Just a quick video today to share a quick warm-up exercise I swear by personally, as an important part of my own pre-run ritual.
Sometimes, especially when running relatively high (for me) weekly mileage, I used to get a little tightness in my calves.
If this kind of calf tightness sounds familiar, here’s how to strengthen your calf muscles:
How to Treat & Prevent Calf Pain After Running
The exercise in the video above has really helped me to keep this calf tighness at bay, and when performed pre-and-post run has all but banished the tightness I used to feel the morning after.
The “toes-in” and “toes-out” elements of this dynamic warm-up exercise really help to reach areas of the calf complex, achilles tendon and even plantar fascia that a more classic calf stretch won’t touch.
As well as helping to manage calf tightness, I’ve seen athletes with Achilles tendinopathy, shin splints, and even plantar fasciitis benefit greatly from adding this to their pre-run routine.
Try it!
Do you think there would be any value in having someone with a chronic PF injury do this warmup say 2-3 times/day? I’ve been doing it in the morning and have been finding it loosens up my foot considerably.
Definitely. Try morning, lunchtime and evening – see how you get on. Don’t work into pain, but use the exercise to keep everything moving and supple.
Perfect! Thank you for sharing. I am almost 7 weeks into recovery from a torn calf muscle. I have high arches and super tight calfs, lucky it has not happened before, but I am ALL about prevention. I start my tri training end of July and want to be ready for it 🙂
Recently I started doing the Jillian Michaels 30DS and Banish Fat and Boost Metabolism work outs and during them my calves have gotten so tight and painful i’ve had to stop. Would these exercises be suitable for me? I just cant work out if its a lack of warm up or something else? The pain is a tight ache. Im new to all this working out stuff so I’m not entirely sure.
thanks 🙂
I’ve been dealing with plantar fasciitis for the last 6 months. I’m definitely going to put this in my warm-up routine and throughout the day. I will keep you posted on my progress!
Hi James. I find it quite difficult to feel a stretch on my right calf. Stretching on stairs seems to help. Is this OK or are there any risks I need to be aware of? Thanks.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I try to do about a 5 minute walk before I run, some calf stretches, then I’m off. I think this would be a lot more helpful for my tight calves and healing plantar fasciitis.