You are racing down the field, making rapid turns to avoid the defense, and suddenly you feel the shooting pain rip across your calf. You are doing intensive calf raises to build up your calf size, and suddenly you feel the pop, the pain, and the agony begins. A torn calf muscle can be intensely painful, and can bring your season to a halt, and slow your weight lifting progress to a crawl.

It is not until you experience a calf injury that you understand what a crucial role it plays in all parts of your life. Every step, every jump, every stretch to grab something all starts from your calf muscles. When you experience a torn calf muscle you must immediately seek medical advice to have the quickest and most successful recovery possible.

Just to set your expectations properly a mild tear is going to require two to three weeks to heal. This level is only micro tears in the calf muscle, not complete tearing. The next level involves minor tearing through a portion of the muscle tissues, this level of tearing can take up to two months to heal. The highest level of tear can include almost an entire cross section of the calf muscle and will require 3 to 4 months to recover. Follow the advice of your Doctor and trainers before you head back into intensive action.

During your recovery you will be given a series of conditioning exercises to work on stretching and mobility in the calf. Do these only at the advice of your medical guides.

An important note while you are recovering from a torn calf muscle, do not attempt to return to your sport, or full weight training until you are 100% pain free. If the calf muscle is still weakened you can easily re-tear it, starting the entire process over again. Many times the second injury is even worse. It has the weakened tissue to start the tear and continues the tear wider and deeper.

Just because you have a calf injury does not mean all training is off limits. You should be able to work on upper body exercises, and potentially some upper leg exercises on machines. Discuss what you would like to do with your doctor and trainer and they will give you permission on exercises they are sure will not cause you to stress the calf muscle. There is no reason for you to lose all of your fitness and strength gains by sitting out completely for a couple months.

After you muscle is healed you must continue to do the stretching and range of motion exercises. These exercises should become a part of your daily exercise regimen for the rest of your life. By taking care to work on the flexibility, elasticity, and your range of motion you can help reduce the odds of another torn calf muscle. As you already know, a few minutes per day of prevention is worth avoiding this pain and recovery period again.