Are you doing the right thing for your calf injury?

You may have recently injured your calf playing some form of high impact sport. If you’re a regular sports player then it’s most likely you’ve experienced some form of calf or muscle injury before. For example you may have been playing a game of football when all of a sudden you feel a snap and you can’t move forward any more, this can be extremely painful and it’s of the utmost importance you keep your calf correctly treated to reduce the impact of this injury. Here is some essential calf injury treatment advice to keep you fit and healthy.

Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation
This is standard in all first aid and medical aid training and is often referred to as RICE. First and foremost make sure you are resting the injured leg, do not exert any form of pressure on the injury as this may cause it to become worse. Second is ice, apply some form of cold application to the injured area. Make sure you wrap the ice in a wet towel before applying it onto your calf. Applying ice straight onto your skin may cause ice burns. Compression, make sure that the affect area has cold compressions, so in other words you hold the ice tightly against the affected calf. Alternatively, you can use elastic sports bandages applied firmly to the calf area. This helps to minimise swelling. Lastly, make sure your leg is elevated as this reduces swelling.

Lifts
It’s imperative that you take all pressure off you calf and heel, you can do this by purchasing heel lifts from your local sports store, these are a great help to ease the strain on your muscles. Mild calf injuries may not always need this.

After care
Once the swelling has started to subside you then need to look at some form of after care for your injury. You can wrap the calf muscle with a special calf support that will help to support the muscle and keep the area warm and comfortable. This helps to keep the heat in and keeps the muscles from cramping up again which can cause severe after pain. It’s important that your leg is comfortable at all times, so if you feel to much pressure or pain then loosen the dressing. Remember you need to avoid applying heat to the area for at least 72 hours following the injury.
You may then need to start a specially designed exercise programme to stretch and strengthen the calf muscle. This is best done under a supervision of a fully qualified physiotherapist.

Prescription Drugs
We advise you consult with your doctor regarding taking any anti-inflammatory or pain medication.

Physiotherapy
calf injury physiotherapyIt may be necessary for you at some point to have physiotherapy for your injury, this is highly recommended especially if you’re a regular sports player or you have a serious calf injury. BodyFit Physio in Howick offer a full 100% outstanding level of service or money back guarantee on physiotherapy services. You can also have a chat with us on our facebook page – use private messaging for privacy reasons.
We wish you all the best with getting your injury fixed and hope you can get back to your fitness routine or sports field soon.

Check out our other blogs on health related topics with essential information that you may find very interesting:
https://physiotherapyupdate.blogspot.co.nz
physiotherapyhowick.wordpress.com
https://alexblajevski.thoughts.com/posts/tennis-elbow-what-is-it-and-how-to-make-it-go-away