Did you know that Zooey Deschanel, the lead actress from the TV series New Girl, has a sister who is also an actress? No? Me neither. Well, her sister's name is Emily Deschanel and she has had a prominent role in a TV series, Bones, which ran on Fox for 12 years! Most people know of or have heard of Zooey, but very few have know of or have heard of Emily. That's the case with your calf muscles. There are actually two separate muscles that make up what you know as your calf. They are the Gastrocnemius or "Gastroc" and the Soleus. The gastroc lays over the soleus and is the muscle you can typically see contracting hard when someone runs or jumps. As you can see in the image above, the gastroc actually starts at the femur and crosses the knee joint while the soleus doesn't cross the knee and attaches to the tibia or shin. Both attach to the Achilles tendon and then calcaneus or heel. Just like Zooey and Emily, both the gastroc and soleus do similar things, but unfortunately Zooey and the gastroc, in this case, get all the love and attention. However, both muscles are arguably equally important. Given the different origin points of the muscles, the knee position will change which of the muscles is doing more of the work or activated more in certain situations. This is why its equally important to try to train both of the muscles. Each should be strong and flexible. The soleus has been shown to be more active in bent knee positions which is why it is an important muscle for runners and athletes because it helps control the forward movement of the tibia. Excessive forward movement of the tibia can lead to more stress on the knee and potentially injury. If aren't familiar with your soleus muscle and have no idea what to do to strengthen and stretch it I'm going to give you a couple easy options. Typical calf raises are done with a straight leg and are going to preferentially target the gastroc over the soleus. In order to give the soleus a fighting chance to do more work you must bend your knees when doing calf raises. Here is an easy exercise and explanation to target soleus strength: Now that you have a good idea of how to strengthen your soleus, you're also going to want to make sure its flexible. Here's how to do that: If you're a runner or athlete and you've never done either of those two exercises to target the soleus you're going to want to work them into your training regimen ASAP! Especially if you've had some ankle or knee pain that you haven't been able to get rid of. A weak and/or tight soleus may be the culprit and some strengthening and/or stretching may be just what you need!
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Dr. BenBen Burkett is a Doctor of Physical Therapy specializing in helping fitness enthusiasts and athletes stay healthy, active, and performing at their highest level both physically and mentally. Archives
September 2022
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