Permanently Atrophied Calf? Help!

[NC83]

Hello. I have searched the forums for the answer to this question and I hope you can help. I've been running LP for 1 month from a completely untrained state and am making better progress than I could have ever imagined. The problem I have lies with an issue that has affected me over the last year. Due to an old injury i was forced to have a discectomy a little over a year ago. At the time I had a noticeable size difference in my calf muscles. My left calf is obviously smaller that my right one. Now I have no desire for bodybuilder type calves in the least. I'm old enough to be over that type of silly Bullshit. The main concern I have is after a few months of rehab, 6 months of walking, and a month on NLP there is no difference. What has really bought it to my attention is the fact I'm getting ready to add in the power clean to my program. I can not do a single leg calf raise on that leg, have absolutely no pain in it, and have no foot drop as best i can tell. To say all of that I have a few questions. First of all, Will I be able to do power cleans long term as the weight get heavy? If no what would be a suitable replacement exercise? Lastly, do you have an opinions or experiences with EMS devices in an attempt to shock the nerve endings in order to stimulate any type of growth? I'm 36 years old, 5'10" 251lbs around 24% bodyfat. Also since I forgot to include it earlier my ortho/pa's have pretty much said it may grow back and it may not. These are also the same one that told me not to barbell train so I don't put a lot of faith in them. Thanks in advance for your time and thank you and everyone else involved in this site and forum. I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my life.

[Will Morris]

What have been your improvements in weight on the bar for the core lifts since you started a month ago?

[NC83]

I’ve went from 160 to 245 on squats. 95 to 135 on bench. 65 to 105 on press. 180 to 290 on dead’s. All weights are in pounds

[Will Morris]

I’ve went from 160 to 245 on squats. 95 to 135 on bench. 65 to 105 on press. 180 to 290 on dead’s. All weights are in pounds

You are making solid progress, considering where you started and your medical history. If I had one piece of advice, it would be: stop looking at your calf and / or just wear pants when you train. It will likely catch up, at least partially, to the other, although some of that depends on the nature of the radiculopathy you had that required the discectomy. Layer power cleans in and see how it pans out. You should be fine, but maybe you aren't able to ever reach a 315 clean. And no, I don't suggest using electrical stimulation to try and shock the muscle into hypertrophy. If anything, you might get some good mileage out of blood flow restriction training, so long as it is performed using a FDA-certified provider using a Delphi PTS system.

[NC83]

Thanks so much. So happy to hear that cleans aren’t out of the question for me. Keep up the good work!

[Will Morris]

Unless you have some other issues that you haven't brought up yet, it seems like the biggest issues are "not being able to do a single calf raise" and the "unsightliness of having a discrepancy in the calves". Considering where you are now, these issues seem pretty trivial for someone pulling near 300 and squatting in the mid-200s.

[Bestafter60]

"not being able to do a single calf raise" and the "unsightliness of having a discrepancy in the calves"
I have these same issues 30 years after a complete tear of my left Achilles tendon (67 now). I call my left calf my "POW calf". In my case the muscles never grew back to size, but rewired themselves a bit to give me a fair amount of strength (285 current squat work set). The doc reconnected the shreds he could find, but he didn't find all of them. Rip tried to teach me the snatch, but my left leg continuously came down wide, probably as protection in compensation for some missing parts. You may have a similar experience.
The upside is you may be able to win some bets on how much you can lift, after someone sizes up your POW calf.

[bobman]

Had the same thing happen to me when I was 33 , damn frustrating and it never came back
I’m 68 and don’t care anymore but it was a tough blow initially I went from a 11-12 second 100 yard dash to being unable to run


My big toe on that leg digs a hole in my shoe trying to compensate lol

Life isn’t easy lol

I was told afterwards that I should of had a neurosurgeon not a orthepedic surgeon do spine work

Who knows