I was playing in my mens league soccer game last night and went down with a calf muscle tear. I was in a full sprint and it felt like someone ripped my calf muscle off of my leg. I went down instantly. I visited a doc in the box, he told me to monitor my leg, if it gets worse go visit my ortho. I am in good shape for a 43 year old. Walking is difficult.
Anybody have experience with this injury?
How long am I out of cycling/running?
I swam today with a pull bouy and had no problem other than exiting the pool.
I’m 2 months in and just getting back to biking. PT says I am clear to run as long as it doesn’t hurt. I could barely walk for about 10 days then slowly started getting better. PT had me do stretching, A-STYM, and strengthening of my core and hips. We’ll see what happens when I start running this week!
For me, I was able to start on the stairmaster long before I could run.
30 minutes at 90+ steps/minute 3x/week to maintain some fitness.
You should be able to hop on one leg 10 times without pain before you can run.
I am going through the same thing. Tore it in January. Up to running 25mins and riding 90. All easy to aerobic. There’s no real answer though. Depends on how bad the tear was and how well your body recovers. Best of luck for a speedy recovery!
Might be the flat and thin Soleus muscle layer, more toward the inside (ie instep) area of the calf. I had mine go out in a race 1km before the finish, had to hobble on one-leg to complete…
Also went down, painful, took a knee for a few minutes. What I had was actually a debilitating massive cramp (calf attack) that causes injury. My right leg/ankle is scarred up from previous injury years ago.
Anyway in-spite of that the recovery was just a couple of weeks, felt better surprisingly quickly. You’ll want to roll the area and get those tissues loosened up.
I’ve experience 6 muscle strains over a period of a few years either in my quads or hamstrings from lifting heavy (former competitive lifter). In each I would guess about a third degree strain based on medical description where there was a “snap” feeling and substantial bruising normally collecting in the lower portion of the leg due to gravity. In each of mine I could not put weight on the leg immediately following the rupture and had to walk with a severe limp or with help to give you an idea of the degree. For each it took me about 6 weeks to return to training with ultra light weights and then start rebuilding competitive strength.
What I wanted to share and it may be more of a N=1 was the use of MICE (movement, ice, compression, elevation). The first time I used RICE and it seemed like MICE worked better. I spent the first week resting, but the second week I used a recumbent gym bike with magnetic resistance set to zero. Basically the momentum was just moving the legs with zero resistance. The second week the same thing and each week I added just a bit more resistance. The compression part I used because it simply made the injured area feel more secure and stabile when I did have to walk. It also seem to reduce the overall discomfort.
I roughly started judging how much bruising would occur several days after the initial injury. I am not sure that is an accurate way to judge, but after having several strains I started to get a good idea how to recover. The crazy thing was the temptation to stretch in the later weeks. Since it is torn you don’t want to forget and stretch. I did that once at about week 5 and was quickly reminded not to stretch with I thought I almost tore it again. Eventually I did begin to stretch and massage the area to help reduce or prevent scar tissue.
I hope yours is not as severe and you have a fast recovery. I’ve known plenty of people that have had lighter strains and were back to progressive training in a few weeks.
I would say give it an extra month to rest after healed before starting again, I had an injury with my knee, small rip in the Patellar Tendon it was enflamed could not walk upstairs using the damaged knee one leg/arms to lift myself up.
The first two weeks was terrible. Ice 4 times a day bedridden.
4 months total to heal. It was fine at 3 months but I did not start cycling until the 4th.
started walking after a month with minor pain.
on the Second month I could spin with the non damaged knee.
