sore soleus

[jhesch]

anyone here ever had problems with a sore soleus (the muscle underneath your calf) ? lately its been hurting after a vault practice with sprints and jumps, but if i go run easy for 30 min., nothin. if so, how did you correct it? the pain runs pretty much parallel to my shin and is on the inside of my left leg, its not shin splints, shin muscles are on other side...ideas?

[opalkak]

orthodics, they've been the only way of reducing some of the stress on mine

[jhesch]

do you have a similar pain to the one im describin? where did you get them (orthodics) ? and please tell me they have some kind of inserts or something so i dont have to wear some crazy old school clunkers like bart wears on the simpsons in one of the episodes (if my memory serves me correctly)

[theflyingkorean]

I have custom orthotics. I use the hard ones, I hear they work better. I still ahve pains like yours, more on the right leg of mine. I went to a podiatrist i think and he custom fit them. You stem into a mold and they make a plaster cast. The actual orthotics are hard but you get used to the,m.

[Robert schmitt]

This sounds very similar to what I've had. Is the bone tender on the inside of you leg? or the junction of the bone and muscle? or just the muscle?

I had pain at the junction of the bone and muscle and ran my self into three consecutive sets of stress fractures over three years in college. It didn't improve until I modified my training and started taking off better.

[jhesch]

while sitting right here at the computer desk, nothing hurts...but after practice it hurts pretty close to the bone, but the bone itself doesnt hurt (assuming theres no bone damage i.e. hairline or stress fracture) maybe ill quit bein lazy and go see a doctor....

[opalkak]

sometimes the pain you are feeling is attributed to compartment syndrome, this seems to be an ever growing diagnosis for non shin splint related pain in the calf region.

I have a mild case of this, and yes it sounds like you are experiencing the same problems that I did. I would recommend seeing the doctor sooner rather than later as my freshman year I did not, and ended up with a double stress fracture in my fibula.

I currently have custom 'hard' orthodics for my training flats that were casted and created by a podiatrist, but for some a simple heel cup works, check with your doc to find out what works best for you.

best of luck

[Robert schmitt]

anyone here ever had problems with a sore soleus (the muscle underneath your calf) ? lately its been hurting after a vault practice with sprints and jumps, but if i go run easy for 30 min., nothin. if so, how did you correct it? the pain runs pretty much parallel to my shin and is on the inside of my left leg, its not shin splints, shin muscles are on other side...ideas?

If you are a right handed vaulter and this is in your left leg only I'm going to venture a guess without seeing your vault that you are heal striking at your take off. That is what caused all my problems I would reach just a little at my take off. Which created a slow flat take off with out much of a jump. It took a year to fix my run so I wouldn't do this put it's the repeated impact of your heal hitting the ground at take off. I also had orthodics made which did help but fixing my run it what cured the prob.

[jhesch]

hmm...problem sounds very familiar to what robert schmitt is proposing.....how did you correct your run? i dont think im stepping out, but i remember when doing some sprint drills with the sprinters the coach tellin me to get more up on my heels. when i run down the runway i def. sprint on my toes (balls of feet really) mostly, and even doing aerobic running i tend to stay off my heals, but perhaps they do strike at takeoff? thanx for the advice, ill see what i can do

[Robert schmitt]

Yeah I was the same way. when I sprint do pole runs I would always be on the balls of my feet. but when you put a pit in front of me my last step would be flat. I had a decent pole vault coach in college (coached Mel Mueller to her first olympic exhibition trials in 95) and was a sky jumpers coach, and it took him a year to figure it out.

Again with out ever seeing you jump this is just my expierience. My step was actually out. I woud compensate by taking slightly longer strides my last 2-3 strides, reaching slightly at my take off making it flat and striking my heel. Now my take off was actually under by 8"-15". But it was actually the result of the last few strides being longer. So....

The first thing I would do is do some pole runs on the track. catch a mid mark 3-4 lefts out from your take off when your take off is right on. Now when you are vaulting If you hit your mid mark and take off under you are reaching your last couple steps and need to think about quickening through your take off. If you are in front of your mid mark and are under you need to move you step back. if you are behind your mid mark and are out you need to move your step up, or if you are behind your mid mark and are under you need to move your step up and quicken through your take off.

I hope this helps and I hope it takes you a lot less time than me to re learn this. Until you do give your body some time to heal. Three years in a row I got a stress fracture from this in my take off leg by taking ibuprofin and running thru the pain.

[jhesch]

hey thanks for the help sounds like some sound advice, on monday i will check out my step see if i can figure out the problem etc. luckily it hasnt been hurting much at all lately so ill see how i feel next week and try to deal with the problem then. thanks again