Pain in my landing leg

[antmanb]

I'm going to talk to my personal trainer about this but thought i'd put it out to the people here to get some thoughts/opinions.

Before the holidays after about a two hour session on the ice I got a really intense pain in the calf of my right (landing) leg. The pain was towards the middle of the calf and radiated down. It was towards the end of the session and it happened after working on loops and flips. So i just got off the ice shortly after but i noticed the pain happened when I pointed my right toe, so even going into forward spins hurt when i pointed my right toe as I stepped onto the left spinning leg.

Since I was having time off for the holidays I rested up and after about a week the pain went, I had another week off where I felt no pain at all doing ordinary every day things and then went back to the rink yesterday. I warmed up slowly with field moves up and down the rink and then started doing a few hops to warm up to full jumps. I did a waltz jump and noticed the area that i'd hurt when I landed the jump. I say noticed because it didn't exactly hurt but it registered that the part of my calf that i'd hurt, felt the landing. I did toe-loop and salchow and felt the same thing on the landing. Went to do a loop and the calf muslce really hurt on the take off and landing. It feels like pointing the toe to anticipate landing causes some pain - but its specifically on the loop where you jump and land on the same foot that it causes the most pain. I didn't even attempt a flip after that. I was fine doing waltz, toe-loop and salchow, but took it easy jumpwise.

So i'm trying to figure out what is actually hurt, is it something to do with my achilles tendon?

I've had these boots for years now and i'm wondering if they've maybe broken down despite not having creases on anything showing up visually that would tell me they've broken down?

All thoughts/opinions gratefully received.

[ioana]

Does this hurt when you use your right foot to pick for a flip or lutz? If it doesn't, then it's most likely a muscle that's higher up and not really your achilles. Also, I'd try doing some of the jumps off ice and seeing if the same pain is there. That might help before your PT appointment and you'd have a better idea whether or not it's related to your skates. My guess would be that it is. Sometimes they still offer plenty of ankle support, but some of the lining gets worn down or compacted and that can cause some issues. Including things like pinched nerves which could be another option for what this is.

Good luck -and hopefully this won't keep you off the ice !

ETA: I'm assuming you were a righty skater which is why I asked about the right foot. Obviously, switch that around if you're a lefty.

[pingu]

You probably have a problem on the Achilles tendon. Do you stretch it after skating? Does it hurt also stretching it, or only when you use the muscle (pointing the toe, landing jumps, gong down the stairs)?

[hanca]

what about a stress fracture? (just a tiny crack on the bone). Depending where exactly it hurts. Is it from front of the leg, from side or at the back?

[treesprite]

Makes me think muscle. I've pulled my calf muscle a lot and it sounds like that type of pain. Did you skip warm-ups the day you first injured it?

[antmanb]

Does this hurt when you use your right foot to pick for a flip or lutz?

Because of the pain from the loop I was scared to attempt either flip or lutz but did my split star jump and the pick in with the right foot was fine - it was actually the most comfortable jump since the left toe landing meant the right leg got a break!

You probably have a problem on the Achilles tendon. Do you stretch it after skating? Does it hurt also stretching it, or only when you use the muscle (pointing the toe, landing jumps, gong down the stairs)?

I do try to stretch after I skate, but sometimes to pass on the stretching just to get out of the cold rink. Stretching (like a calf stretch) seemed to help and didn't hurt but pointing my toes on that foot did - walking upstairs was particularly painful as i tend to go up stairs on my toes (which i had never noticed before this injury) so putting weight on the ball of the foot (with the heel raised) really hurt.

what about a stress fracture? (just a tiny crack on the bone). Depending where exactly it hurts. Is it from front of the leg, from side or at the back?

It's completely at the back - it feels totally muscular, like when you get a cramp in your calf - exactly where that pain is. I honestly thought i'd have that wkae-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-with-crippling-calf-pain, but i haven't at all since the injury.

Makes me think muscle. I've pulled my calf muscle a lot and it sounds like that type of pain. Did you skip warm-ups the day you first injured it?

I don't tend to ever skip warm ups (since I once pulled a muslce because I didn't warm up enough)....i sometimes skips cool down and stretches

I saw my PT and he thinks i've pulled the calf muscle up where the tendon meets the muscle. He advised taking it easy doing anything that hurts it and then slowly reintroducing movements/elements that cause pain.

