Calf Cramping… Caused by Back Stiffness?
Maybe not the first thought for most…
Once again I’ve got another interesting client scenario that came up over the past few weeks.
I had a former client reach back out for a new session regarding left-sided calf cramping that was starting 10 minutes into every run.
Admittedly, my initial thoughts were that likely her ankle joint might be stiff (super common in runners, and that could affect the function of the calf muscle) and/or she was dealing with some calf muscle weakness (commonly I don’t think runners strength train their calves enough).
Upon further questioning, she said it would feel as if her calf would cramp up and then she wouldn’t have any strength or power to push off of that leg.
The description of the cramping with a lack of power doesn’t typically fit a normal stiffness or weakness issue in my experience.
This made me continue to ask questions regarding when the cramping started (hopefully allowing me to think about if anything changed in her daily habits around the same time).
Interestingly, around the same time as the cramping started she also had started going to law school… which brought on a whole new level of sitting throughout the day than she was used to.
This led me to start to wonder if there may have been a lower back/nervous system involvement - maybe there was stiffness/tightness in the lower back that in some way was affecting the nerves feeding into the calf??
Upon movement testing, the client did in fact demonstrate with lower back stiffness most specifically with bending backward (often the exact opposite motion of the forward bending posture that we get with sitting…especially slouched sitting)!
We also tested the client’s calf strength just to make sure and she demonstrated with the same level of calf strength on both sides (further decreasing the likelihood of a normal calf weakness issue).
By the end of the session following the client history and movement assessment, I made the determination to prescribe a movement to do all throughout the day involving backward bending of the lower back…
And wouldn’t you know that literally just about a week later I got a follow-up text from the client saying that her calf cramping seemed to be gone!!!!
The body continues to amaze me all the time and this is why it’s so important to not assume what’s going on - you have to gather information, test movement, and make informed decisions!!
And if we would have just done the more typical physical therapy approach of stretching her ankle and strengthening her calf, the symptoms would likely have just kept presenting themselves!
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