The calf muscles, which consist of the gastrocnemius and the soleus is a muscle we use every single day, all day. there is a lot of pressure on it, and as a result can have a tendency to get tight and develop trigger points. As we have learnt previously on LaurenS Fitness trigger points aren’t greet and can cause pain around the site, and also refer them.
A calf trigger point will mean possible pain in the foot, heel, arch achilles or knee, as well as in the calf area itself. They can be the cause and aggravator of the painful syndrome plantar fasciitis. The point is, you want to get these trigger points out of your calf muscles, as they can lie dormant for a while and bite you in the bum when you don’t even know it.
Here is a picture of where you can locate some common calf trigger points both in the gastrocnemius, which is the more superficial muscle, and the soleus, the deeper muscle. Keep in mind when you are doing your therapy the way I describe, you don’t need to just focus on these areas, you might have some other tight areas that are or are close to trigger points that you can get some relief from working out.
Common calf trigger points
How To Release Calf Trigger Points
OK now the how to. Here is an excerpt from my post on lower body trigger points. Remember that you can try to target the areas you see in the above picture, but a little bit of all round massage won’t hurt you either.
How To:
Start on your bum, raise yourself a little (the more of your body that is raised off the ground, the more pressure you can put through the ball…) and place the ball underneath your calves. Roll right from the Achilles up to under the knee. Slowly. Stop on any tender points and hold. As the calf is pretty wide, you might need to try a few lines, i.e medial, middle and lateral. See how you go.
The best thing you can do is experimentation, there isn’t one way to do everything, and you might find relief from using a tennis ball and rolling on it as I have shown above, using your own hands, getting someone else to get in there, or seeing a professional. Remember if the pain keeps on going, the latter is necessary. Check out the book below for more details!