Quizá te pasaste un poco en la pista de pickleball. O fuiste un poco más lejos de lo que pretendías en tu carrera del fin de semana. Sea cual sea la causa, es posible que hayas notado dolor o molestias en la pantorrilla durante tu actividad o inmediatamente después. 

Este tipo de dolor de pantorrilla suele deberse a una distensión de pantorrilla, o a un tirón muscular en la pantorrilla. Es frecuente y suele resolverse por sí solo, tranquiliza Kristin Vinci, PT, DPT, fisioterapeuta de Hinge Health. Pero hay cosas que puedes hacer para acelerar tu recuperación.

Sigue leyendo para saber más sobre las distensiones de pantorrilla, qué las provoca y cómo tratarlas, especialmente con ejercicios de nuestros fisioterapeutas de Hinge Health. 

What Is a Calf Strain?

A calf strain occurs when one or two of the muscles in your calf — the soleus or gastrocnemius — gets stretched to the point that results in a microtear in the muscle, causing pain. Calf strains can vary in severity, ranging from a very small, minor tear to a larger one. “Calf strains often happen when you jump or change directions quickly,” says Dr. Vinci. 

Symptoms of a Calf Strain

Calf strains can cause a variety of symptoms, including: 

• Sudden onset of pain. When you strain your calf, you’ll often know immediately. “There’s usually a very clear moment when you’re doing an activity and feel a sharp sudden pain, or sometimes even just sudden soreness,” says Dr. Vinci. The pain usually improves once you stop the activity.

• Swelling, redness, and/or bruising of your calf muscle. This usually indicates a more significant calf strain, notes Dr. Vinci.

• Pain or soreness when you tense your calf muscles, stand on your toes, point your toes, or flex your ankle.

Calf Strain: A Hinge Health Perspective

Calf strains happen when the calf muscle over extends (or over stretches) and tears. And while hearing that you’ve “torn” something in your body can sound alarming, your muscles — especially the big muscle groups in your legs — are very resilient and designed to recover from these kinds of issues that naturally can happen in the course of everyday activities or during exercise.

If you’re reluctant to move because you think you’ll cause more pain or injury to your calf, know this: Movement is often the fastest way to healing. As our Hinge Health care team says, movement is medicine. The reason: You want your calf muscles to remain flexible and stretched to prevent the muscle tightness that can lead to a calf strain. In order to do that, you need to engage in exercises that support your healing and strengthen your muscles to help prevent future calf injuries.

This is why Hinge Health physical therapists recommend a new pain relief approach that offers a more comprehensive plan than the traditional R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) method. Instead of rest, PEACE & LOVE encourages movement as you heal. The PEACE part, which is done for two to three days following an injury, like a calf strain, stands for:

• Protect the injured calf by scaling back on activities that cause pain in the first few days after injury — but don’t avoid movement entirely. 

• Elevate the injured leg above your heart to reduce swelling.

• Adjust anti-inflammatories, like ibuprofen. It’s best to limit their use, as high doses can impact tissue healing. But if you’re in a lot of pain or your symptoms are limiting your function and movement, talk to your doctor about whether it’s safe for you to use them. 

• Compression. If it hurts to move the injured calf, a gentle compression wrap may help for the first few days or weeks after injury. Just make sure you exercise without the wrap as you strengthen the affected area. 

• Education. Listen to your body. It will tell you when an activity is too much for your calf muscles. A physical therapist can help you tune in to these clues, too.

A few days after your calf strain, Dr. Vinci recommends that you work on LOVE:

• Load the injured area by gradually returning to normal activities, using pain as your guide. Know that some pain during or after activity is okay, but your pain should not exceed an acceptable level for you. At the gym, this may look like starting back with less weight when you do certain moves.

• Optimism. It’s natural to get discouraged when you’re injured, but maintaining the belief that you have the capacity to heal and can return to meaningful activities is a critical component of healing. Simply believing that you will get better really does matter.

• Vascularization means increasing blood flow to the injured area by engaging in exercise you can handle. This may even reduce the need for pain medication.  

• Exercise, or an active approach to recovery, restores mobility and strength. You can use pain as a guide to gradually progress your exercise and increase difficulty. For new-onset acute pain, a physical therapist can evaluate you and rule out anything before recommending independent exercise, says Dr. Vinci. You can see a physical therapist in person or use a program like Hinge Health to access a PT via telehealth/video visit.

Calf Strain: Common Causes

Pulled calf muscles are common and can happen to anyone. “We see them often with high-impact activities where you change direction quickly, like running, tennis, soccer, or football,” says Dr. Vinci. Other possible causes of a calf strain include: 

• Age. Research suggests that people over the age of 40, especially men, may be more susceptible to a calf strain. This may just be due to normal age-related changes in the muscle, says Dr. Vinci. If you’ve had a previous calf strain, you’re also more likely to develop one again. While you can’t change your age, there is a lot you can do to address other risk factors by staying active and keeping calf muscles strong.

• Weak muscles. “When you develop a calf strain, it’s often due to the demands of the activity overloading the calf muscle,” explains Dr. Vinci. “Working on calf strength can reduce your risk of a strain when exercising at higher intensities.”

Treatment Options for Calf Strains

Calf strains can be uncomfortable and feel limiting. But an injury doesn’t have to (and shouldn’t) keep you from your usual routine or doing the activities you love. You can take a few steps to help your calf muscles heal:

• Ice. Icing sore calf muscles can help reduce inflammation associated with a calf strain. Ice the calf area for 10 to 20 minutes at a time, around four times a day. After a few days, you might find that heat feels better, which increases circulation and blood flow to the area.

• Elevate. Raise your calf above your heart as much as possible to reduce pain and swelling.

• Stay active. If a specific activity irritates your calf muscle, scale back or use assistive devices to help tolerate the activity better (like one crutch on the non-painful side to help you walk). It’s important to still do activities that keep your calves moving, like some of the exercises in the section below. “You want to get blood flow to the area,” points out Dr. Vinci. As discomfort subsides, you’ll be able to gradually return to normal activities.

• Heel lifts. These are inserts that temporarily go inside your shoes to slightly elevate the heel and decrease the stretch of your calf muscles as you walk, reducing pain.

• Physical therapy. If a calf strain persists or recurs, then a course of physical therapy may be in order. Your physical therapist (PT) can do a gait analysis to see if anything in your walking or running form is contributing to your calf strain, says Dr. Vinci. A PT can also look for muscle imbalances or weaknesses. You can see a physical therapist in person or use a program like Hinge Health to access a PT via telehealth/video visit.

There’s no set calf strain recovery time. Most people recover fully from a minor calf strain within about two to three weeks. A more severe strain may take longer.