Calf Stretch

Beginner Level

Because the calf muscles are under constant load they tend to be strong and "tonic", meaning they are prone to shortening.  Ladies who wear high healed shoes are especially prone to shortened calf muscles.  Short tight calf muscles are often responsible for joint pain in the knees, hips and feet.

Maintaining calf flexibility is also important when performing squatting movement patterns.  You can test your own calf flexibility by attempting to do a simple body weight squat.  If your heals tend to raise off the floor before your thigh gets parallel to the floor than your calves can probably stand a good stretch of stretching.

Think of your calves as having two parts.  The gastrocnemius (gastroc) is the large ball on the back side of the leg just below the knee.  The soleus is the flat portion of the calf between the achilles tendon and the gastroc. 

We use a very high tech piece of equipment to stretch our client's calves: A step ladder.  Of course you could use any sturdy support structure such as a step in a stair, the base of a piece of furniture, etc.  The only requirements are that it doesn't slip out from under you and that your shoes will cling to the edge and not fall off.  Shoes that have lots of ridges also help.

To focus the stretch on the gastroc stand on the edge of the ladder rung and allow your body weight to drop your heal to the floor while keeping the supporting knee straight.

The stretch for the soleus is the same as the gastroc except allow the supporting knee to bend.  This will take the gastroc completely out of the stretch.

You can regress this stretch by supporting your weight with two feet.

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