You’ve sustained a calf injury over the last few weeks or days. I may have been today. It doesn’t take long to realize how debilitating it can be, keeping you from your favorite sports, recreational activities, and even brisk evening walks. Frustrated, you are wondering how soon you can return to normal and have come online to ask “How long does it take for a calf strain to heal?” which has delivered you here to our Burnaby BC clinic. Read ahead for the answer.
Everything You Need to Ask Yourself When Determining How Many Weeks it May Take for Your Calf Strain to Fully Heal
Is it a Calf Strain or Other Injury?
You’ve used the word “strain” in your online search for information. Has this been confirmed? Strain is a technical term, but in reality your injury could be a sprain or muscle tear, or there may even be a fracture to the fibula. The fibula is sometimes referred to as the calf bone, and is located below the knee joint, with the lower end of the fibula forming the outer part of the ankle joint. Or, the bone that runs beside to the tibia may instead have been compromised. If a physician or specialist has not confirmed exactly what the injury is, you need to find out to determine healing time. If you know that there is no “calf bone” fracture but the pain, discomfort, and malfunction is quite significant, you probably have a calf tear. The severity of a calf tear is broken down into Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3, with recovery time running anywhere from 2 weeks to six months, depending upon Grade and work that you put in to expedite the process in a healthy manner.
Will You Attend Physiotherapy?
If you want to reduce healing time, you unequivocally need to see a physiotherapist for a calf strain, injury, or tear. A physiotherapist will confirm the severity or Grade of the injury and will prescribe a customized treatment plan based upon your physical fitness and capabilities, medical history, lifestyle, and your personal goals. This treatment plan will include injury-specific exercises, stretches, and movements, and may also include alternative therapies to further promote healing such as TCM acupuncture. Your physiotherapist will also provide you with a treatment plan that can be applied at home, in the gym, outdoors, and at the office (as applicable). With physio-guided treatment and done to exact specifications you can shave days (low Grade) or weeks (higher Grade) off of healing time when compared to a DIY regime.
Heal or Come Back Better Than Before?
Is this the first time you injured your calf muscle? Have there been instances before? If you’ve been doing any of these four things you run the risk of injuring your calf again, and again. Sure, you can heal each and every time, but are you content to stay on this path or even just return to “normal”? Or, would you prefer to come back as an even better version of yourself? When you make regular physiotherapy a part of your life you can actually make your calf muscles stronger and more pliable than they were prior to injury. This will not only help prevent future calf injury, it can enhance your performance in sports and recreational activities.
Are you located in the Greater Vancouver area? Significantly reduce the amount of time it takes for your calf strain/injury to heal by coming in to our Burnaby clinic as soon as possible. Schedule a consultation for this week/weekend via the contacts provided below.