Calf Contusion Strengthening
The following guidelines are for information purposes only. We recommend seeking professional advice before starting any rehabilitation.
Exercise 1: Heel drop - double leg.
Stand on the edge of a step and lower the heels down, both at the same time. You can adjust the pressure on the injured leg by taking most of your weight on the good leg. Repeat this exercise as many times as is comfortable. Do not over-do it, especially in the early stages. It is better to do too little rather than risk re-injury.
Repeat the exercise twice daily. Progress to doing two and then three sets at a time. Apply cold therapy to the tendon after exercise.
Exercise 2: Heel drop - single leg
As above but using one leg instead. Repeat this exercise as many times as is comfortable. Again, do not over-do it, reduce the number of repetitions you were doing in the first exercise and build up again.
Repeat the exercise twice daily. Progress to doing two and then three sets at a time. Remember to do the good leg as well as the injured leg. Do not do more on the good leg then the injured leg can cope with. Apply cold therapy to the tendon after exercise.
Remember, you may feel discomfort initially but the aim is to maintain the exercises at the current level until you feel no pain during or after exercise.
Exercise 3: Walking calf raise
This exercise is more specific. Walk around pushing yourself up onto your toes each step.
Start doing just 20 steps and increase each day until you can do 100. Do not progress too fast. A little each day. Be patient.
It is important to continue to do exercises 3 or 4 in addition to this one as it is important that the achilles tendon gets strengthened in a stretched position.
Plyometric exercises
These are exercises that eccentrically contract the muscles. This means that the muscle is contracting even though it is still actually getting longer. This happends to the quads in the landing phase of the squat jump (opposite).
Plyometric exercises involve hopping and bounding for example three sets of ten hops on each leg. If you are not used to plyometric exercises then be careful as they can create delayed onset muscle soreness.
