Leg pain

[mattxl]

Hi guys,

I've recently started walking over the past month to start getting ready to exercise. I'm currently at 322.6 lbs and started at 332.6 lbs, and have cut out almost all salt, sugar, and pop/fast food from my diet. Each day for about 5 - 6 days a week I get out and walk 4 - 5 miles, with a small amount of jogging sprinkled in. So far I've been very happy with my results. I should add that I am currently in the process of getting health insurance and will be visiting a doctor as soon as I get an appointment in. However, 2 days ago while I was walking I started having pain in my left leg calf muscle similar to a charley horse, except not as severe. I kept walking home and took yesterday off to let my leg heal. Today I went to the store to just do some basic shopping and the pain came back almost instantly. I'm really worried that if I continue to walk or try to exercise that I might rip a tendon or I might have some blood circulation problems from being obese for so long. What I'm hoping is that there are other people here that may have experienced something similar to this and might have some insight I don't. I really don't want to lose my momentum and can walk through the pain, I just don't want there to be an adverse health consequence before I can get into a doctor for consultation. Any thoughts? Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

-Matt

 

[Trusylver]

It sounds like you are having leg cramps.

You said you have cut all salt out of your diet ? cutting excess salt is good but cutting all salt is not good.

What is your electrolyte balance like ? Are you getting enough magnesium in your diet ?

At your current weight, I would suggest sticking to the walking without jogging for the moment, Although higher intensity exercise is better in the long run, at your current weight you will be putting a lot of stress on your joints when you jog.

 

[mattxl]

Thank you for your response.

I'm basically just trying to eat healthier on a budget. My usual day is a cup of cherios in the morning with a banana, wheat pita cut in half with low fat/sodium ham or turkey with a slice of cheese and some mayo(can't stand a dry sandwich) and a few sun chips, and dinner is usually another cup of cherios with maybe a handful of grapes or rasins, or possibly a low fat yogart. I drink water almost the whole day, with the exception of maybe one glass of unsweetened tea or apple juice. If it is just leg cramps, I should be fine to exercise, right? I love your quote by the way.

 

[MrNiceGuy1]

I’d agree with Trusylver’s suggestion that reducing your sodium intake to dangerously low levels can have a detrimental effect, especially if you’re drinking a lot of water, since the salt that you may be currently obtaining from your dietary intake may not be sufficient to keep your electrolyte levels stable.

In addition to causing cramping of the muscles, inadequate sodium levels can leave you exposed to a condition known as hyponatremia, especially if you’ve dramatically increased your fluid intake, as sodium levels become diluted. Hyponatremia is becoming an increasingly common cause of death amongst inexperienced distance runners and marathoners who collapse around the course, as they take on too much water.

Although the example may be considered somewhat extreme, I’d hope it allows you to appreciate just how serious mineral and salt imbalances can prove to be.

That said, based upon your current level of endeavour, I’d very much doubt you’re in such danger, although reducing your sodium intake to the level that you have may have begun to affect your ability to maintain the run/walk strategy you’ve recently embarked upon.

Equally, the level of discomfort and fatigue, of which you speak, may simply be due to a lack of conditioning of the muscles and connective tissues of the lower leg, not least when it comes to introducing running into your exercise schedule, something that can improved by increasing the level of muscular endurance, thus, reducing your susceptibility to injury.

If you happen to browse running forums, for example, you’ll no doubt discover that the vast majority of threads consist of problems relating to the calves and feet, preventing runners participating, irrespective of their experience.

In order to increase the muscular endurance of your calves, you need to work both the gastrocnemius (fleshy part of the calf) and your soleus (an often hidden muscle).

Standing calf raises benefit the fast twitch fibres of your gastroc, while seated calf raises benefit the slow-twitch fibres of your soleus heads.

When working the respective muscle groups of your calves, in order to increase their development, you should rise up on to your toes as explosively as possible, squeezing your gastoc at the top of the movement, before taking your time to lower your heels past your toes.

By placing emphasis upon the eccentric (lowering) phase of the movement, you’ll begin to develop a level of muscular endurance that should hopefully serve your calves more than admirably in your quest to introduce running into your weekly exercise schedule.

As for sets and repetitions, if you’re able to, begin with 3 x 10-15 reps of both standing and seated raises, progressing towards 10 x 15-20 reps, as your muscular endurance improves.

Don’t worry about the volume of training, since your calves are notoriously stubborn muscles. As such, they’re far more accustomed towards high volume exercise than any other muscle group, given that they carry your weight on a daily basis.

In order to increase muscular endurance, your body weight will initially work sufficiently. However, as you begin to find the exercises easier, you’ll need to progress towards executing gym-weight resistance upon your calves, using 60% of your 10-15 rep max to continually increase endurance, 80% to increase their size and 90% to increase their strength.

From a cardiovascular perspective, if you currently feel that running may be beyond you, one of the quickest routes to improving fitness (and muscular endurance of the calves) is to accustom yourself with the use of the StairMill, since it largely represents the effort of running, without placing stress upon your joints.

Moreover, use of the StairMill is particularly rewarding during winter months, when it may be too cold or inappropriate to run outdoors. As regular runner, I cannot emphasise the use of a StairMill often enough, since both SSC (steady state cardio) and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) can be performed upon it.