PERSONAL HEALTH : When Resolutions Hit a Sore Spot

For those who have gone back to exercising as part of their New Year’s resolutions, there is often an unwanted side effect: sore calf muscles.

Made up of two major muscles--the soleus and the gastrocnemius--the calf muscles “allow us to get up on our toes,” said Carl Stanitski, professor of orthopedics at Wayne State University.

With inactivity, calf muscles are underused and become flabby, the reason they can feel so tender when exercise resumes. The soreness results from stretching the calf muscles and, in the worst cases, from severely tearing them.

Injury to the calf muscles is most likely to occur when out-of-shape sports enthusiasts fail to warm up properly and then push themselves too hard.

The mild, general soreness that follows recently resumed physical activity is nothing to worry about “and need not limit what you do,” Stanitski said. “But if it gets to a point where there is a soreness in a particular spot, then it may mean that a muscle tear has occurred.”

The worst calf-muscle tears often happen to weekend athletes and aging athletes, usually those 35 and older.

Recovery can take weeks, one reason experts recommend a good warm-up and gradually increasing activity to avoid being sidelined.