The public believes it’s a “SMART” PLAN. 🤯 What happened with Simone Biles’ leg during her performance 😱 Full story below 👇

Simone Biles Suffers Calf Pain, What You Should Know About Such Injuries.

You could say that the United States women’s gymnastics team has a leg up—or rather legs up—on the competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. But one of those legs caused some concern during the qualifying rounds in Paris. While warming up on the floor exercise prior to Rotation 2 of the team competition, Simone Biles, the seven-time Olympic medalist and all-around gold medalist at the Rio Olympics in 2016, appeared to have injured her right leg. After the medical staff evaluated her, Biles continued with the competition. Biles’ coach Cecile Landi later explained that Biles “felt a little something in her calf.”

Even though Biles was visibly favoring her left leg, that “little something” didn’t seem to affect her performance. Biles finished the with the top scores for the all-around competition (59.566), vault (15.300), and floor exercises (14.600) and second best score for the balance beam (14.733). That performance has helped the U.S. vault to the top of their Subdivision for the qualifying round, leading second-place Italy by nearly six points. Indications are that whatever happened to Biles calf isn’t going to keep her from competing in the 2024 Olympic Games.

There are a number of things that can cause calf pain. Your calf actually consists of two different muscles—the gastrocnemius and the soleus—that connect to your Achilles tendon, which in turn connects to your heel bone. Calf pain can range from a little twinge to some stiffness or weakness to OMG-my-freaking-calf. Naturally, the more severe the symptoms the more concerning the situation.

One of the most common causes of calf pain is a cramp. A cramp is a sudden tightening of your calf muscles. This can occur if you are moving your calf in a new way. It can also result when you haven’t been taking in enough fluids and electrolytes, especially on a hot day. Usually, cramps will resolve with time and some stretching and massaging. Now, if your cramp doesn’t go away after a few minutes or you regularly experience cramps, talk to your doctor. Something else may be going on that requires further medical work-up.

The other common cause of calf pain is a calf strain, otherwise known as a pulled calf muscle. This is when you overstretch or even tear either one of your calf muscles or the tendons attaching these muscles to bone. This can occur when you have to suddenly move into a sprint such as on a football field, a tennis court, a gymnastics floor or the route to your bathroom. Wearing the wrong footwear and not stretching prior to movement—which can be likely when you have to sprint to the bathroom—can increase your chances of suffering a calf strain. There may be associated swelling or bruising if the tear is severe enough.

Muscle strains in general can be categorized by degrees. A First Degree or mild strain affects less than five percent of the muscle mass. You can usually return to sports from such injuries within one to three weeks. Sooner if you are trying to win a gold medal. A Second Degree or moderate strain involves more of the muscle but is still not a complete tear. This takes three to six weeks before you can get back to full activity. Finally, a Third Degree or severe strain is a complete tear through the muscle or muscle tendon apparatus. This will keep you out for many weeks, likely months.

If the strain is mild, typically, you don’t need to any type of imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can help identify a more severe injury such as a complete tear of your muscles. An MRI or an ultrasound can help rule out other causes of calf pain as well such as an injury to your Achilles tendon, sciatica, deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or compartment syndrome. You don’t want to miss a life-threatening condition like a DVT mimicking as a pulled calf muscle. So, if you don’t have a reason for a calf strain—like you’ve been sitting on your couch all along—you may want to get your lower leg checked out by a medical professional.

Treatment of a calf strain consists of RICE. No, this doesn’t mean layer it on top of rice as if your calf were sushi. Instead, RICE is an acronym for Rest (meaning stop your physical activity), Ice (do this for 20 minutes every two hours), Compression (wrap your calf with some type of compression bandage to reduce swelling and fluid buildup) and Elevation (keep your calf above the level of your heart to also reduce fluid buildup).

If you’ve got a complete tear of your calf muscle, you likely will need surgery to reconnect the ends of the muscle. As they say, the only kind of minor surgery is when it is on someone else. This would be no exception. The surgery is done under general anesthesia and entails a relatively long—up to around six months—recovery period.

If Biles did suffer a calf muscle strain, chances are it’s mild. Now, if she were a recreational athlete, it would be a good idea for her to give her lower leg a rest. But the Olympics do come only once every four years—except when there is a pandemic. So, unless the injury is or turns more severe, expect her to keep competing in the women’s gymnastics competition. And in her case, competing may mean winning.