Running Injuries – Strengthen your calf!

I often see patients who have developed a sports injury. These normally occur participating in a running related sport like hockey, football, rugby , and just running. The most affected area is the leg, and an injury can be muscular, a joint or both. It is commonly thought that the gluteal muscles ( your bottom basically) need to be strengthened to help rehabilitate and prevent further injuries. While the gluteals need to be in good shape the most important muscle in your leg is your calf, and the soleus.

Your soleus ( so called because it looks like a sole) is one half of your calf, the other muscle being your gastrocnemius. The fact that we have two muscles in the calf , shows how important it is to control the speed the whole leg is moving at and then help produce force to keep us moving. Soleus has a lot of work to do and when running it takes about 7x your Body Weight, it takes the most strain in the entire leg. It is a key muscle as it helps your foot land on the ground properly, it stiffens your foot and produces power so you can push off to take your next step, in short it steadies the whole lower leg.

Your gluteus maximus  (your bottom!) however only takes about 2x body weight. It is a big muscle because it has to control the whole length of the leg, which is a very long lever. When running it helps control the foot landing on the ground ( like soleus does) it controls the movement in the hip so running is a smooth movement (along with gastrocnemius), controls pronation (so does soleus) and helps produce the power required to jump and run uphill. When walking about gluteus maximus does very little as most of normal walking is helped by gravity and the momentum of your body moving forwards. It is a little like cycling, to start cycling it takes an effort to get going, then once moving the effort required to keep cycling at the same speed is less.

So if you want to prevent leg injuries, you must not only have strong gluteal muscles but even more so you need a strong calf muscles. So weighted exercises for your calf are recommended like calf raises, squats and my personal favorite, lunges.

Always start with body weight exercise first and then gradually add weights to your leg exercises. Running on its own will never strengthen you enough to become a better runner and avoid injury.

Hope this helps