Calf Muscle injury rehab

[pdellorto]

During my MMA training last week, I injured my right calf. My doctor diagnosed it as a class I/borderline class II injury of the gastrocnemius. Nice little bruise right behind my knee and the calf is yellowed all the way down. My MCL hurts, but it's not injured, just suffering from the off-loaded pain.

I was thinking using the Starr rehab routine once it's healed enough to start into that. I'm not sure what exercise would be best. My first thought was just calf raises - directly hits the muscle, easy to load. Obviously I'm also going to be walking around so the calf will get some work from that too but I'm worried it's not sufficient to just walk it off.

Would that work as rehab or is there a better exercise?

Thanks,

Peter

[Mark Rippetoe]

I tore the shit out of my calf about 12 years ago, the day before I left for an overseas trip where I had to walk every day. It healed well and made the trip interesting. You could do it like that, or you could use the calf raises. I suspect the walking would be better since that is the normal function of the muscle, and calf raises are not. But try a little of each and let me know.

[pdellorto]

What a coincidence - I just hurt my calf, and I'm going on an overseas trip next week where I'll be walking all over the place. As the calf feels better I'll start in on the calf raises and report back.

Thank you,

Peter

[JonnyPrimal]

I have done both of my calves (not at the same time) a couple of years ago. I wouldn't do the calf raises - every time I tried that it would cause problems again. I suspect the calf raises contributed to the problem in the first place.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Makes sense to me. Any exercise they had to invent a machine to do is not a normal human movement pattern.

[pdellorto]

I didn't mean any kind of machine calf raise. I was going to just stand, grab something to ensure balance, and rise up and down on the balls of my feet. To weight them I'd first move to one-legged versions and then weight them, if necessary. No special machinery, just "stand and stretch for the top shelf" for 3 sets of 25.

Anyway, like I said I'll try both, once my calf stop hurting enough to make this worth trying, and report back. I'll be cautious, based on JonnyPrimal's experience, and stop the calf raises if they seem to be a problem.