Calf Muscle Pain

Calf muscles are located at the back of lower leg. Calf muscle is made up of three types of different muscles, two of gastrocnemius and one of the soleus. These muscles should be stretched tolerably while doing exercises and after exercising too. Calf muscle pain is generally experienced for a short time and is curable. It is mostly self induced and is caused due to too much of exercise or lack of proper technique in exercises, especially with those related to stretching.

Causes of Calf Muscle Pain

As mentioned above, there are several causes of calf muscle pain. Some of these causes are as given below.

Sports Related Injuries
Generally sports related injuries are a prime cause of calf pain. Thus, sports people have more chances of getting calf pain. Playing games such as basketball, running, hurdles, long jump, rugby, football soccer etc., in which stretching is necessary, may increase the chances of calf muscle pain. Usually, abrupt acceleration, change in direction while running etc., are some instances which lead to contraction of calf muscle.

Cold Weather
You may notice that calf pain increases during winter months. This is because, the lower temperature brings about contractions in the calf muscle.

Fatigue
Overexertion, which eventually leads to muscle fatigue is yet another cause of calf pain. When you overuse a muscle, it is eventually deprived of oxygen and other nutrients, which leads to its collapse.

Mineral Deficiency
Lack of vital minerals such as calcium, magnesium may also lead to pain in calf muscles. If your muscle pain is accompanied with dehydration, you can be sure of a mineral deficiency.

Symptoms of Calf Muscle Pain

A sudden, excruciating pain is an obvious symptom of calf muscle pain. Besides, you may experience some stiffness during exercise. You may also experience a hard lump in your calf. The symptoms of muscle pain mostly depend upon the extent of tearing of muscle fibers. Depending upon the extent of injury to the muscle fibers, they are classified as follows.

Grade 1
You may get a micro tearing of muscle fibers or Grade 1 muscle strain, if you overstretch your calf muscle. Thereafter, you may experience pain every time you stretch your muscle. Micro tearing of muscle fibers is easily curable after treatment of at least 3 weeks of duration.

Grade 2
Sometimes, a further injury or stretching may lead to Grade 2 muscle strain, where you may find major ripping of muscle fibers. At this stage, you may experience severe pain. Grade 2 muscle injuries can recover within 2 months of duration.

Grade 3
An injury of severe magnitude may cause complete tearing of muscle fibers, thus, classified as Grade 3 Muscle strain. You may have excruciating pain even while standing up. This recovery may take more than 3 months of duration.

Treatment for Calf Muscle Pain

Treatment of calf muscle pain depends upon the severity of the calf muscle injury. The treatment may include some of the following steps in orderly manner depending on the strain.

• Giving complete rest to your lower legs without performing the activities of strain on it, can improve your condition. This should be continued until the pain and local tenderness of the muscle are gone.
• You may apply some cold pack or ice to the calf area for about 3 to 4 times a day. Keep the ice or cold pack in a cloth or towel and apply it on your skin for at least 20 minutes.
• If you see some kind of swelling around your lower leg, you can wear an elastic compression bandage to reduce the swelling of that part.
• You may try keeping your leg at an elevated position than your heart in order to reduce the swelling.
• If the swelling persists and/or you still have tenderness in calf along with pain, then you would better go for pain relief medications such as aspirin or acetaminophen.
• Sports people who want to resume physical activity may use heat compresses for quick calf pain relief.
• Slight stretching exercises can only be done when most of the pain and swelling is reduced.

You can only prevent yourself from getting calf muscle pain by keeping yourself fit and regularly exercising your calf muscle. This should make it stronger and ready for any sudden physical stress.