How to Relieve Calf Cramps

What's going on everybody? My name's Dr. Tom from Rehab Science. In today's video, we're looking at three exercises to help relieve calf cramps. So, let's jump into the first one. For the first exercise, we're going to use a foam roller to mobilize our calf muscles. This will help reduce pain and tension. So, what you're going to do is put your leg out on the foam roller, push up with your arms, and then just roll through the muscle all the way up to the back of the knee, and then down close to where the Achilles tendon starts. You can start like this where it's just leg weight. If this is too easy, you can stack your other leg on top, which will add more force. And then, you're going to roll through the area for 1 to 2 minutes, and you can do this every day to help relieve muscle tension. For the second exercise, we're now going to stretch our calf muscles. So, you need an elevated surface. I've got a Fasciitis Fighter here. Anything like this that's a little bit elevated. So, you're going to put the front of your foot, your forefoot, on the elevated surface, step forward, keep your knee straight in the first version, and you should feel a stretch in your calf muscles. You're going to hold for 15 to 30 seconds and perform two to four repetitions. So, this knee-straight variation will help to target the gastrocnemius muscle. For the second version, we'll now bend our knee, same thing. We're dropping our ankle into dorsiflexion. This is going to be a little bit more specific to the soleus muscle. For the last exercise, we're going to perform a deficit calf raise on a step to strengthen our calf muscles. If we can make our calf muscles stronger, they will be less likely to fatigue and cramp. So, what you're going to do here is stand up on a step with the front of your foot on the step, your heel hanging off, pick up your other leg, and then you're going to go up and down nice and slow through full range of motion to strengthen both of your calf muscles, again gastrocnemius and soleus. Think about getting to 25 repetitions, which is considered full strength for this muscle group. If you can only do 10 reps or 15 reps, that's okay. Start there, see if you can work through two to three sets on each leg. All right, those are three exercises to help relieve calf cramps and calf pain. Give them a try. If you have any questions, put them down the comment section. All right, see you next time. Bye.