Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice. I've recently started walking to loose weight. As in power walking. This may be a stupid question, but do I need to warm up or do some specific stretches before I go for my walk? I keep getting a horrible tight feeling in my legs - specifically the back of my calves and it hurts!

I don't have any underlying medical problems or anything, so can anyone give me some advice??

Thanks!
Charmie.

Do some calf stretches before starting your walk. Cross one leg over the other so your feet are parallel, then touch your toes - reverse the legs and touch your toes again. Bend one leg and stretch the other in front so your heals are on the ground and kinda do a squat...switch legs. Do the same stretches after...it totally helps with calf pain.

I would say warm up first! Then do some light stretching and then stretch afterwards. You should never stretch a cold muscle.

Hi - after walking, stretch out your muscles. I stand backwards on each stair and push heels down, this totally stretches out your leg muscles. Also, I stretch out my legs in hot-tub after walking, if I can.

Those leg cramps are the worse. If you get one, stretch out leg as quickly as possible.

Good luck.

Magnesium will often give you looser muscles. Most people don't get enough magnesium. Look it up and see if it might work. If you are cramping, take potassium. I'd personally stop eating dairy also, becasue lactose makes your muscles hard.

I stretch before I walk, which helps quite a bit. I also start off slow (which I consider my warm up) and gradually increase my speed over about a five minute window. I will say though, that when I first started walking, my legs were farily achey regardless of what I did to prepare. It just took time for my muscles to adapt and strengthen, and I find I rarely have problems now.

Charmie, I used to have this problem big time when I walked. The back of my calves would tighten up really bad and just burn until I almost couldn't walk. It went on for months, whenever I tried to walk at faster speeds, and it was especially bad if I started out fast.

I stretched and everything, but the only thing that really helped was a slower pace.

Oddly enough, I do not have this problem at all now that I run. Go figure.

I used to get this too. My gosh it hurts!!! It's like charley horses in your calves. Mine would hit after about 10 minutes of walking fast. What I would do is stop and put my toes on the curb and let my heel drop toward the ground to stretch out the cramp. After stretching out the knot, I could walk just fine the rest of the way. Weird. And I don't have a clue why I don't get them anymore when they used to be so predictable.

Walk at an easy pace for 5-10 minutes BEFORE stretching. Never ever stretch a cold muscle. Then increase your pace but if you continue having cramping, back off your pace. You may need to let the muscles get used to the work. Or you can do pace intervals off fast and slow walking. Stretch afterwards as well. Make sure you have good shoes.

Hmm, I wouldn't think weighing 130 lbs less would have anything to do with it...,

Assuming nothing is wrong with your form, shoes, etc... it sounds normal to me. Lactic acid build up.

Read Brad Schoenfeld's "Calves" section in Sculpting Her Body Perfect. Esp #4 on pg 172

http://tinyurl.com/yz9yojr


Warm up, stretch, and just walk it out. You will get stronger and it will lessen/go away. For me it used to take anywhere between 10-20 min when I started trying for races, and I just knew at the start of a training workout or race, it was going to be there.


A.

Hmm, think that's it?

You guys are great! Thanks so much for all the helpful information

I'll definitely be stretching from now on. It's such a horrible feeling !