of the lower extremities (varicose veins, obliterating arterial diseases);
- sedentary or standing work, when oxygen starvation occurs due to venous stagnation, toxins accumulate in the leg muscles.
Severe pain in the calf muscle when walking develops in patients suffering from obliterating atherosclerosis or endarteritis. Pain in the calf muscle at the back is a sign of acute venous thrombosis. Pain may occur in the calf of the left leg due to injury. Heel pain radiates to the calf muscle due to inflammation of the Achilles tendon. Pain in the calf muscles can be a symptom of ankylosing spondylitis.
Spinal diseases provoke pain in the calf muscles. When the structure and function of the intervertebral discs are disrupted, radiating pain occurs that radiates to the legs. Peripheral nerve diseases can also cause pain in the calf muscles. With neuralgia, the pain is paroxysmal in nature and occurs along the nerve fibers. During the intervals between attacks, the patient does not feel pain.
The most severe pain occurs with inflammation of the calf muscles - myositis. The patient is bothered by aching pain in the calves, which intensifies with movement. Often, dense nodules or cords can be felt in the calf. A peculiar form of the disease is parasitic myositis, which occurs when affected by muscle pain in the legs, fever, pain in the muscles of the limbs, tongue, face, chest. Acute, prolonged pain in the calf muscles occurs due to inflammation of the bone marrow - osteomyelitis.
Diseases of Musculus gastrocnemius
Injury to the calf muscle seriously impairs motor activity.
There are 2 categories of diseases:
- Diseases of the lower leg that affect the calf muscle.
- Diseases of the immediate muscular component of the gastrocnemius muscle.
There are skin diseases that affect muscle tissue and cause a lot of clinical symptoms.
For example, erysipelas, or erysipelas, most often occurs on the lower leg. This disease is caused by group A streptococcus and affects almost all soft tissues.
Symptoms of erysipelas of the lower leg:
- Pain in the calf when moving the foot and supporting the leg.
- Increased body temperature.
- Bright hyperemia of the skin of the lower leg.
- Swelling and burning in the area of inflammation.
Step-by-step treatment for erysipelas (erysipelas) of the leg:
- Limitation of limb mobility (bed rest).
- Ibuprofen 200 mg 3-4 times a day for 5 days.
- Suprastin 1 t 2-3 times a day for 5 days.
- Doxycycline 100 mg twice a day for 5 days.
- In case of wound formation, topical Chlorhexidine or Furacilin.
Other diseases (diabetes mellitus, varicose veins, thrombophlebitis) have a different cause and mainly affect blood vessels. They are very difficult to treat and often cause death.
Sometimes pregnant women complain of swelling of the ankles in the evening. This is due to impaired blood supply to the legs, blood stagnation due to heavy weight or vascular incompetence. To correct the condition, it is necessary to control the level of fluid consumed per day (reduce to 1.5-2 liters), and take evening walks.
Swimming, massage and exercises for stretching the back of the lower leg have a good effect.
People often come to the traumatologist with complaints of cramps in the calf at night. To exclude vascular lesions, the doctor will prescribe an MRI, SCT or ultrasound of the legs, but often walking in the evening, taking a vitamin complex with calcium and potassium and swimming 2-3 times a week helps to get rid of cramps.
How to relieve pain in calf muscles
In order to relieve pain in the calf muscle after an injury, it is necessary to provide rest to the lower limb, place an ice pack on the back of the shin, apply an elastic bandage and elevate the leg. 72 hours after the injury to the calf muscle, a heating pad should be applied to the lower leg.
As soon as the swelling subsides, you need to rub the skin over the calf muscle with a pain-relieving balm (Bengay, Finalgon) and wrap it with an elastic bandage. If there is severe pain in the calf muscle, you should take a tablet of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug – ibuprofen, ketanov – orally. If the pain does not go away after 7 days, you should consult a doctor.
If you have pain in the calf due to an injury, you need to reduce the load on the heel. Heel pads can reduce stress on the tendons and calf muscles. You can make them yourself. To do this, just cut out pieces of cork 6 cm thick and put them in your shoes. It is necessary to avoid activities that involve additional stress on the calf muscles. No need to walk to the upper floors or ride a bicycle. Wearing comfortable shoes reduces pain in the calf muscle. Traumatologists recommend wearing sneakers and avoiding stiletto heels during illness.
