Another day pain free in the heel, but now have to figure out how to strengthen and loosen my calves. Those feel a bit tight from the calf raises I’ve been doing–specifically the seated calf raises–and so I’ll be taking it slow there. My calves have always given me problems, especially as I increase the running volume whenever I start a training block. What I’ve noticed after doing a lot more one-legged bridges in my general conditioning program is that when my left leg is on the ground, my lower back muscles on the right hand side are much weaker compared with when my right leg is on the ground and my left side lower back muscles are stabilizing. Almost certainly this has an effect on my calves, it’s just that I have no way of predicting the effects with any precision. It is mostly an issue when I’m doing hill sprints or anything less than 200m.
As I think about it, this is possibly the reason I’m dealing with PF in the first place. Not only are my calves weaker than they used to be, but since my hips and core are not balanced, my left calf and foot had to transfer a greater proportion of force to the ground than my right calf and foot. It probably also didn’t help that my right calf had been strained, and I probably didn’t wait long enough for it to recover. As if injuries weren’t complex enough, trying to sort out the ultimate cause can be an intractable puzzle in itself.
Well, my body is feeling great, calves aside, and I’ve never been as strong above my hips as I am now. In the last six months, I’ve set personal bests in every lift that I do {pullups, bench, incline bench, deadlift, barbell row} except for pushup, and that’s only because I find doing high volumes of pushups (or anything else besides running, for that matter) tedious. Swimming has helped keep the feeling you get from a good cardiovascular workout, at least for me. When I’m only lifting, not only do I gain weight quickly, but I just feel heavy and my mind is not as sharp. When I’m doing aerobic-heavy workouts, I’m always tired. So the circuit-based training I’m doing based on pushups, pullups (and squats/deadlifts when my foot recovers) has preserved enough time for the aerobic workouts I need to feel healthy.
Before I close, let me share two great posts on PF from Strength +Running. The first is an overview of PF rehab, and the second is a summary of the process. Again, evidence-based, extremely helpful stuff that fits into an overall wellness philosophy.
And before I go to work, let me take a moment to share a brief reflection on 2 Corinthians 4:16 [NIV]-“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” As an amateur athlete who believes fitness is a critical component of your whole health, it is nonetheless true that we *will* decline. Our strength will not remain, and we will not be able to keep what we have gained in our bodies. We as athletes reject this truth, but unfortunately truth cannot be rejected. However, we can learn to be renewed daily in Christ. This renewal takes a trajectory from the periphery of spiritual experience into the core of life in God as we transition from this life. While it is of considerable value to develop our bodies, we must take care that we are not neglecting the soul. The natural course is for both your soul and your bodies to be wasting away. We have the choice to avoid the decay of only one of these. Please be sure you are spending your life wisely in this regard.
Peace and Blessings.