How to Give a Calf Massage: A Simple Guide In 2020

For foot motions, calf muscles are important muscles. This muscle comes in two-part, one is Gastrocnemius – the big muscle of the lower leg back, and the other part is Soleus- the small muscle in the down leg. These muscles help to jump, run, and walk. The unique anatomy of the muscle and the performance in the joint of ankle and knee makes the calf muscle powerful and flexible to take a full load.

But when pulled calf muscle happens, the muscle fibers get torn, and the pain is unbearable. This happens when your muscles are tired or overstretched. Calf injury is common among runners and athletes. A good massage helps to alleviate the calf strain. If you are an athlete, learn how to give a calf massage. It will help in fast healing and prevent future injuries.

Benefits Of Calf Massage

The calf massage is done on the Gastronomic, plantaris, and soleus muscles of the lower part of your leg. There are different techniques you have to follow while giving a calf massage. The techniques help to remove your pain. There are more benefits you will enjoy by having the calf massage. They are:

• When you have a proper calf massage, you will feel so light and relive after the long tiring day. The message has to hit the right spot.
• Daylong stress and work pressure don’t let you have a sound sleep at night. Take a massage before bedtime and see the change from the next morning.
• As days go by, our body gets weak, and so do the blood circulation. Calf massage helps to improve blood circulation.
• The solution to the most common pain back pain is in the feet. When you are feeling your back is aching, just have a good massage on your foot and calf. The pain will feel better.
• On some occasions, ladies tend to wear high heels. But it is not good for the leg health, and some feel pain in the muscle. If you wear heels often, get a foot and calf massage after every wear, your leg will feel relaxed.
• This massage improves posture because a wrong posture has bad effects on the body.
• For diabetic foot ulcer condition, foot calf massage is required to ease the condition
• High blood pressure and artery disease reduce after getting a regular massage.
• Believe it or not, a good calf massage helps cancer patients a lot. This helps to lower the stress and anxiety level and lets the patient feel a lot better.

How To Give A Calf Massage ( Step By Step  Guide)

Among many types of therapeutic massage, circulatory massage is effective. For this massage, blood activation and lymphatic irrigation get improved. Fatigue, heaviness, and swelling get healed for the circulatory massage. In the market, you can go for the best foot circulation machine if you don’t have the time to get a massage with hand. To avoid calf swelling, stay hydrated, on a good diet, and daily exercise.

There are some techniques to follow during the calf massage. These techniques warm up the muscle and tissues.

• Skin rolling is a common method that is used in the calf massage. In this method, the skin is picked and rolled between fingers and thumbs. By this, the stiffness of muscle and fascia gets a release, and the pain gets less.
• The other technique is hacking. Hacking is done with tapotement by using the middle part of the hand side. The muscle gets relaxed and stimulates blood pressure.
• Effleurage is the other effective technique. This massage is done with a flat finger and hands. By this, the muscle temperature gets increased, which improves tissue elasticity. For this, the stiffness and stress of the muscle reduce, so do the pain.
• The lymphatic drainage technique is applied to the gland direction in an upward movement. This massage helps to remove toxins from the gland through the skin and decrease swelling.

Self-massage to the calf

If you want to do the calf massage on your own, then you can do it easily as it will take only 6 minutes. All you have to do is:

• Sit on the bed or floor in a comfortable position.
• Bend the leg using the sole as supportive.
• Use the fingers in slow circular movements all over the leg from the ankle to the thigh. Don’t give pressure; apply your finger softly.
• Do the process in one leg after the other.
• Use knuckle kneads on the calf muscle.
• Massage from bottom to up. This helps your blood circulation system.

Steps of giving a calf massage

If you don’t feel confident to give your calf a massage by yourself, then go to an expert. The steps are:

First step:

Before taking the massage, take a bath with hot and cold water. This bath helps to reduce muscle stress release.

Second step:

Lay down on your stomach and rest your thigh on the cushion. This will make your leg slightly up. The massage will start from the ankles in a circular movement.

Third step:

Apply the rosemary oil on the hand and take one leg. With the thumb, apply irregular pressure from down to calf in a circular motion. After doing one with one leg, follow the same process with the other leg. Then repeat the process and this time twice on each leg. Make sure the pressure doesn’t feel as pain.

Fourth step:

After the massage is done, take a cold bath to trigger the blood circulation of the leg. You can also use cold icepacks if you want to avoid the shower.

Remember, don’t do the massage on the leg that has skin wounds, muscle injuries, and ulcers because the massage is for only relaxing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Remarks

Exercise and jogging are good for health, but the pressure goes on the legs. To let the leg stay active and able to take more load off your body, a good massage with the best foot calf massager is required. You have to know how to give a calf massage before going for a massage because it requires an expert’s advice as it works with muscles.

In the modern-day, there are many ways to learn to give the massage on your own. Try to follow them and get a relaxed, energetic leg to let you work on the long tiring day.