I've had a really good look at my boots, and the only area that looks worn is the padding in the tongue (which has been like that from the start because everything I pulled the tongue up to lace my skate, some of the padding would always come off in my fingers! The padding around the heel/ankle/achilles seems totally in tact (except for the indentation that my ankle has made) and the boots seem to be as stiff as they always were. I always thought i might need new skates this year so i might still look for new ones but i'm going to see how quickly this clears up and/or if the boots seem to be what makes it worse.

Thanks for all your input guys!

[Doubletoe]

I have the same thing going on in my right calf muscle right now, although it is getting better thanks to massaging and stretching. Mine happened when I caught my right toepick while skating forward. My toepick caught in the ice as the rest of me kept going, which made my right calf tense up and pull at the same time. Loops are the worst because I point my toes on takeoff and stay pointed to land, using that exact part of the calf muscle.

[antmanb]

I have the same thing going on in my right calf muscle right now, although it is getting better thanks to massaging and stretching. Mine happened when I caught my right toepick while skating forward. My toepick caught in the ice as the rest of me kept going, which made my right calf tense up and pull at the same time. Loops are the worst because I point my toes on takeoff and stay pointed to land, using that exact part of the calf muscle.

That's exactly it on the loop jump. I've been training to get higher jumps as well so I feel that i'm putting more force through the muscles, and since i've started landing the loop again I always point my toe right the way through the jump from take off to landing and that seemed to be the killer.

I'm now trying to think if I had any trips or "toe-pick" moments on that specific day, but I can't recall any specifically....though they do seem to happen frequently enough to me.

[Doubletoe]

Wishing you a quick recovery, Antmanb! I can't emphasize the stretching and massaging enough (thank goodness it's a body part we can reach by ourselves, LOL), especially stretching right after skating. For me, I find that the best way to stretch that part of my calf is to first do the standard calf stretches, and then to do a forward split with the right leg in front and hold it for a full 30 seconds. Of course if you can't do a full split, you can just hold the lowest position you can get, making sure your chest is forward over your front leg and your foot is flexed up, not pointed. And one Advil before skating really helps, too!

[treesprite]

I hope you heal quickly.

[antmanb]

Wishing you a quick recovery, Antmanb! I can't emphasize the stretching and massaging enough (thank goodness it's a body part we can reach by ourselves, LOL), especially stretching right after skating. For me, I find that the best way to stretch that part of my calf is to first do the standard calf stretches, and then to do a forward split with the right leg in front and hold it for a full 30 seconds. Of course if you can't do a full split, you can just hold the lowest position you can get, making sure your chest is forward over your front leg and your foot is flexed up, not pointed. And one Advil before skating really helps, too!

Thanks for the tips!

I went skating on Thursday and found that the easier jumps were ok - i could feel the area in my calf but it was ok. I even felt up to trying a loop. I landed a small one that did hurt the area a little so I said no more to them.

I continued skating and had my lesson and randomly on a waltz jump landed with my weight forward on the toe and my calf muslce screamed in pain. Limped off the ice and limped home I am such an idiot! Iced the area and elevated it. Had a bit of limping on Friday, by saturday it all felt ok again. I booked in to a physiotherapy and sports injury clinic that is thankfully covered by insurance and the lady this morning said that on account of there being no bruising, that i could limp around ant hen walk normally after 24 hours, she doesn't think its serious. I managed to stand on the right leg and raise the heel up with only mild pain in the muscle. She said the right calf is considerably tighter than the left so gave me stretches to do twice a day. She massaged the calf and then strapped a pad that send an electric current through it.

She's a advised that I carry on doing exercise that doesn't hurt the area at all. I'll skate on thursday but not jump at all, then she said after a week if i can do the one leg heel raise without any kind of pain at all we need to build back up to jumping on the ice to see if anything sets it off again. I've got another appointment for more treatment on friday and then monday and friday next week. She was confident i'd be testing out jumping next week and that we could sort it by the friday

[Doubletoe]

So sorry about that bad waltz jump landing! Ugh! But glad you are in good hands with this physical therapist! Wishing you a quick recovery and hoping the stretches help prevent any future occurrences!