Calf Strain Rehabilitation Exercises

Calf Strain Rehabilitation Exercises

You can begin gently stretching your calf muscle using the towel stretch right away. Make sure you only get a gentle pull and not a sharp pain while you are doing this stretch. After you can do the towel stretch easily, you can start the standing calf stretch. After a couple days of stretching, you can begin strengthening your calf and lower leg muscles by using a Thera-Band as in exercises 3 and 4. You may do exercises 5, 6, and 7 when you can stand on your toes without pain.

Towel stretch:

Sit on a hard surface with your injured leg stretched out in front of you. Loop a towel around the ball of your foot and pull the towel toward your body, keeping the knee straight and stretching the calf muscle. Hold this position for 30 seconds and then relax. Repeat 3 times. You should get an uncomfortable feeling but it should not be a sharp pain.

Standing calf stretch:

Stand facing a wall with your hands on the wall at about chest level. Your injured leg should be about 12 to 18 inches behind your uninjured leg. Keep your injured leg straight with your heel on the floor and lean into the wall. Bend your front knee until you feel a stretch in the back of the calf muscle of your injured leg. Hold this position for 30 to 60 seconds. Repeat 3 times.

Resisted dorsiflexion:

Sit with your injured leg out straight and your foot facing a doorway. Tie a loop in one end of the Thera-Band. Put your foot through the loop so that the tubing goes around the arch of your foot. Tie a knot in the other end of the Thera-Band and shut the knot in the door near the bottom. Move backward until there is tension in the tubing. Keeping your knee straight, pull your foot toward your face, stretching the tubing. Slowly return to the starting position. Repeat this 10 times. Do 3 sets of 10.

Resisted plantar flexion:

Sitting with your leg outstretched, loop the middle section of the tubing around the ball of your foot. Hold the ends of the tubing in both hands. Gently press the ball of your foot down and point your toes, stretching the Thera-Band. Return to the starting position. Repeat this 10 times. Do 3 sets of 10.

Standing heel raise:

Balance yourself while standing behind a chair or other stable object. Raise your body up onto your toes, lifting your heels off the floor. Hold this for about 2 seconds and then slowly lower your heels back down to the floor. Repeat 10 times. Do 3 sets of 10. You can challenge yourself by standing only on your injured leg and lifting your heel off the ground.

Single leg balance:

Attempt to balance on your injured leg while not letting the arch of that foot flatten. Don't curl your toes. Try to hold this position for 30 seconds. After this becomes easy, do it with your eyes closed. As your balance becomes better and you are able to balance for 30 seconds on your injured leg you can challenge yourself.

Wall jump:

Face a wall and place a piece of masking tape about 2 feet above your head. Jump up with your arms above your head and try to touch the piece of tape. Make sure you do a "spring" type of motion and do not land hard onto your feet. Progress to taking off and landing on one foot.

Another good exercise is hopping. You can start at one end of the room and try to hop as high as you can across the room on one foot. Jumping rope is also a good exercise.