Your feet and calves take a beating. They support your weight during daily activities and are further strained during athletic workouts. If they are flexible and strong, your lower extremities are more likely to tolerate the stresses, but because they don't have much protective muscle or fat, they are susceptible to injury. Quickly managing any pain will get you active again with minimal down time.
Your Foot: A Delicate Structure
Your foot has 26 bones, thousands of nerves, and a web of tendons and ligaments. We might lack our prehistoric ancestors' tough-skinned soles but we do retain shallow fat pads protecting the metatarsals. While feet lack considerable fat or muscle, they abound with nerve endings that govern balance by dictating responses to shifts in terrain. These nerves can get pinched and foot bones misaligned by constrictive shoes and high heels, according to the New York Times Health Guide for Foot Pain.
Your Calves: Anatomically Susceptible
Minimal subcutaneous fat and long, thin musculature means your calves can easily get bruised and strained. Tendinitis can arise independently or be hastened by direct hits to your lower leg. The Achilles tendon is especially vulnerable, despite being the strongest tendon in your body. Excessive stretch-action or blunt force can cause the Achilles to rupture. According to Mayoclinic.com, causes of Achilles tendinitis are often associated with cumulative over-training in running and jumping sports. Unstable surfaces such as sand also contribute to Achilles and calf pain.
Walking and Running: Too Much, Too Soon
Inflammation and strains often occur when you increase mileage too quickly or fail to take full recovery days. With every step, the bones and ligaments of your feet move and adjust in every direction, and only gradual increases in pace and distance will prevent overloading your lower anatomy. According to sports podiatrist Stephen Pribut, strains of the plantar fascia, the connective tissues running the length of your soles, can be frequent and recurring, sometimes even radiating upwards to your ankle and calf. Rehabilitation often helps resolve such pain.
Prevention
With plantar fasciitis, the tendons from toe to heel have already been overstretched and should not be stretched further. Instead, your soles need strengthening. Perform bare-foot tendon-strengtheners in which your foot muscles contract. Place your heel on a towel and pull the fabric backward with your toes, and pick up objects from the floor using only your forefoot. Also, hooking your toes over the edge of a step or rod and squeezing is an excellent exercise. These exercises can be done up to four times daily, 10 minutes each session. Also, use resistance bands to develop lateral, or stabilizing, power. Loop a band around both forefeet and separate your legs to achieve slight tension, then isolate your lateral foot muscles by stretching the band outwards and slowly releasing, with your ankles the only points of rotation.
Calf Exercises to Improve Strength and Flexibility
Foot or calf inflammation usually requires rest and 10-minute ice applications or ice water immersions. After three days, apply heat and gently point and flex your feet to increase tissue mobility. If pain-free after five days, include some eccentric exercises to simultaneously strengthen and stretch your tissues. University at Buffalo Sports Medicine illustrates several rehabilitative exercises, including eccentric heel-raises, which require rising onto the balls of your feet and slowly lowering yourself. Begin by performing 10 calf-raises, then rest, for one set. Do three sets in the morning and again in the evening, for a week. Thereafter, increase your sets to three times a day but remain cautious. If pain increases, back off. Conservative self-treatment often helps, but if pain continues for two weeks, seek professional care.
