What to do if your calf muscles ache after exercise?

Most of our friends do not exercise enough in normal times, and when they suddenly do some high-intensity exercise, they often feel soreness in the calf muscles. Especially when they are active, this soreness will be significantly increased, and sometimes it will seriously affect a person's normal movements. Below, the editor will introduce some methods that can be used to relieve calf soreness that occurs after strenuous exercise.

1. Relax after exercise. After exercise, you can lie on a sponge pad or rattan mat to rest for a while. When lying flat, your feet should be placed slightly higher than your head, or at the same height as your head. Never lie on the steamy ground. After resting for a while, you can do headstand or wall handstand for 3-10 seconds. You can do it several times. This is good for blood flow back to the heart from the lower limbs. Then shake your limbs, first shaking and patting your thighs or upper arms, and then shaking your calves or forearms.

2. Massage after exercise is an important means to eliminate fatigue. The main massage techniques include shaking, acupressure, kneading, tapping, and pushing. The first step is to shake the limbs, mainly to relax the elbows, knee joints and muscle groups of the limbs; commonly used acupoints on the upper limbs include Pianli, Quchi, Shouwuli, Biyuexu, etc., which can relieve soreness and swelling in the arms and elbows, as well as various discomfort symptoms caused by exercise such as shoulder and arm pain, neck cramps, etc. Commonly used acupressure points for the lower limbs include Chengfu, Weiyang, Chengshan, Kunlun, Zusanli, etc., which can relieve symptoms such as pain in the lumbar, sacral, buttocks and thighs, cramps in the legs and feet, stiffness in the waist and legs, stiff neck, low back pain, and soreness in the knees and shins. When kneading and tapping, massage the large muscles first and then the small muscles. After massaging one side, massage the other side. In this way, you can massage each other's whole body. Most of the Shu points on the back are located 1.5 inches away from the spine. Massage and relaxation are mainly focused on the points 1.5 inches away from the spine and the shoulder's external shoulder point, Jianjing point, and Tianzong point on the shoulder blade. This can relieve back pain and neck stiffness. Combining several techniques can achieve a good relaxation effect and quick recovery. It also has health-care effects on the human body's internal organs.

3. Exercise arrangements should be reasonable. After a period of exercise, the muscle soreness that originally occurred will be less severe with less exercise. And the performance is specific. For example, downhill exercise can reduce muscle soreness caused by downhill exercise after a period of training.

4. Warm the area and apply medication. Soaking in warm water after a workout can help relieve muscle soreness. Topical oils, pastes, or rubs may also relieve pain.

5. Stretching exercises can relieve muscle soreness. Stretching muscles can accelerate muscle relaxation and relieve antagonist muscles, which helps the recovery of tense muscles. This muscle stretching exercise also lays the foundation for preventing strains during exercise.

Before exercising, doing adequate warm-up can effectively prevent calf soreness. At this time, you can stretch your legs appropriately, raise your legs high in place, etc., and after the activity, you can also pat the muscles in your calves and thighs. This can effectively help relax the muscles and is also very beneficial for preventing muscle soreness.