I strained my calf while running the beginner template that led me to be unable to walk for a few days (visited an orthopedist that did an ultrasound and examined the area and found no red flags; suggested I get an MRI but the pain subsided significantly after a few days so I chose not to). I had some minor pain in my calf while doing deadlifts the few weeks before, but it was nothing too bad—it didn’t last after the workout—and I thought I could just work through it. I also had some popping sensations in my calf the weeks before the injury while performing my daily activities like picking stuff up, but it was accompanied with no pain and I thought it was harmless.
The morning before the strain, I was programmed to deadlift somewhere between 265-270 for 4 reps x 2 sets @ RPE 8. I took caffeine for this first time in a long time that morning, and I felt incredible. I got to that weight and it felt a lot less than an RPE 8, so I slowly worked up to what felt like an RPE 8, which was 295 x 4 reps x 2 sets—like a 25-30lb increase. There was no acute pain after doing this, the pain started about 10 hours later. Was increasing the weight this much stupid to do? I just felt so good that morning and my calf wasn’t bothering me during the deadlifts, and I wanted to adhere to the RPE requirements, so I said f*ck it, why not?
Moving forward, I assume I should manage my load more appropriately and not take as big of a jump? Stretching is not recommended right?
@mse8392 Hey, sorry to hear about the calf issue. We’d need a consult to give individualistic advice but typically in these scenarios we wouldn’t recommend stretching and would instead recommend load management (more here: Pain in Training: What To Do?). I am not sure I’d say what you did is “incorrect” regarding the weight selection…sometimes these things just happen on other days perhaps you could have tolerated such an increase. We don’t have specified allowable increases to “bullet-proof” anything (despite the common, no more than 5-10% increases recommended); some may have tolerated more/less/etc. I wouldn’t likely hyper-focus on the “cause” here.