foot pain, calf exercises

[lordikon]

When doing the horizontal calf exercise, I get a pain in my foot. It goes along the tendon that runs along the inside of your foot, from your heel to your big toe.

Right now I'm at 230 lbs. per leg, or 460 together.
It's hard for me to keep my foot flat when pushing so much weight. Is this common, or is it my form? Is there something I can buy for my feet to keep this from happening?

I don't get the same pain from the standing calf exercises, but I don't want to cut out horz. calves because they supposedly work a couple different muscles then the standing ones.

[Stonecold54]

Originally posted by lordikon
When doing the horizontal calf exercise, I get a pain in my foot. It goes along the tendon that runs along the inside of your foot, from your heel to your big toe.

Right now I'm at 230 lbs. per leg, or 460 together.
It's hard for me to keep my foot flat when pushing so much weight. Is this common, or is it my form? Is there something I can buy for my feet to keep this from happening?

I don't get the same pain from the standing calf exercises, but I don't want to cut out horz. calves because they supposedly work a couple different muscles then the standing ones.

have you tried to do uni-lateral training? or try a pre-exhaust set so you don't have to use as much weight on the horizontal set. Do seated or standing calf raises and then immediatley do your set on the horizontal. i too get pain certain times using so much weight on calf raises. make sure your shoes are on snuggly also.

[lordikon]

I'm new to weight lifting. Could you explain the terms "uni-lateral" training, and "pre-exhaust set"?

Originally I was doing horz. and standing on the same day, and hitting my calves hard. The result I got was shin splints. My calves have never been sore though, so it didn't seem like I was overtraining. Anyway, I seperated them and do one of them every 3 days. I'm doing more weight, but then I've run into this problem.

Right now I'm using basic running shoes. They fit fine, but I'll try tighting the laces good before calves. Thanx for the advice.

[Stonecold54]

Originally posted by lordikon
I'm new to weight lifting. Could you explain the terms "uni-lateral" training, and "pre-exhaust set"?

Originally I was doing horz. and standing on the same day, and hitting my calves hard. The result I got was shin splints. My calves have never been sore though, so it didn't seem like I was overtraining. Anyway, I seperated them and do one of them every 3 days. I'm doing more weight, but then I've run into this problem.

Right now I'm using basic running shoes. They fit fine, but I'll try tighting the laces good before calves. Thanx for the advice.

sure, Uni-lateral training just means training each leg by itself. so you do a set with your right foot and then your left. Pre-exhaust is something you would do to fatigue a muscle so on the following set less weight can be used. such as leg extensions before squats would pre-exhaust the quadriceps. Chest flyes before bench press would pre-exhaust the pectorals. In your case I was just suggesting you do a kind of super-set (two exercises back to back with little or no rest). that way you could use less weight on the horizontal leg press because they would be tired from the previous set. just something to try.

[Puddles]

Originally posted by lordikon
Right now I'm using basic running shoes. They fit fine, but I'll try tighting the laces good before calves. Thanx for the advice.

When I train calves I have to tie my shoes really tight or else I get the same pain.

[lordikon]

Originally posted by stonecold54
sure, Uni-lateral training just means training each leg by itself. so you do a set with your right foot and then your left. Pre-exhaust is something you would do to fatigue a muscle so on the following set less weight can be used. such as leg extensions before squats would pre-exhaust the quadriceps. Chest flyes before bench press would pre-exhaust the pectorals. In your case I was just suggesting you do a kind of super-set (two exercises back to back with little or no rest). that way you could use less weight on the horizontal leg press because they would be tired from the previous set. just something to try.

In that case, I'm already forced to do uni-lateral training on the horz. calves because the machine only goes to 400. I was stuck there about 3 weeks before I decided I would have to do one leg at a time to move up from there.

I think I'll try a standing calf exercise first, and then move quickly to the horz. calf. I'll see if that helps.

Originally posted by Puddles
When I train calves I have to tie my shoes really tight or else I get the same pain.

Yes, I just tried it the other day and it kept away most the pain, I probably need some new shoes too, they're a little flimsy.

[JUICE]

Originally posted by lordikon
When doing the horizontal calf exercise, I get a pain in my foot. It goes along the tendon that runs along the inside of your foot, from your heel to your big toe.

Right now I'm at 230 lbs. per leg, or 460 together.
It's hard for me to keep my foot flat when pushing so much weight. Is this common, or is it my form? Is there something I can buy for my feet to keep this from happening?

I don't get the same pain from the standing calf exercises, but I don't want to cut out horz. calves because they supposedly work a couple different muscles then the standing ones.

yeah dude, i used to get that alot before when i used to use that machine. Well it was a leg press machine(horizontal). I used about 500 pounds and all, and it did hurt, the calf but another kind of pain was going on on my leg. I felt my foot hurt alot, ankle going to toe. I stopped using it and stuck to seated calf raises, standing up raises, and donkey raises. But yeah, that pain is uncomfortable.

[lordikon]

I don't seem to get any pain when doing the standing raises, I did 550 today with no pain, so I think I'll do most of my reps on standing, and then end with some lighter seated ones. Thanx for the advice guys, now my calves can continue to grow.