Strengthening the soleus muscle and why you should do it heavy | The MSK Physio
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Strengthening the soleus muscle and why you should do it heavy | The MSK Physio
The soleus is a robust muscle that helps you do the push down movements (plantarflexion) with your ankle. It also helps protect against straining the ACL of the knee. Interestingly, the contribution of the soleus muscle is commonly seen to be reduced post ACL injury (Kotsifaki et al., 2022). Particularly with vertical jumping (Kotsifaki et al., 2022). This is a complex protective response that can be distilled down into the fact that we see less knee flexion during landing and propulsive mechanics after ACL injuries. Basically, we need more ankle dorsiflexion (loaded) to allow for increased knee flexion!
Soleus strength is also reduced after an Achilles rupture. (Heikkinen et al., 2017). This is due to a few variables such as tendon length, atrophy, subsequent architectural changes and reduced motor unit activation. This difference in size persists for up to 18 months regardless if one has surgery or not (Heikkinen et al., 2017). Strength deficits also persist! This may be due to general under loading and inadequate progressive overload (Lantto et al., 2016).
Tendon stiffness results from using heavy loads (Beardsley, 2018). Strength requires the skill of high threshold motor unit recruitment. High threshold motor unit recruitment also requires heavy loads, or moving fast (think jumping) (Beardsley, 2018). Increasing muscle size is another discussion altogether!
In this video we discuss the necessity of using heavy loads for the soleus and how to do it!
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#soleustrengtheningexercise #soleusmuscle #soleus #soleusstrength #calfexercises #calfstrengthening #gastrocsoleusstrengthening #gastroc-soleus #soleusexercises #calfstrengtheningexercise #achillespain #achillestendinitis #achillestendinopathy #gastrocnemius #gastrocnemiusexercises #gastrocnemiusstrengtheningexercises #soleusexercise #soleusstrengthening #strengtheningthesoleus #soleusmusclerehab #themskphysio
References:
Beardsley, C. (2018). Strength is Specific: The key to optimal strength training for sports (1st edition). Strength and Conditioning Research Limited.
Heikkinen, J., Lantto, I., Flinkkila, T., Ohtonen, P., Niinimaki, J., Siira, P., Laine, V., & Leppilahti, J. (2017). Soleus Atrophy Is Common After the Nonsurgical Treatment of Acute Achilles Tendon Ruptures: A Randomized Clinical Trial Comparing Surgical and Nonsurgical Functional Treatments. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 45(6), 1395-1404. doi.org/10.117...
Kotsifaki, A., Rossom, S. V., Whiteley, R., Korakakis, V., Bahr, R., Sideris, V., & Jonkers, I. (2022). Single leg vertical jump performance identifies knee function deficits at return to sport after ACL reconstruction in male athletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 56(9), 490-498. doi.org/10.113...
Lantto, I., Heikkinen, J., Flinkkila, T., Ohtonen, P., Siira, P., Laine, V., & Leppilahti, J. (2016). A Prospective Randomized Trial Comparing Surgical and Nonsurgical Treatments of Acute Achilles Tendon Ruptures. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 44(9), 2406-2414. doi.org/10.117...
If your gym has a lying leg curl machine you may find that you can sit on the end facing away from the machine, put both knees underneath the roller so that it sits comfortably on the knees, then perform seated calf raises that way. Once you find yourself maxing out on the weight stack then you can perform the exercise one leg at a time.
Auspicious...I will test this out.
@@theMSKphysio does it work?
@jiahe4590 the ones I have had to access to it hasn't gone well. I've ended up lifting up the entire machine!
Best case, you have access to a seated leg raise machine.
@@theMSKphysio The same happens to me If I do both legs at the same time. I now use half the weight and do them alternate leg fashion. This makes for longer sets but it allows a few seconds between reps for the elastic energy that the soleus is renown for to dissipate. The object is to ensure that I am working the muscle better and not simply bouncing up and down using stored energy.
@@asprinklingofclouds good training points to consider 👍
I really like the Pilates Stability chair for this exercise. Use it all the time for netball playing clients and knee ankle rehab. Appreciated this post.
Thanks Morag! I had to look that one up. Looks like a neat device.
