My very first non-contact soft tissue injury in my entire football career occurred on the weekend - the dreaded calf strain.
And worst of all, the old man calf strain too!
It was in the dying stages of the 1st quarter and I'd already taken a strong pack mark and goal and was hungry for more - as usual.
The ball came into the forward 50 and was bouncing around as I trued to pick it up and at some point it took a light turn of it's trajectory so naturally I followed suit, changing direction to keep tracking the ball.
At that point I felt was I've experienced in the past as a calf cramp except this usually happens deep in the last quarter when it does happen, not the 1st quarter.
The other differing thing was that it felt like cramp but then it didn't "un-cramp" and I hobbled to the huddle for the quarter time break.
The club as a whole had an horrendous week with 7 - 10 injuries already stretching player availability with 3 - 4 of those players still playing on the weekend who in a perfect world would be taking a week or 2 off to recover.
To add insult to injury we had a major flu bug go through the club last week with another 5 or so blokes (and the coach!) playing this weekend even though they had all missed work at some point during the week because of it.
The weekend prior I had jarred my back in the 3rd quarter and had been hobbling around for the most of the week but was able to play but more on that later.
I reluctantly strapped the ice pack on and I was done for the day, with no real idea of what grade of strain I'd done.
On the positive, my body seems to have a great ability to recover from these low to medium grade injury episodes in the past so rehab started right there and then.
SATURDAY
- Apply ice pack for 2nd quarter of my game
- Had my usual post-game protein shake to get some amino acids flowing through the body which are the building blocks of muscle and can assist with rebuilding with whatever damage I had done.
- I purposefully stayed n my feet for the most part and stayed on the bench to watch the game
- Took the ice pack off for the half time break while I had a shower
- Reapplied the ice pack again in the 3rd quarter until the end of the game.
- Once I got home I set up the couch and did a couple of rounds of heat pack on the calf while watching a terrible game of footy on the TV
A quick on note on icing injuries - ice restricts blood flow which is great for reducing swelling but my reading tells me that 2 bouts of about 20mins icing is enough to to treat the acute symptoms of an injury. Blood flow delivers blood to the injured area where it can bring oxygenated blood into the area while taking away any waste products in there which is now where the healing takes the place. If you ice for too long then you are taking longer to start the healing process. And I've never been a huge icer anyway even when I had a string of rolled ankles back in the day where I'd play basketball on a Wednesday night, roll an ankle, walk around on it until it felt good enough to play again and play the game out - essentially going straight from injury to healing I suppose - and being able to play footy on a Saturday.
SUNDAY
- Without a choice I was up to do junior footy as our usual coordinator was away this weekend so I couldn't not go even if I couldn't! I limped down the stairs and rubbed some heat cream into the calf before I left the house but that was all I had time for. I umpired and coached the under 8's and then went straight to the under 10's where I coached them while staying on the field to coach them as well so I was on my feet from 10am to about 1:30pm and it felt good after that. I always say to blokes to walk around on rolled ankles and similar injuries - ALWAYS!
- When I finally got home I had a hot bath with some magnesium salts to relax all the surrounding muscles of the leg and because I love a good hot bath.
MONDAY
- I started the day with a round if my electric stimulation machine for 20mins on/off/on which supplies the area with very tiny contractions which is equivalent to a very easy training session increasing blood flow to the area and thus continuing on with the healing process. It can also be used as a warm up tool which I was also doing to see if I could possibly get out and try some form of a run but it didn't take well enough.
- I was still able to do a little lower body strength gym session though
- I noticed at some point today that my limp had gone already - a good sign.
TUESDAY
- As I type this I'm almost pain free with a little pain when I try and to go right up onto my tippy, tippy toes and range of motion wasn't quite 100% in plantar flexion either.
- I'll head down to the grassed area I run on and try and see what running I can get in which will be low to medium intensity - nothing resembling a sprint at all
REST OF THE WEEK
- I'll try some medium speed stuff today and hopefully I'll be able to get a proper sprint and change of direction session in on Thursday.
WHY DID THIS HAPPEN?
Could of been 100 reasons why but as stated above last week I jarred my back which hindered me all week. It was actually pretty good come Wednesday and then Thursday it flared back up again to the point where I had to text the coach and say I was doubtful to play!
- I have a lower back "blow out" 1 a year as it's my "stress response" area (like migraines, shoulder, knee pain in times of stress - you'll probably have 1 too) which tells me my overall stress was getting up there anyway as your back doesn't just "go" for no reason even it seems it does.
- So throughout the week I was limited in what training I could do and didn't actually get to run at all from Saturday to Saturday - a very rare occurrence for me.
- By hobbling around all week my gait pattern may have been altered slightly making me vulnerable when the high intensity stuff was to be done (i.e game).
- I'm left with what I'll call "dysfunction" on my right leg from doing my knee 3 -4 years ago too which will also have a bearing on things as well.
- You know what? Maybe the calf just went on it's own.
However it happened, knowing what was going on in the lead up can drive my rehab where I can focus on getting more rest this week, get to bed earlier and do some extra corrective based training in the gym this week to hopefully get up for this weekend and more importantly, not to have it reoccur which would probably end up being a longer term injury then this one.
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