Stretching, Why Not? Part 3-4

We’ve been working our way down the body with these stretches so continuing down from the hamstrings we hit the calfs (the back of your lower leg). Tight calf muscles can cause issues in the knee and down in the ankle and foot. As you become more active your calf muscles will likely experience soreness if they lack flexibility and that soreness can be very uncomfortable. These stretches will help increase flexibility and relieve soreness.

Warning: There is risk of injury when stretching. If you don’t understand these instructions please do not try to figure out how to do the stretches. Warm up your muscles before you try these stretches (something like some light jogging in place or after a hot shower will suffice). Do these stretches slowly and carefully and stop at the slightest hint of pain.

Calf Stretch:
1. Stand arms length from a wall, make sure the wall is one that you can lean against and will support your body weight.
2. Take a large step forward toward the wall with your left foot, keep your right foot planted with your heal flat on the floor.
3. Place your hands on the wall to brace yourself. Then slowly bend your left knee toward the wall leaning in toward to wall, but keep that right foot planted.
4. You will start to feel a pull in your right calf. When you feel a slight pull hold it there for 20 seconds.
5. Slowly straighten your knee and step back to your starting position. Then switch to stretch the left calf. Repeat twice on each side holding for 20 seconds each time.

Modified Calf Stretch: This modification follows the same steps but with a small variation to stretch lower down the calf muscle closer to the ankle.
1. Follow steps 1-3. As you lean forward when you just barely start to feel the stretch, stop.
2. Make sure your hands are bracing you against the wall, then slowly and just very slightly bend your right knee. You will feel the stretch move down your calf into the back of your ankle.
3. Hold for 20 seconds then switch. Repeat twice on each side holding for 20 seconds each time.

There is a temptation when stretching to push further and further once you feel the stretch. The temptation is telling us, “just push harder, why progress slowly when you can just hit that higher intensity right now and speed up the benefit.” DON”T LISTEN TO THE TEMPTATION!!! When you start to feel the stretch it is an indication that you are reaching the limits of your flexibility. Think of a rubber band, when as you stretch it further the resistance increases, stretch it to far and SNAP! Similarly your body will start to resist as you stretch, if you push past that resistance what do you think is going to happen? Be careful stretching, injuring yourself is a very real possibility and all it will do is foil any progress you’ve made.