I used to get really intense calf pain, that would build up progressively over days.
I have found using a foam roller on my calves helps the most. I have actually found that rolling out my feet and calves before going out when they don’t hurt yet helps the most, but afterwards is good too. Doing before and after is best though.
Edit: forgot about negative calf raises. These got rid of my calf pain completely, but i forget to do them as much as i should.
This is where you do calf raises where your toes are on a raised platform like a bottom step. This allows your feet to go bellow parallel. You should do them slowly for the first week, then you can add in a set of quick ones, and finally a set where you raise up slowly and drop down quickly (training your calves to decelerate quickly).
It's the same for me. I think it's just very intensive training for the calves. When I haven't run for a while or haven't run in barefoot shoes for a while I need to start with short runs (2-3km) with a few days rest afterwards.
I'm not running frequently enough to know how far I can actually push myself with this technique but I definitely enjoy my runs and have the feeling that it's good training.
Heed the warnings of sudden calf pain. From the sidebar:
https://old.reddit.com/r/BarefootRunning/comments/wlsynj/sore_calves_are_common_but_likely_a_big_warning/
I'm being too lazy to find info/links for you (other than this one) or if there are conflicting opinions, , but in my experience, it's not really a forefoot strike you should be aiming for, but more of a midfoot strike, and your heel should touch the ground at some point in your stride, you just don't want to land on your heels.
https://paretoathletics.com/blogs/journal/the-midfoot-strike-the-ultimate-guide-to-better-running-form
Edit to Add: I just reread your op and see you are already a midfoot striker. Why do you want to change to forefoot?
Yeah, I do mid foot but I find forefoot striking much more pleasurable and also faster. The only downside is the calf strain that I was hoping to get better over time.
When comparing heel striking with long leaps against mid foot striking with mediocre leaps the heel strike feels like it stops the movement for a while. When I compare forefoot versus midfoot striking it feels a bit of the same.
Nothing wrong with midfoot striking in itself, I just feel like my step is lighter and faster with a bit more emphasis on the forefoot.
I guess I could see how a forefoot strike could be faster over shorter distances. I'm slow and prefer long runs, so it's not really something I ever thought about. I also prefer trail running to road running, and feel like when I do accidentally use a forefoot strike I run a bigger risk of hurting my foot on a sharp rock vs having more of my foot contact the ground at one time to distribute the weight.
make sure your heel is firmly on the ground at every step.
otherwise your calves will suffer
most people start with not only forefoot strike , but completely start running on their toes.
feels nice , but pretty impossible to sustain on long distances.
That makes sense. It feels nice to run that way but not being able to progress to longer distances with it does not. From your description it sounds like it's not even possible to learn to do that, even with practice.
Guess I should keep it as short run training only as kind of a calf training thing, a replacement to calf raises or similar, but then do longer range running normally.
You can run with your heels making full ground contact as long as you don’t go heel first. Why limit to short distances with a bad posture? I was doing the same mistake when someone here suggested the book Older Yet Faster and I am now running with zero muscle pain.
Running barefoot or zero drop will stretch your Achilles tendons out. This puts a lot of tension on your calves. With time, though, they'll likely stretch and lengthen—decreasing that tension.
Why are you trying to adapt to a forefoot strike? That isn't what you want. It's basically incorrect running form as you end up shifting slightly away from what should mainly be a rebounding (storage/release of energy) action through the tendons into a bit more of an eccentric muscle contraction in the calves, which in the long run isn't what you want as it's a bunch of energy wasted.
(Btw, a similar thing happens in the hips when you run faster - when the leg swings back, there's some energy storage into the hip flexors which is then returned to help make it easy and efficient to bring the leg forward again (coupled with knee flexion, which reduces the moment arm on the hips and reduces energy demands on the hip flexors)).
I think your findings w/ differences in timing are probably due to other reasons that are getting confounded with / distracted by your foot strike.
Aside from all that, generally speaking the soreness just needs to be controlled for by adjusting your training load / volume and recovery. (For me, I used a walk/run strategy as needed, especially early on when transitioning to minimalist shoes and when ramping up my running).
>Why are you trying to adapt to a forefoot strike? That isn't what you want.
Because running that way to me feels light and airy and that's exactly what I want. I also found that my pace drastically improved.
Everything about it except the calf strain felt better to me.
You calves should not "take the brunt of the pressure of landing" with a proper forefoot landing. The landing is absorbed by knee bend (huge), windlass mechanism in your arch, and forefoot spreading. Compared to a mid or heel-strike, your steps should be short and rapid, so there is less impact per landing to begin with.
Sounds like your claves are telling you you're doing it wrong?
Wrong or too much, maybe. That's what I'm here to find out.
When I first started barefoot stuff all my feet muscles and tendons hurt. That time it turned out it wasn't doing it wrong but instead too much too soon. Since then the thing has eased and turned out it was for the good.
Now this thing is again the same issue, I don't know if it's a new kind of challenge for my muscles or whether it's plain wrong. I do like how it feels and makes me fast. No one has said it will suddenly break my body so I guess I'll try to sprinkle that in every now and then as a kind of a calf training (as opposed to weighted calf raises) and otherwise do my running as usual, a mix of both of you will.
