What to do if your calves ache after climbing a mountain

Modern people usually have a lot of work and life pressure and seldom have time to exercise. Some people usually prefer outdoor sports. As a result, due to not engaging in strenuous exercise for a long time, occasional strenuous exercise will affect calf soreness, especially on the second day, the thigh and calf pain will appear severely, and it usually takes several days to recover. So what should I do if I have calf soreness after climbing a mountain?

What causes calf pain?

There are many causes of calf pain, including poor local circulation, peripheral vascular disease or varicose veins in the feet. The ambient temperature changes suddenly. Inadequate amounts of minerals (such as magnesium and calcium) in the diet. The incidence of certain chronic diseases and pregnant women will also increase. Hypothyroidism, uremia, or other medical illnesses. Motor neurone disease, radiculopathy, or peripheral neuropathy. Some blood pressure and lipid-lowering drugs can also cause symptoms.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that calf fatigue and soreness are mostly related to qi deficiency. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that it may be caused by external factors such as wind, cold, and dampness, or by internal factors such as excessive anger, thinking, and fear, or by neither external nor internal factors such as excessive sexual intercourse, which damages the kidney's essence and qi, external injuries to the tendons and bones, and eating damp or cold foods that damage the spleen. What should you do if your calves hurt after climbing mountains? 1. Soak your feet in water that can promote blood circulation and activate collaterals. You can also try applying a hot towel to your calves. The pain will be significantly reduced after two or three days.

2. Take a half-hour walk or swim two or three days before you plan to climb a mountain to make your joints and ligaments more flexible.

3. Use a hot towel to apply heat to the sore muscles to promote blood circulation and relieve pain. The recommended water temperature is 30℃~40℃. It is best to accompany the hot compress with stretching exercises, which can eliminate muscle soreness faster and restore it to normal.

4. After getting home from get off work, you can do some jogging to keep your heart rate high and accelerate the excretion of lactic acid. 20 to 30 minutes a day is enough.

5. If you don’t have time to rest, you can do stretching exercises during your free time at work. We recommend the “lunge stretch”. Stand up straight, take a step forward with your left leg, bend your left leg at the knee, try to keep your right leg straight, put your hands on your left leg, and press your body forward. After pressing for 8 beats, turn behind you, place both hands on your right leg, and press forward in the same way. Continue pressing for 8 beats. Practice this several times more. This will speed up your recovery and you don't need to take any medication.

6. Rest can relieve muscle soreness, slowly promote blood circulation, accelerate the elimination of metabolic products, and eliminate the supply and repair of nutrients to the sore parts of the muscles, restoring them to normal. So you should rest more after exercise to relieve fatigue.

7. When resting, don't forget to perform static stretching exercises on the sore area, that is, stretching exercises.

8. Massage the sore muscles to relax them, promote blood circulation, speed up the decomposition of lactic acid, and reduce the degree of muscle soreness.

9. You can choose appropriate ointment to apply to the sore muscles and use medicine to relieve the pain. Topical oils, pastes, or rubs may also relieve pain.

10. Stretching exercises can relieve muscle soreness. Stretching muscles can accelerate muscle relaxation and relieve antagonist muscles, which helps the recovery of tense muscles. This muscle stretching exercise also lays the foundation for preventing strains during exercise.

11. Try to avoid concentrating on training one part of the body for a long time to avoid overloading local muscles.

12. Eating ginger every day can reduce exercise-induced muscle pain by 25%, and raw ginger and heat-treated ginger have the same effect in relieving muscle pain.

People who do not exercise regularly, but occasionally engage in strenuous exercise, such as climbing a mountain, often experience calf pain, which often worsens the next day. In severe cases, thigh pain may also occur, and it may take several days or even a week to recover. The above methods can effectively alleviate this situation. You can try them if necessary.