If the cause of pain in the calf muscles is varicose veins of the lower extremities, it is useful to use compression stockings. Arch supports, which are installed in shoes under the instep of the foot, help correct imbalances that affect gait and cause pain in the calf muscles.
If acute pain suddenly appears in the calf muscles, you must stop, lie down on a bench, place a cushion under your feet, and call an ambulance. In this case, the patient needs to consult a phlebologist and provide emergency care. Sharp pain in the calves, reminiscent of a whiplash, goes away after resting for a few minutes. If it appears again, you should contact an angiosurgeon.
Anatomy of pain in the calf muscle
A feeling of discomfort appears on the back of the lower leg from the ankle up to the knee. The gastrocnemius muscle rises above the soleus muscle, fixed in the heel area by a dense Achilles tendon. It consists of two fleshy heads - lateral and medial. The calf muscle consists of muscle fibers, tendons, ligaments, nerves and blood vessels.
Any of these structures are susceptible to injury, infection, and other disorders. Many of these conditions are accompanied by pain. Discomfort in the calf can be permanent or temporary; the pain wave can involve the entire calf muscle or be localized in a separate area. It can be monotonous, pulsating and shooting, stabbing and growing.
Pain in the calf muscle can be called tingling, burning, leading to numbness of the limb. Loss of sensation is commonly called paresthesia. Discomfortable sensations can be annoying, inconvenient, and sometimes they cause limited mobility when a person loses the ability to bend a leg and even walk.
Exercises to Prevent Leg Pain
Stretching and strengthening your calf muscles will help prevent future pain. Before classes, you need to warm up your feet. It is better to do the exercises immediately after a hot shower.
Stand facing the wall, touch it with your palms. Place the toe of one foot towards the heel of the other. Leaning on the floor with the heel of your “back” leg and slightly raising your toes, bend the knee of your “front” limb. Lean against the wall, resting your palms on it. Stay in this position for 30 seconds.
Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you, toes pointing up. If you can reach your toes, grab them with your hands and pull them towards you, stretching the calf muscles. If you can’t reach your toes, you can hook your toes with a towel and pull on the ends for 30 seconds.
While sitting on a chair, raise and lower your heels. You can rise on tiptoes, or lower yourself, leaning on the back of a chair or table. Repeat each exercise 20 times, eventually increasing the number of repetitions to 40. If during the exercise you experience pain in the calf muscle, you should stop doing it.
Strengthening your lower leg helps relieve pain in the calf muscle. Place 1 kilogram of rice in a stocking and place it on your toes while sitting on a chair with your knees bent. Without lifting your heels off the floor, lean forward and pull your toes toward your shins. This exercise strengthens the finger extensor muscles, which reduces the load on the calf muscle.
BUTT MUSCLES
The gluteal muscles consist of three paired muscles of the gluteal region:
- Gluteus maximus muscle
- Gluteus medius muscle
- Gluteus minimus
The gluteus maximus muscle is attached to the pelvic bone at one end, goes around the hip joint and is attached to the upper part of the femur at the other end. It is the largest of the gluteal muscles and one of the most powerful muscles in the human body. It serves to extend the leg at the hip joint. Good exercises for developing the gluteal muscles include squats, deadlifts and lunges.
The remaining two muscles are abductors. The gluteus medius muscle is located under the gluteus maximus. It starts from the outer surface of the iliac crest and attaches to the femur. Participates in hip abduction, also abducts the pelvis to the side and straightens the bent torso. Gluteus minimus , the deepest of the buttock muscles, is also involved in hip abduction and torso straightening. It starts from the outer surface of the ilium and attaches to the edge of the femur.
Taping
The gastrocnemius muscle is located on the back of the lower leg and consists of two heads that are parallel to each other. They smoothly transition into the Achilles tendon, which is very often injured. Given this structural structure, rehabilitation specialists at the Yusupov Hospital use only Y-tapes or lymph tape for taping the calf muscle. Y-tapes are more effective for sprained or torn ligaments. Lymph tape is used to accelerate the resorption of swelling and hematomas after bruises.