Thank you! You are very good! 🙏
I just walk and slowly raise the incline and it feels good.
I use to walk outside, but living near Scott Air Base in Illinois the geo-engineering nearly killed me.
I'm 75 and Silver Sneakers pays for my gym memberships.
Every gym I've ever trained in over 60+ years has a seated calf machine
That's awesome! Might just be less common in New Zealand then. 🤷♂️
So. If I don't have a gym membership or access to 70 kilo weights is there a way to get benefits from this exercise at home? Give me something I can use
I hear ya. It's tricky. What it comes down to is, what are your functional goals, what is your starting point and what is the gap? Having the ability to do this with your bodyweight is reasonable for day to day tasks. This exercise is useful for isolation. Alternatively, you'll need to manipulate bodyweight. Do this version but have your knee bent the whole time.
ua-cam.com/video/2Er7T4rbwQM/v-deo.html
For this exercise, to add weight, you can always fill up a shopping bag or backpack with various household items.
You could try sitting with your back against a wall or closed door similar to the wall squat position, then do the 'seated' calf raises in that position. The wall/door and your clothing will need to be smooth enough to allow your torso to rise and fall without undue friction.
You could pretend you're a dancer by squatting somewhat at the knee with your legs spread, then raise your heels off the floor. It would be even better, though a bit tricky, if you have some ramps on each side to give you a greater range of motion. I have one from ATX -- a black rubber thing you just plop on the floor. I put a towel under the edge of mine to give it a bigger incline. The top of it is a rounded point that lets you rock your foot over the crest of the ramp, but it's too firm to do it barefoot. In Xero Shoes' barefoot shoes, it's perfect because your foot and ankle can still flex. My foot doesn't slip at all on this thing, at least with the hiker tread (Xero's Mesa Trail shoes). I can see myself doing that if I had two of these ramps.
Is this o,k, to do if you have NO relfex in the ankle?
It depends on why there is no reflex. Things to consider are: Is it a permanent injury? Is it a local compression? Is the compression further away, say at the back?
If the nerve injury is not at the calf complex, then it will be fine. If the injury is at the calf complex, then an exercise like this would be fine at some point in time. Depends on the injury and how long ago it happened.
That being said, if your reflex is absent on one side and normal on the other, I encourage you to seek some local professional input for an assessment and specific advice before experimenting with exercises.
Is there any exercise of soleus muscle for optimum benefit which can be performed in short time like half an hour.
Sure! A mixture of this exercise and jump rope will be the most targeted. Additional time could be spent with squats and lunges with your knee moving forward over the toes.
👍
Great content. Quick question, I have a stubborn chronic soleus strain. Is there a point at which this should be 'graduated' to a standing version? Or should a seated version, given enough weight, be enough for recovery?
Thanks for the feedback. The answer lies in what you're trying to get back to. These types of exercises are not a standalone treatment/solution. I'd encourage a bent and straight leg version, along with some shin raises (searchable on the channel). That being said if you want tocget bsck to running for example, at some point a graduated program of running can't be replaced by these exercises. Hope that helps 👌
@@theMSKphysio thanks for your swift reply! Understood. Its actually walking that im trying to get back to, walking downhill strains both my soleal muscles. So currently looking for a way to allow me to do something as simple as walk down a decline 😅
@@eddiesurfah5525 Roger! Simple maybe. Important to you, yes! If happening on both sides, look at plank and deadbug exercises too. The calves can get overloaded if not enough load is being shared up at the pelvis.
Does wonders for lowering blood sugar when done at the dinner table...
This version would be much more appropriate for calf and Achilles injuries!
@@theMSKphysio then what versio was the research about for blood sugar? Looked like seated heel lifts. Desperate to avoid diabetes, now prediabetes and weight loss and low carb not fixing it
@grainiac according to this study, aoleus push ups look useful! There is ample research showing moderate strength training up to 60 minutes 2x/week is arguably the most useful.
