Forums >Health and Nutrition>Tight ankles/calves
Runs with the pack
Male, 59, long running history. (six marathons) Laid off from running due to achilles tendonitis for six months. Think I got the tendonitis from zero drop shoes. Or maybe it's from eliminating orthotics two years ago. Who knows?
After a regime of heels drops, stretching, ice, etc. my achilles is back to 95%. I'm running 3-6 miles a day 5-6 days a week. But every run now has pain in my calves and ankles. Pain was enough to make me stop running, but now is usually only 3/10.
I foam roll my ankles and calves plus I stretch every day before and after I run. It's manageable, but doesn't seem to be improving. Went on the net this weekend looking for more information. (I don't have a sports doctor)
Anyway, I found this, and tried it. George Anderson - YouTube Link
OMG, excruciating pain in my right foot when I roll the ball... and just about everywhere. This is the same ankle/calf that gives me the most pain when running. What does that mean? Any idea how many days it may take for this fascia pain to be "normalized"?
It actually seems like it's working already. The pain while using the ball is less, and the pain while running is less. Kinda amazed.
I bought a slant board and keep it in the bedroom - I stretch on it almost anytime I'm in there. Seems to keep me injury free on my calves/ankles.
queen of headlamps
I've found that the first couple of times doing mobility work with a ball are the worst, and then your foot realizes you're not actually trying to kill it.
Hey, another running blog.
Yeah it doesn't make a ton of sense to me but I seem to have all but cured a nasty case of posterior tibial tendonitis by rolling my foot with a field hockey ball. The first couple of times were brutal but it quickly got easier, I could feel and almost hear, a crunching as stuff was breaking up around the inside of my heel, just below my ankle.
I used to be in the habit of rolling my feet once in a while with a golf ball but I lost my golf ball and got out of the habit. Last week I went looking through the garage for a lacrosse ball. I didn't find one but I found a field hockey ball which is slightly bigger, and harder. Wow it works amazingly well.
I'm sold.
Runners run
What's funny is that I don't even think to ask, "Where would I even go to get a field hockey or lacrosse ball?" I regularly run on college practice fields and depending on the season stray balls are begging for attention. Hmm, that sounds inappropriate.
old woman w/hobby
Academy Sports type store. Dirt cheap.
steph
Spiky balls used for the clothes dryer - stick them in the freezer.
Recalculating...
This thread got me started some googling on this and I bought a Foot Rubz (about $5) ball and Spiky ball (about $7) from my local REI store.
http://www.rei.com/c/massagers
The spiky ball is twice the diameter of the foot rubz, the foot rubz is about golf ball size. Like the foot rubz ball quite a bit, rolling it under my left foot while posting this.
I use a slant board, and I stretch on it almost anytime, and seems, that my injury on my calves/ankles are now a little bit okay. Doing also a mobility work with a ball are the worst, but it's really helpful. Those kinds of stuffs really works on my injury.