If you're physically active, there's a chance you've gotten a sports- or exercise-related injury like a calf strain. A strain happens when you injure a muscle or tendon — in this case, the calf or lower leg area. Your calf includes the gastrocnemius muscle, soleus muscle, and Achilles tendon. Any of these can incur a strain.
Depending on the severity of the injury, a doctor or physical therapist may recommend complete rest with some gentle stretches once the pain subsides. You can build back up to normal exercise slowly and gently after you’ve received treatment for the injury.
Exercises With a Calf Strain
Cleveland Clinic recommends against taking part in any physical activity, including walking, immediately after a calf strain. But as the pain starts to subside, you’ll be able to walk as much as you can tolerate.
How quickly you can heal and return to exercise depends on the severity of your calf strain, which healthcare providers grade one to three:
Grade 1: The strain is mild, with damage to less than 10 percent of all muscle fibers. You may have felt a sharp pain when the injury happened, but you were able to finish the activity. You also feel no loss of strength or reduced range of motion.
Grade 2: The strain is moderate, with damage to between 10 and 50 percent of muscle fibers. You may not have been able to walk at the time of injury. And you might feel weakness when flexing your ankles and feet.
Grade 3: This has damaged 50 to 100 percent of the muscle fibers, resulting in severe injury. It may change how the muscle feels to the touch. It also may show signs of bleeding or swelling.
As you recover, your physical therapist may recommend the following activities. But avoid attempting exercise at any stage of recovery until you talk with the doctor who's treating you.
Range-of-Motion Exercises In the first phase of recovery, you may work on these exercises with your physical therapist within a movement range that doesn’t hurt. These might include exercises to gently increase range of motion, sometimes involving an elastic band or wall.
Stretching You can work calf stretches into a prescribed physical therapy program once a doctor gives you the go-ahead. You should begin stretching only after treating the acute phase of the injury and when the pain you feel while bending your foot improves. Help calf stretches feel better by placing your hands against the wall to absorb as much weight as you need. Eventually, you should be able to perform the stretch on the injured leg without using the wall.
Walking As you recover, your physical therapist might start you back on walking by having you walk on flat, hard surfaces, climb up stairs (but not down), or use stair machines. You can start with short walks once you’re able to put weight on the leg.
You don’t have to wait until you’re ready to walk to resume cardio. Cardio is also still possible if you have access to a machine that provides exercise for the upper body, such as an arm ergometer or a handbike.
Core Exercises During the early stages of recovery, you can continue with core exercises that don’t put pressure on your calf muscles. These include diagonal crunches and yoga’s prone cobra pose. Examples of core exercises that you may be able to try partway through recovery include double leg bridges and straight leg raises. Your physical therapist may recommend supporting your stretches with a towel.
A physical therapist may work stability balls into your core exercises, and you’ll be able to return to placing mild-to-moderate pressure on the calf muscles, using exercises like double glute bridges with or without a stability ball or single leg raises with a stability ball.
Increasing Load and Intensity Gradually, your rehabilitation plan will start to include load-bearing exercises, such as seated heel raises while holding a dumbbell in one hand or squat-to-heel raises.
As soon as your range of motion and strength return to normal, your doctor may clear you for specific sports, running, or more vigorous, weight-bearing exercise. While the exact timeframe depends on the severity of the strain and your healing process, it can take up to a couple of months.
When you're cleared for movement beyond stretching and light walking, consider swimming and low-resistance cycling as alternatives. It’s safest to avoid running until you’ve regained full strength in both legs.
Calf Strain Diagnosis and Treatment
Returning to exercise is safe only after a doctor has diagnosed and treated the initial calf strain.
Diagnosing a soft tissue injury like a calf strain involves ruling out other conditions that can cause calf pain, like deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or an Achilles tendon rupture. One in 10 people who have calf strain symptoms actually have DVT, which can be life-threatening without treatment.
Doctors can use an MRI scan or ultrasound to pinpoint which muscle in your calf is strained. This can help them personalize your treatment plan.
Right after the injury happens, start the rest, ice, compression, and elevation (RICE) protocol. This involves the following:
Rest After the strain occurs, stop vigorous physical activity and rest the strained calf. Continue walking and standing only if the pain is not severe. If the pain is severe, your doctor may recommend crutches.
Ice Apply ice to the calf muscles to help reduce swelling. Try to do this as soon as possible after the injury happens. Continue icing for 20 minutes a few times a day. Avoid placing ice directly on the skin.
Compression To help lessen swelling, you can wrap your calf with an elastic bandage.
Elevation In the first few days, prop your leg up on a pillow and keep the injury higher than heart level.
Preventing a Calf Strain
Many calf strains happen during physical activity and, more specifically, sports-related events. So, taking a preventive approach may help reduce the chances of reinjuring your calf.
Warming up, cooling down, and stretching are three key factors to preventing future calf injuries. You should also consider avoiding any intense activity or sport you haven’t prepared your body for with adequate conditioning.
Building up activity in line with your physical therapist’s advice can help you get back in the groove of exercise, and help your knee and ankle move back to their pre-injury position. Closely following this type of rehab program can help lower the risk of further injury.
The Takeaway
After a calf strain, exercise needs to take a backseat to recovery. Rest up completely until it’s not painful to put weight on your leg anymore. But you can still do core exercises that don’t put weight on the lower body and cardio on an upper-body ergometer.
Then, you can try gentle range-of-motion exercises to restore movement and comfort to your lower leg. Once this improves, a physical therapist can work calf stretches and gentle strengthening exercises into your routine, as well as light walking.
Cycling and swimming are low-impact options that can help support your healing calf later on in the recovery journey. Avoid higher-impact exercises such as running until you’ve regained full strength, comfort, and movement.
Everyone’s recovery after a calf strain is different, so speak to your treating doctor and physical therapist about the best exercises for your injury.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Scott Haak, PT, DPT, has been a member of the Mayo Clinic staff since 2000. Dr. Haak serves as faculty for the Sports Medicine Fellowship program at Mayo Clinic Florida. He is certified by the NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) as a CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist), is a Certified USA Weightlifting Coach and Certified USA Football Coach, and possesses a MTC (Manual Therapy Certification) from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences.
Haak is an exercise enthusiast and enjoys running, weightlifting, and sports performance training. He is the president and director of coaching of a youth tackle football organization, JDL Providence Football, and currently coaches high school football and weight lifting.
Adam is a freelance writer and editor based in Sussex, England. He loves creating content that helps people and animals feel better. His credits include Medical News Today, Greatist, ZOE, MyLifeforce, and Rover, and he also spent a stint as senior updates editor for Screen Rant.
As a hearing aid user and hearing loss advocate, Adam greatly values content that illuminates invisible disabilities. (He's also a music producer and loves the opportunity to explore the junction at which hearing loss and music collide head-on.)
In his spare time, Adam enjoys running along Worthing seafront, hanging out with his rescue dog, Maggie, and performing loop artistry for disgruntled-looking rooms of 10 people or less.
