Hayley – running related chronic calf problems
5 March 2024Hayley has been a runner for years without any major issue getting in the way of her regular runs, but was starting to experience pain and cramping in both calves just a few kilometres into every session. She had tried stretching, massages, and foam rolling – all the normal things, but the situation wasn’t resolving itself.
She came to see our running specialist, Tom, who carried out all the ‘usual’ strength and movement testing and he found very little that could be directly contributing to the problem. Hayley had good muscle around all her joints, good joint ranges, and her running knowledge was very good.
In Hayley’s running assessment he identified that she was striking heavily with her heels, in advance of her centre of mass (the hips), when running. The calves have an extra role to play when this happens – they must counter the ground reaction force and work hard to transfer to the next stride, so they were being placed under a great deal of stress and reporting pain as a consequence. Thankfully there was no major injury, and so Hayley and Tom started to work together to optimise her running technique.
Over a few sessions of running re-education and drill-work with a home exercise prescription to drop into her interval training, Hayley has safely and successfully transitioned to a safer striking pattern, and we are happy to report that she is now running pain-free and up to 12 miles without a problem! She has a marathon planned next year and is fully committed to her training and enjoying it once more.
How we can help you
We’re here to help you be your best. Our aim is to return you to comfortable and strong movement for a healthy, happy, pain-free life and we will support and guide you every step of the way.
Whether you’re experiencing problems with day-to-day activities or in achieving an important sporting goal, our Practitioners are kind, experienced and confident in helping you:
- Rehabilitate back, joint and muscle injuries and dysfunction
- Return you to, or improve your sport
- Prepare for or recover from surgery
- Recover from accidents
- Improve chronic pain
- Reduce discomfort from work-related issues
We focus as much on addressing the source of an issue as we do treating your painful symptoms, through a pathway of assessment and diagnosis, hands-on therapy, rehabilitation and education.
