I can’t find any info on stretching or exercising my anterior calf muscles, I only find into on the posterior calf muscle and how to stretch and exercise it. Can anyone help me on this issue?
As far as stretching it, I have no info. In highschool track I was told that when you run uphill you are working your front calf muscle. In distance we would run hills, and let me tell you the front of my calf burned like hell.
I’m assuming by your “anterior calf muscles” you mean the muscles along your shin? There aren’t many. The best way to stretch what few there are is to point your toes. Strengthening can be done by most of the same exercises as calf workouts, only done slowly, so the anterior muscles get worked out on the return. Hold onto a railing for balance and slowly stand up on the balls of your feet, then slowly return to your starting position. If this isn’t challenging enough, do it on the edge of a stair, and lower yourself so that your heal is below your toe, off the edge of the stair. It’s best to do this one foot at a time, so you don’t accidentally overdo it or fall.
Balance a cooperative chihuahua on the top surfaces of the toes of each foot (that’s one total chihuahua, not one per foot; use the full-sized ones, not the cute little teacup variety — one foot just in front of the rear legs, one just behind the front legs). Straighten foot out and coo to the chihuahua, “Ooooh, lookie, it’s the Levitating Puppy! Hooray, she’s flying, puppy in the air!”. Slowly return foot, and chihuahua, to original location. Repeat for three sets of 20, four times daily.
Also works for thigh muscles if you straighten out from the knee.
Go to exrx.net and look up the tibialis anterior.
I doubt you will get signifigant hypertrophy with that muscle, though I agree it probably isn’t a bad idea to keep it strengthened. Wouldn’t calf raises, squats and deadlifts be sufficient?
Maybe for some folks. I’ve found that I need a little specific work (but only a little) to keep my strength up.
I’ve got some nice definition there but it’s not from any specific exercise. It’s because I habitually walk heels first, keeping my toes curled up in a glide step. Plus, I tend to hypertrophy anywhere anyway…
For stretching, try this:
Stand approximately arm’s length away from a wall, or slightly less.
Place your right hand against the wall for support. Bring up your right foot behind you until you can grasp your toes (even better, the top of your foot) with your LEFT hand, and gently stretch until your heel touches the buttocks. Point your toes to include the shin muscles as well as the upper-thigh muscles.
Then swap. It’s not a great stretch, but it does include some of the muscle groups you’re trying to stretch.
Never grasp your toes with the same-side hand; this causes undue strain on the knee joint. Always use opposite hand-foot combos.
Funny you should bring up this website. I stumbled upon it yesterday when trying to figure out the exact plane of the psoas and was just amazed. That is one of the most complete, exhaustive, helpful websites I’ve ever run across. It deserves an award for “best information in its field.”
What I used to do when more seriously martial arting is this.
Stand relaxedly then lift yourself onto tip toes slowly raising and lowering yourself keeping ballanced and controled. Then in a similar stance slowly raise your toes off the floor until you are standing on your heals and then lowering again. This helped both front and rear calf muscles. For stretching I would sitting down cross my legs and stretch my foot into a ballet point type position using my hands to apply the stretch. Also the sitting down with feet outstretched and grabbing your toes and pulling them gently towards you has some effect ont hese muscles, especially if you then push with your feet gently against the stretch you are holding.
I like the first tip toe, then on heel stretch as it can be done whilst waiting in line to keep your legs warm, keep stretched, and wierd out other people 