I suffered a calf muscle tear a few years ago 3.5 weeks before my first marathon. I’m sure that everyone’s injury is a bit different and healing is dependent on several variables. In my case, I had trouble bearing weight the first day and then limped the next few days. I had 2 ultrasound and electrical stimulation treatments from a trainer friend. I used a tens unit daily for the first week. I have no idea how much this helped my recovery. I iced several times a day for the first few days. About 7 days after the injury, I started gentle stretching and used a rolling pin and rolled the heck out of the muscle several times a day. After taking 5-6 days off, I started crosstraining on a stationary bike, then started on an elliptical about day 7. I started back to some running about day 10-12, VERY easy. I iced after every work out during my recovery. I was able to run and complete the marathon without any problems, pretty close to my goal time. Good luck in your recovery.
Thank you all for the information. I am walking a little better today. My calf is very tender. I have been using a compression sleeve and that seems to help. I guess time will tell.
Fris - If you have what it think, it’s a partial tear of the medial head of the gastroc muscle. When I was in training, it was thought to be a tear of a different small muscle but enough of these underwent MRI scanning that minds were changed. The common feature seems to be a feeling like “getting shot in the back of my leg” or “it felt like somebody hit me with a golf ball.” Healing of these is fairly quick as muscle tears go, in some as few as a handful of weeks. A small percentage seem to take a good bit longer, just so you know. I’d suggest a couple weeks of rest and then maybe test it a little on a stationary bike. Listen to your body and progress slowly as symptoms dictate. If it hurts, back off. Best of luck.
I tore my soleus in Sept. I think I took 2 months off. Had some minor setbacks from trying to get back into it too soon. Still having issues to this day, but for the most part it’s ok…
mine swelled up quite a lot in the first week which made walking or getting out of bed difficult. Once you resume activity, machines like the treadmill are really good as you can stop as soon as it twinges, while if you are out running on the road you have to hobble home
Fris - If you have what it think, it’s a partial tear of the medial head of the gastroc muscle. When I was in training, it was thought to be a tear of a different small muscle but enough of these underwent MRI scanning that minds were changed. The common feature seems to be a feeling like “getting shot in the back of my leg” or “it felt like somebody hit me with a golf ball.” Healing of these is fairly quick as muscle tears go, in some as few as a handful of weeks. A small percentage seem to take a good bit longer, just so you know. I’d suggest a couple weeks of rest and then maybe test it a little on a stationary bike. Listen to your body and progress slowly as symptoms dictate. If it hurts, back off. Best of luck.
John
This sounds exactly like what I did about 19 days ago. It felt like I was kicked in the back of my calf. Lots of swelling and bruising and I lost the ability to flex my ankle. I could ride the stationary bike about 3 days later and did a TT about 9 days after.
Stairs and running are still hard, but things are improving rapidly.
Just don’t do anything that irritates the injury and compression has been helpful.
Very similar experiences to others here, I tore mine last year at the beginning of June, it started as a calf attack cramp and I tried to gut through it, ended up doing the damage owing to my stubbornness. Went to ART therapy a few times, and I credit that (in particular the painful but incredibly effective Graston technique work done) with a speedy recovery. I was able to run lightly within two weeks, albeit not without lingering soreness. However, it was tolerable enough to complete (not race) a half with by the beginning of July, and it was completely healed by the end of July. I took the forced time out to swim a lot more, some core work, etc, so I didn’t feel like I was completely losing the season, but the reality was I didn’t have any running strength or confidence until the season was almost over.
Highly recommend Graston if you can find someone, otherwise just RICE, take it super seriously, and you’ll be back out there soon.
Sorry to hear about the torn calf muscle. I’ve had it torn several times myself until I learned what to look for and how to prevent it. I would recommend an ultrasound to see the extent of the tear. Ultrasounds are much more cost effective than an MRI and can be done at most doctors’ offices. If you did truly tear it, you’ll be out for a while. I was out for nearly 4 months before I was able to run without issue. I was out about 3 months before I could run short distances slowly. Fortunately I could ride and swim all I wanted unless it hurt. The only exception is standing on the bike, don’t do it. To prevent this in the future I’ve done lots of eccentric heel drops, religiously use the “stick” and foam rollers on my calf, and stop running if my calf muscles get tight. I hope this helps.