Calf muscle strain injuries (CMSI) or calf muscle pain happen a lot in sports that require a lot of running, speed, acceleration, and deceleration, as well as when the person is tired or worn out.
It is very common for people to get calf strains, but if they don’t get them treated properly, they can get hurt again and have a long recovery. Strains are most common in the middle head of the gastrocnemius or near the musculotendinous junction.
The gastrocnemius muscle is more likely to get hurt because it runs from the knee to the ankle. Sudden bursts of speed can lead to an injury, as well as a sudden overstretching of the muscle involved. The lower leg is an important part of biomechanics when you move, especially when you need to move quickly and keep going for a long time. The calf complex is an important part of moving and bearing weight. Injuries to this part of the body affect a wide range of sports and the people who play them.
When the muscles and tendons in the back of the lower leg are pulled or torn, the leg calf pain can hurt in the following places:
- The gastrocnemius muscle.
- The soleus is a muscle in your body.
- The plantaris muscle
- The Achilles tendon
A strain is when a muscle or tendon is hurt. Tendons are the cords of tissue that connect muscles to bones, and they are made of the same kind of material. A strain happens when some or all of the fibres in a muscle or tendon break.
Causes and symptoms of calf muscle pain
It can be hard to move your calf muscles when you have a torn muscle. Mild muscle strain or calf muscle pain can make you feel like you’re sore after a workout. An injury called gastrocnemius muscle pain is a quick one that happens when the calf muscle is quickly stretched too far. These small tears in the calf muscle fibres are caused by this. A “pop” may sound when you get hurt, but you may not feel any pain right away. In less severe situations gastrocnemius pain can take up to three days for a torn calf muscle to feel better. Intense, even debilitating pain can make it hard or impossible to walk until the muscle heals. Another sign of a strained calf muscle is swelling and redness. Difficulty moving the leg and less mobility in the calf muscle, as well as pain when moving the muscle.
People can hurt their calf muscles when they pull or strain them in a lot of different ways. Pulling your calf could be done in several ways.
- not warming up before going to the gym
- Participating in strenuous sports events
- Making too much stress on the calf muscle.
- People who don’t wear the right shoes when they run or do other strenuous things
- recovering from a recent accident can cause calf muscle pain
Diagnosis helpful for calf muscle pain treatment
As part of the physical exam, the doctor will look for swelling, bruising, and redness. This is how they usually figure out that you have a torn calf muscle. They may also ask the person to describe any changes they have made to their exercise routine recently.
Muscle injuries can be broken down into three main groups, or grades.
Based on how bad a person’s symptoms are and how much muscle damage there is.
a) Mild injury
Grade 1 injuries don’t do a lot of damage to the muscles, but there may be a lot of pain at the time. This kind of injury has a very low chance of having long-term effects on your body.
b) Moderate injury
Grade 2 injuries cause moderate muscle damage, and people who have this kind of muscle damage may have trouble walking. They will often feel a sharp pain in their foot that gets worse when they bend or stretch it.
c) Severe injury
If the muscle is completely torn, this is called a grade 3 injury. It can cause a lot of bruises, and it can also cause a lot of swelling that may cause calf muscle pain.
Calf muscle pain treatment and recovery
Most people who have torn calf muscles won’t need surgery, but some people will need calf pain treatment. Resting the leg that has been hurt and keeping it elevated can help it get better faster. People should wait until their calf muscle is completely healed before they can go back to their normal physical activities.
Using a muscle before it has healed can slow down the healing process of the first injury. There are some times when it can even cause a second injury. There are some things you can do to help someone who has torn or pulled a calf muscle: A doctor may suggest more treatments and medications based on the severity of the injury.
The following calf muscle pain treatment may help people who have a mild sprain.
- Calf muscle pain treatment using hot and cold compression: As soon as the first two days are over, people should put a cold compress on their leg for 20 minutes up to eight times a day. Doing so can help reduce inflammation and ease pain in your muscles. If you have pain and stiffness in your muscles after this time, you can use hot packs to ease them.
- A compression sock or elastic bandage can be used to wrap the injured calf and keep it from swelling and becoming inflamed.
- People can put their injured leg on a pillow, a rolled-up blanket, or a towel to raise it. The swelling will go down if you use this calf muscle pain treatment.
- A pain reliever, like ibuprofen, can be bought over the counter (OTC). These calf muscle pain treatments ease pain and reduce inflammation.
- There are different calf muscle pain treatments to heal a torn calf muscle. It could take weeks or even months, depending on how bad it is. People who have a calf muscle that is very strained or torn may need surgery. Damage to nearby blood vessels after muscle injuries can cause bleeding under the skin that isn’t spread across the whole body at once. People who have blood cells that get stuck in muscle tissue can have a hematoma or a blood clot form. A doctor can use a calf muscle pain treatment procedure called aspiration to get rid of a hematoma.
Clinical outcome
Some other conditions can cause pain in the calf muscle, such as deep vein thrombosis and Achilles tendinopathy or rupture. This is why it is important to see a doctor if you have these symptoms. Healing time can be very different depending on how bad the strain was and how well each person responded to treatment. Conservative treatment usually leads to a good outcome for grade I and II strains, but if there is a rupture, surgery is needed. Strength and conditioning exercises are important to re-load the tissues and get you back into the game.
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