Time to strengthen our feet and calves!
Have you thought about your calves lately?
Usually I hear a YES, “they are so tight!”
I’ve been taking classes from Gait Happens - look for them on instagram as they teach great stuff. The upcoming class I’m taking is 12 weeks to fitter feet, and one of the exercises they had us perform was single leg calf raises!
No problem! I got this!
Hmm~Not so much, this was hard work.
Take a look at the below chart which tells us the average rep for our age. See what you can do for your age and perhaps make a commitment to your lowest limbs for stronger feet and calves.
Herbert-Losier et al (2017):
Male Female
20-29yrs 37 reps 30 reps
30-39yrs 32 reps 27 reps
40-49yrs 28 reps 24 reps
50-59yrs 23 reps 21 reps
60-69yrs 19 reps 19 reps
70-79yrs 14 reps 16 reps
80-89yrs 10 reps 13 reps
Weakness and poor muscular endurance of the calf muscles are risk factors in the development of Plantarfaciosis, Achilles Tendinopathy, Shin Splints, Calf Strains and tears.
During running the Soleus muscle group produces 6-8x body weight of force, and the Gastrocs produce 1.5-2.8 body weight of force. This is a lot of force being produced and absorbed when you’re running, you will need to develop very strong calves to be resilient to injury.(Patrick Nelson - Bend & Mend physical therapy)
2 ways to work on single leg calf raises: make sure you roll through the whole foot-not just pinky or big toe side.
Seated with a foot on the floor (You can hold a weight on your thigh) and raise and lower your heel..
Standing - you can hold on to something. Rise on the balls of your feet.
Try these 1-2 times a week and let me know if it helps.