Tape is applied for pain in the calf muscle caused by contusion of muscle fibers, sprain of the calf muscle, tears of ligaments and muscle fibers. If the calf is torn or sprained, you can apply the tape to the calf muscle from bottom to top. In case of a bruise, lymph tape is applied from top to bottom. Before gluing the tape, the hair is shaved off and the surface of the shin is thoroughly wiped with alcohol.
The patient's position should help stretch the muscles of the lower leg - the foot should be in the direction towards itself. This can be done while lying on your stomach with your leg bent and your foot pointing towards you, or standing with your leg back and your heel on the floor.
The doctor selects the optimal tape length. It should correspond to the anatomical length of the calf muscle, taking into account the percentage of elongation of the middle part of the elastic band. The tape is placed from the plantar surface of the heel to the knee joint. The first and last 2-3 cm are glued without tension. When the calf is stretched, a tension of 20-30% is applied, and when there is a bruise, the tape is applied without any tension at all.
The rays of the tape should be located according to the location of the muscle fibers in the calf muscle - along the lower leg. If there are signs of injury to the Achilles tendon at the site of attachment to the calf muscle, apply a short tape perpendicular to the axis of the lower leg.
Features of lower leg training
On the Internet you can find information that supposedly the calf muscles are very durable, consist of “slow” fibers and they need to be trained exclusively with many repetitions with light weight, and large weights are useless here. Actually this is not true. The lower leg is both a resilient and strong muscle group.
Yes, most people's calves are made up primarily of slow-twitch fibers, but that doesn't mean they should only be trained in a high-rep style. If the shin is sharpened for many repetitions in everyday life, then why load it in the same style in the gym? Why can’t you use the opposite type of stress – heavy weights? Of course, this can and should be done.
When using heavy weights, you need to remember that the spine, ankle and Achilles tendon will experience a much greater load than when working with small weights, especially when standing. With heavy weights, it is not recommended to lower yourself too much at the bottom of the exercise, as this can lead to injury.
Seated calf raises avoid excessive stress on the spine, but you still need to be careful with the ankle. In seated lifts, you can work with heavier weights more often, the main thing is that the movements are smooth and controlled.
You can load the lower leg relatively more often than other muscle groups, although in this case everything depends on the volume of the load. It is perfectly acceptable to work your lower legs three times a week if you only used one exercise in each workout. For example, if on Monday it was standing calf raises, then on Wednesday you can perform seated calf raises, and on Friday calf presses. All 4-5 approaches, the number of repetitions can also be varied. For example, calf raises can be done for 8 reps, and standing raises and calf presses can be done for 12-15 reps.
If the shin lags behind, then there is nothing left but eternal specialization on them. This means that at the beginning of your workout you should hit your calves for 4-5 sets of 1-2 exercises, and only then move on to the main workout. Here you will have to choose - either load them powerfully and harshly, or moderately, but more often. I recommend the second option as a basic one. If you really want hardcore, then you can use drop sets. After a good warm-up, you load a machine or barbell with a heavy weight that can be lifted 8-10 times, perform a set to failure, quickly drop the weight by 25% of the original, do another set for the maximum number of repetitions, then drop the weight again by 25% and again do as many reps as you can. This all adds up to one approach. I recommend doing no more than 3-4 such approaches during a workout.
How to treat pain in the calf of the left or right leg
If you feel pain in your calf muscles, contact the Yusupov Hospital. Doctors will prescribe anti-edematous and anti-inflammatory treatment. After a comprehensive examination using x-rays, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, blood and urine tests, a collegial decision will be made on treatment for the syndrome that causes pain in the calf muscles.
Severe cases of diseases that cause pain in the lower leg muscles are discussed by professors and doctors of the highest category at the Yusupov Hospital at a meeting of the expert council. Leading neurologists, rheumatologists, orthopedists, and rehabilitation specialists establish an accurate diagnosis and jointly develop tactics for further patient management. A comprehensive treatment is carried out aimed at eliminating the cause of pain, the mechanisms of development of the pathological process and relieving the pain syndrome. Therapy is carried out with effective drugs that have a minimal range of side effects.
After treatment, patients are offered a comprehensive rehabilitation program. It allows you to get all the necessary procedures at a stable price and save money. If you experience pain in the calf muscle, call the Yusupov Hospital, where the call center is open every day 24 hours a day, without days off or lunch breaks. Doctors provide emergency medical care around the clock.