@@grainiac7824 - Go look up Nutrition Detective here on UA-cam. It's all about toxicity and reducing incoming toxins. Knowing what the toxins are is the most important thing, and this guy is an expert on it. There are some toxins that will surprise you. It's fairly new and it's not about adding herbs or a bunch of bizarre supplements, but more about removing things and avoiding exposure to things that are toxic and adding a load to your liver. Diabetes, like practically every disease out there, is ultimately rooted in liver toxicity. With 60-80% of babies being born with jaundice (which is liver toxicity AND liver injury to go along with it), there's no doubt that there's a liver toxicity problem. Mothers who are overloaded with toxins are going to deliver babies that were grown in those toxins, protected somewhat by the temporary liver called a placenta, but it can only do so much, and even it can be overloaded, obviously.
When the liver is overloaded and can't detox the body properly, it gets stagnant and cholestatic, resulting in toxic bile reflux into the bloodstream--bile that should be going into the intestine. Bile reflux into the bloodstream is what leads to jaundice when it gets bad enough, and it also leads to kidney damage because the kidneys have to process things they aren't really supposed to have to deal with so much. And it's not just the kidneys, but everything blood touches inside you-it's all being damaged by toxic bile that leaked from the liver. A small amount of bile acids in the blood from cells is normal, but we're not supposed to have ANY bile from the liver in the blood AT ALL. It's all meant to go into the intestine, and then into the toilet, which is when it's truly been detoxed.
Unfortunately, with a low-fiber "Standard American Diet", about 95% of that bile is re-absorbed into the liver via enterohepatic circulation, which is when the bile goes into the intestine and gets pulled back into the liver from the intestines and up through the portal vein where the toxins are filtered out once again. Over time, with so much bile being recirculated, this increases the toxicity more and more until people start having health problems, like, well, Leaky Gut Syndrome. Bile is the most toxic fluid in the human body. It's got any heavy metals in it like lead, cadmium, mercury, aluminum, copper, and more; glyphosate, forever chemicals, and BPAs. Anything the body doesn't want will be in the bile, including various acids. Ethanol from liquor is turned into acetaldehyde (ethanaldehyde) and then into acetic acid (vinegar, ethanoic acid). And it's pure vinegar, not the 90% diluted stuff at the supermarket and in salad dressings. Not only that, but even retinol (another alcohol, also known as vitamin A) goes through the same detox pathway in the liver to become, first, retinaldehyde, and then retinoic acid, which is used as a chemical peel to dissolve the top layers of skin on your face. Even retinol can be used for that. The liver has to make that when one consumes foods or supplements with vitamin A in it. Most people get their vitamin A from dairy and eggs, but liver has a TON of vitamin A (which isn't surprising from this perspective if it's something that'll dissolve cells. And it's not just one retinoic acid. Retinol > Retinaldehyde can lead to all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), 13-cis-retinoic acid (isotretinoin, Accutane - very bad side effects with that drug), and 9-cis-retinoic acid (alitretinoin chemotherapy drug - chemo obviously has some side effects)). All these are fat-soluble and accumulative, so if the liver can't get rid of them fast enough, they build up over time, and people have symptoms that get worse over time because they don't know which things are toxic and which things aren't.
Though I know Nutrition Detective's information inside and out, I don't want to oversell or say too much here. (I wrote this paragraph before last two. lol) There's a lot to know, but the is a genius, evidenced by the ease with which one can understand what he's saying.
I had knee replacement surgery 3 years ago.I ended up with with dead foot.I cannot lift the front of my left foot and I have no balance on my left leg.What can I do?
Try this ua-cam.com/video/VbzFZjNo9Xo/v-deo.html or this ua-cam.com/video/VbzFZjNo9Xo/v-deo.html. If you physically cannot do either of the movements, then check in with your local health professional and get an assessment.
How many times a week do you recommend these exercises?
It depends on how heavy you are going and what ypu want out of it. If it is a new movement you want to learn the skill and not go too intense/heavy - 3-4×/week is appropriate. As you move towards strength goals and heavy weight 1-2×/week is appropriate.
@@theMSKphysio thank you!!
Will this exercise exacerbate my Achilles Tendonitis?
Hi. Thanks for the question! There is potential to exacerbate things yes. Ironically, it is also a helpful exercise. The key is to do just an amount/weight that keeps your discomfort
The girl closest to camera needs work on angle of legs,form and speed. It has to be done correctly or we're wasting our time.😊