Calf Release and Stretch for Ankle Mobility
Calf Release and Stretch for Ankle Mobility
I’m Dom McKay, a musculoskeletal therapist. In this video I’ll be teaching you how to deeply release your calf muscles and stretch for ankle mobility. Issues with the calves are generally indicated for conditions such as shin splints, anterior compartment syndrome and lack of ankle mobility.
To release the calves we’re going to start off with a lacrosse ball. Now there’s a couple of ways of doing this but we’re going to start with the most simple method which is to just sit down and place the ball directly under your calf muscle and then you can emphasize the pressure by putting the other leg on top. What you’re trying to do is seek out the most painful area of your calf and just hang out there for a while 20 to 30 seconds (optimally), and then move on to the next area of pain. You’ll feel a kind of sensation of warmth. Heat a good sort of pain.
The second way of doing this is much more brutal. Put the ball between the fold of your leg and just sit on it. I’ve got the whole weight of my body bearing down on that calf muscle and if I’m to seek out a really sore point that is really tender and that’s gonna push it beyond what I could get it to with the other method.
To stretch our calves we’ll need a wall to lean against. There are a few ways of doing this. The first one is to place the foot against the wall bend the knee and try and touch it towards the wall with your knee. The second one is to keep the knees straight and then again bring your body towards the wall. This is going to focus the stretch more into the gastrocnemius whereas with the bent-knee it will focus it into the soleus. Another way of doing this is just to simply brace against the wall and stretch that calf. If we wanted to focus it into the soleus then we would bend the knee and stretch whilst pushing against the wall.