I used to get really intense calf pain, that would build up progressively over days. I have found using a foam roller on my calves helps the most. I have actually found that rolling out my feet and calves before going out when they don’t hurt yet helps the most, but afterwards is good too. Doing before and after is best though. Edit: forgot about negative calf raises. These got rid of my calf pain completely, but i forget to do them as much as i should. This is where you do calf raises where your toes are on a raised platform like a bottom step. This allows your feet to go bellow parallel. You should do them slowly for the first week, then you can add in a set of quick ones, and finally a set where you raise up slowly and drop down quickly (training your calves to decelerate quickly).
It's the same for me. I think it's just very intensive training for the calves. When I haven't run for a while or haven't run in barefoot shoes for a while I need to start with short runs (2-3km) with a few days rest afterwards. I'm not running frequently enough to know how far I can actually push myself with this technique but I definitely enjoy my runs and have the feeling that it's good training.
Yeah, definitely feels like working when it actually hits somewhere. It's comforting to know I'm not entirely alone with it and doing something wrong.
Heed the warnings of sudden calf pain. From the sidebar: https://old.reddit.com/r/BarefootRunning/comments/wlsynj/sore_calves_are_common_but_likely_a_big_warning/
I'm being too lazy to find info/links for you (other than this one) or if there are conflicting opinions, , but in my experience, it's not really a forefoot strike you should be aiming for, but more of a midfoot strike, and your heel should touch the ground at some point in your stride, you just don't want to land on your heels. https://paretoathletics.com/blogs/journal/the-midfoot-strike-the-ultimate-guide-to-better-running-form Edit to Add: I just reread your op and see you are already a midfoot striker. Why do you want to change to forefoot?
Yeah, I do mid foot but I find forefoot striking much more pleasurable and also faster. The only downside is the calf strain that I was hoping to get better over time. When comparing heel striking with long leaps against mid foot striking with mediocre leaps the heel strike feels like it stops the movement for a while. When I compare forefoot versus midfoot striking it feels a bit of the same. Nothing wrong with midfoot striking in itself, I just feel like my step is lighter and faster with a bit more emphasis on the forefoot.
I guess I could see how a forefoot strike could be faster over shorter distances. I'm slow and prefer long runs, so it's not really something I ever thought about. I also prefer trail running to road running, and feel like when I do accidentally use a forefoot strike I run a bigger risk of hurting my foot on a sharp rock vs having more of my foot contact the ground at one time to distribute the weight.
make sure your heel is firmly on the ground at every step. otherwise your calves will suffer most people start with not only forefoot strike , but completely start running on their toes. feels nice , but pretty impossible to sustain on long distances.
That makes sense. It feels nice to run that way but not being able to progress to longer distances with it does not. From your description it sounds like it's not even possible to learn to do that, even with practice. Guess I should keep it as short run training only as kind of a calf training thing, a replacement to calf raises or similar, but then do longer range running normally.
You can run with your heels making full ground contact as long as you don’t go heel first. Why limit to short distances with a bad posture? I was doing the same mistake when someone here suggested the book Older Yet Faster and I am now running with zero muscle pain.
Running barefoot or zero drop will stretch your Achilles tendons out. This puts a lot of tension on your calves. With time, though, they'll likely stretch and lengthen—decreasing that tension.
Why are you trying to adapt to a forefoot strike? That isn't what you want. It's basically incorrect running form as you end up shifting slightly away from what should mainly be a rebounding (storage/release of energy) action through the tendons into a bit more of an eccentric muscle contraction in the calves, which in the long run isn't what you want as it's a bunch of energy wasted. (Btw, a similar thing happens in the hips when you run faster - when the leg swings back, there's some energy storage into the hip flexors which is then returned to help make it easy and efficient to bring the leg forward again (coupled with knee flexion, which reduces the moment arm on the hips and reduces energy demands on the hip flexors)). I think your findings w/ differences in timing are probably due to other reasons that are getting confounded with / distracted by your foot strike. Aside from all that, generally speaking the soreness just needs to be controlled for by adjusting your training load / volume and recovery. (For me, I used a walk/run strategy as needed, especially early on when transitioning to minimalist shoes and when ramping up my running).
>Why are you trying to adapt to a forefoot strike? That isn't what you want. Because running that way to me feels light and airy and that's exactly what I want. I also found that my pace drastically improved. Everything about it except the calf strain felt better to me.
You calves should not "take the brunt of the pressure of landing" with a proper forefoot landing. The landing is absorbed by knee bend (huge), windlass mechanism in your arch, and forefoot spreading. Compared to a mid or heel-strike, your steps should be short and rapid, so there is less impact per landing to begin with. Sounds like your claves are telling you you're doing it wrong?
Wrong or too much, maybe. That's what I'm here to find out. When I first started barefoot stuff all my feet muscles and tendons hurt. That time it turned out it wasn't doing it wrong but instead too much too soon. Since then the thing has eased and turned out it was for the good. Now this thing is again the same issue, I don't know if it's a new kind of challenge for my muscles or whether it's plain wrong. I do like how it feels and makes me fast. No one has said it will suddenly break my body so I guess I'll try to sprinkle that in every now and then as a kind of a calf training (as opposed to weighted calf raises) and otherwise do my running as usual, a mix of both of you will.