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Soleus, I love you!

If I tell you that you have three hearts, would you believe me ? You better do! The Soleus or the calf muscles are responsible to pump the venous(deoxygenated) blood from the periphery back to the heart - that is exactly why the calf muscles are called the second heart. Does it sound like a very convincing reason to train your calf muscles pretty often? Yes and the importance of the calves doesn't stop there.  Soleus muscles are responsible for stabilising your body while walking, running, jumping and it also works as the decelerator muscle in high impact sports. 

These muscles are made of a huge pack of slow twitch fibres(Type of muscles fibres responsible for endurance), so while training these muscles you should work with a higher rep range, say 20-30 reps with 3-4 sets. Plantar Flexion and Dorsi flexion are the basic movements that trains your calves. Work with some weights to increase the intensity of these workouts - I am talking about basic calf raises.  To increase the stability and add some variation, you can perform these calf raises in the lunge position.    

Its is also important to stretch your soleus, strengthen your tibialis anterior muscles to avoid any tightness in your calves. Tightness in your calf muscles inhibits blood flow to foot and ankle which in turn is a good recipe for injury and ultra slow recovery.

Training your calves come with numerous secondary benefits. It also strengthen your ankles, subtalar joints, plantar fascia, achilles tendons and lot more. 

Interesting fact: Most muscles can store glycogen in them for producing energy, but not your soleus muscles. They can only only burn glucose in the blood stream and fat stores for energy. That is exactly why a diabetic person is asked to go for a walk immediately after a meal to reduce their blood glucose level.

Micro blog by Elvis Yesurajah.

  

Comments

  1. LakshmananAugust 8, 2023 at 10:33 PM

    Most ignored muscle for most people including myself, going to start training My hearts from now on regularly

    ReplyDelete
  2. GaneshAugust 9, 2023 at 8:48 AM

    I believe even the inconsistent run like me able to catch up the pace because of vital role played by Calf Muscle. Good wisdom loved it.

    ReplyDelete

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