We ALL have tight calves. Even if you don't think you do, you have tight calves. And this tightness causes your foot, ankle, and shin to work way too hard, and it causes a terrible torque through your knee and hips, and it puts your low back in a distressed position. Any pain in the low back down into your foot is at least partially caused by your tight calves.

Fortunately, there is a simple stretch you can use to improve the tightness of your calves. But I use the word stretch hesitantly, because the calves are NOT too short in need of being stretched longer. Instead, they are too tense and in need of relaxing. So when we stretch our calves (or anything else in the body) we want to relax them, not rip them apart. Almost all of us overstretch when we stretch, and this makes our calves even tighter.

The video below walks you through this basic calf stretch. We should all do it daily.

A good argument can be made that the calves are the most important muscles in the entire body. Without the calf muscles and their Achilles Tendons, we wouldn't be able to stand. The calves help us jump, run, and walk, but even more important is their function as our primary anti-gravity muscles. They are what keep us from falling down all day.

It's no wonder then that our calves and our Achilles Tendons are often extremely tight, and that once we develop a problem in the calves it can be difficult to calm them down. It's because these poor tissues are always working for us that they never really get a break.

Tightness and irritation in the calves affects the entire body. When the calves don't work well, everything else has to work more. Our knees get overloaded. Our low back gets overworked, and even our arms and neck muscles can be affected. Many aches and pains throughout the entire body can result from calf and Achilles Tendon problems.

Certainly, massaging the calves (gently!) and stretching them (gently!) can help. But what they really need isn't more work. What they need is relaxation. The calves need some time off!

One very simple thing we can all do for our calves in order to help give them some time off is to simply lie face-down on the ground (placing pillows under the stomach if the low back is uncomfortable with this), bend one knee, and do very small and very slow ankle pumping motions. This motion moves the foot slightly closer and then slightly farther away from the ground. Spend about a minute doing this, and the repeat on the opposite side. The calves appreciate not having to work hard for a moment, and they appreciate the attention.