What to Do If Your Calf Muscle Is Sore

Sore calf muscles are a common problem, particularly athletes or those who are required to be on their feet all day long. According to Posture Dynamics, these sore calf muscles are commonly caused by a condition known as hyperpronation. However, even those who have proper pronation can still suffer from calf muscle pain caused by lack of muscle tone in your leg.

Is it Hyperpronation?

• You need to identify whether your sore calf is caused by hyperpronation to treat it properly. Hyperpronation is typically an inherited condition. A person with hyperpronation has an underdeveloped heel bone, or calcaneus, or an underdeveloped ankle bone, or talus. Those with this condition often have a range of motion that is not normal due to the underdevelopment in these bones. This abnormal range of motion tends to close the natural space that exists in the bones of the ankle and heel, causing bad posture. Bad posture can then lead to other types of pain, such as pain in the calf muscles when the muscles in your calf become overly relied upon or stretched.

  There are number of indications that should be considered in determining if the calf pain you suffer is caused by hyperpronation. Some of these symptoms can be seen in small children and increase as a child ages. Typically symptoms in children include the desire to not wear shoes, pains in the legs while growing, walking on tip toes, a flattened or excessively arched foot, walking with toes pointed out instead of straight out in front, structural deformities, pains in other areas such as the hips, back, neck or knee, and inactivity. Symptoms for adults include bunions and ingrown toenails on the foot, recurring ankle sprains or tarsal tunnel syndrome in the ankle, RLS or shin splints in the legs, pain or curvature of the spine, and other pains in the hips, knees, pelvis, neck and head.

Improving Calf Pain Caused By Hyperpronation

• Relieve the soreness of your calf muscles by improving your posture. When your posture is incorrect, you rely overly on your calf muscles. This overuse causes them to stretch during the day, but then tighten up during periods of rest. This tightening can cause a great deal of pain. While this is most useful for those with hyperpronation, making strides to improve your posture can help ease the pain of soreness in the calf muscles even if hyperpronation is not causing the pain. You can improve your posture by making sure that your ears, shoulders and hips are properly aligned. Proper alignment means your ears are in a straight line above your shoulders, which are also in a straight line above your hips. Look in a mirror to see if you are properly aligned, and if not, work on adjusting the way you stand and walk so these body parts line up. You can also do yoga or pilates to help work on your posture and alignment.

Other Things to Do

• There are a number of other treatments you can consider to ease the soreness of your calf muscles no matter what the cause. Follow the steps in the RICE treatment. The RICE treatment involves: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation to rid the calf muscle of any pain. Ice should be applied at several points throughout the day and compression should be applied with an elastic bandage. Rest and elevation simply mean sitting and resting.

  In addition to RICE, you can also try an over-the-counter muscle pain reliever that contains anti-inflammatory ingredients. You can also simply try walking the pain off. Although being on your feet may cause more pain initially, sometimes walking can actually help ease the pain in your calf muscles, as long as you are walking with correct posture. If you smoke, attempt to stop smoking in order to ease pain in your calves. Smoking causes your arteries to function improperly by narrowing arterial blood vessels and can cause pain in your calf (as well as pain throughout the body). Support hose can help with pain and are made out of an extremely tough nylon and provide compression for your calf muscles. This is good if your muscle pain has been determined to stem from an arterial condition. Your last resort, when everything else has failed and in extreme circumstances, is to consider surgery in order to ease calf pain.