This post may contain affiliate links. Please read the disclaimer for more info.

Tight muscles are something that affect most people on a daily basis, whether or not they even know it. Many of our physical limitations or sources of pain are simply caused by tension in our bodies that we haven’t properly addressed yet.

The tough part of this process which can be very frustrating is that its often hard to identify where the cause of the tension is coming from.

If you’ve had a serious injury, maybe you can pinpoint where the root of the issue started. But if you just started exercising and quickly injured yourself seemingly out of nowhere, it can be very hard to understand where it came from and what exactly is causing your pain.

Typically, the area of pain is only a SYMPTOM of the issue with the CAUSE being located somewhere else entirely.

For me personally, I had a very serious foot injury that left me with symptoms of plantar fasciitis and posterior tibial tendonitis. Which one I had is still unclear, I just treated them both through lots of trial and error over a long period of time and I’m still learning!

So we understand that these problems can be hard to locate now and a lot of that research will be up to your individual case, but if you’re experiencing recurrent pain or tightness in your feet, ankles, or achilles, a great place to start is your calves.

This is because all the biggest muscles and fascia in the feet and ankles run up into the calf – meaning the quality of your calves can be a major determining factor in how your lower extremities are doing.

Let’s look at 5 ways to start loosening up those calf muscles so we can start moving again!

     1. Foam Roll the Calf Muscles

Foam rolling has gradually become a nearly every day routine for me at this point as I still suffer from symptoms of my old foot injury. Once you have a foam roller, or even a lacrosse ball or massage ball for that matter (it all works similarly), sit down on the ground and pinpoint those really tight areas in your calves and soleus muscles (upper achilles area).

You will most likely find that those tight knots are higher in your calves but that’s exactly what we’re looking to eliminate. If you find a bunch of those little knots in your legs, this may be a major indicator that this is causing pain and tightness in your ankles and feet like plantar fasciitis and different forms or tendonitis.

When you find these knots, press in your roller or ball with as much force as you can handle and hold it there while you switch off between pointing and pulling back the toes. This will massage the muscles while they are in different flexed positions for a more impactful release.

I used to make the mistake of just rolling the ball over those spots repeatedly without holding it or pressing in hard and it got me nowhere. With this improved method, I felt a little looser as soon as I stood up! But you need to stay consistent with this to work those kinks out completely. I do my rolling routine at least 4 times per week for about 15 minutes.

     2. Sit on a Rolled Up Towel Behind the Knees

This next one is a real sleeper when it comes to myofascial release because if you’ve never done it, it can be a little painful and the effects can be surprising.

To do this, get some kind of towel and roll it up tight. Sit down onto your knees and shins and place the rolled up towel as deep into the back of your knees as you can (using a thinner towel might be easiest) and sit back slowly with your bottom on your ankles.

It may take 5-10 seconds to realize that there is an intense sensation on the back of your legs now so you may have to take some bodyweight off your legs at first. I’ve recently found this activity to give me good results if I hold this position for 2-4 minutes (usually while I’m distracting myself). I do this exercise after I foam roll so it is also at about 4 times per week.

     3. Reevaluate Your Footwear

I’m surprised not to see this pointed out more often in mainstream media but the shoes that most people wear have elevated heels because shoe designers thought this would help propel us into our next step with the heel being raised and the toes of the feet slanted upward to make for an effortless, rocking momentum.

The problem with all this, although clever, is that our feet are meant to do the work. No matter how innovative we want to be or how much we could optimize certain things, our bodies were designed to be really good at and adaptable to certain functions such as walking and running.

When our shoes are like this, our calf and achilles muscles get shortened over time (aka much tighter) because they’re never used at their full length.

Also, our toes don’t get used to their fullest because the upward facing toe box makes us roll through steps instead of gripping the ground and pushing off with our toes like we’re supposed to. We need this toe function to keep our foot arches strong and this is why so many people today have flat feet and collapsed arches.

It all seems very straightforward but most people don’t look into this kind of stuff unfortunately. Luckily for you, there’s a movement starting to gain traction of minimalist/barefoot footwear which I happily stand behind.

These shoes have a low heel (like a human foot does) and a larger toe box for letting your toes spread out and allowing them to grasp the ground more, enabling stronger feet overall. I have already experienced benefits from these shoes and will continue buying them over traditional footwear as my feet have quickly been able to get stronger and healthier.

     4. Hydrate Like its Your Job

Hydration is probably not what most of you are expecting to see in a list like this but I like to give lifestyle solutions on this site because they are often more effective than the stretches or exercises we do a few times a week. By hydrating your body more thoroughly, you’re giving the muscles you use more of a platform to succeed as they will be more supple, adaptable, and able to recover from stress.

Many people know that there are tons of benefits to staying more hydrated such as an improved skin tone, less wrinkles, a more balanced pH, toxins being flushed out while nutrients are transported throughout the body. But I would bet most don’t realize the significant impact hydration can have on the frequency of muscle cramping and overall tension of the muscles.

An article from the Root Cause Medical Clinic states, “Drinking more water (hydrating oneself) can help to change the muscle consistency, and soften tight, hard muscles…. Believe it or not we can tell by the feel of the muscles whether a person is drinking enough water or not.”

They also go on to say, “The more hydrated one is, the easier it is to stretch and the more effective the stretches will be – bringing quicker results to the patient.”

What a clear and obvious impact being hydrated has for one feel of the affected muscles to be enough to determine whether or not you are properly hydrated. I can’t say I’m very good at this myself, but I’ll sure be putting more conscious effort towards it from now on.

     5. Begin Strengthening Calves

If you are not feeling any improvement after a couple weeks of trying these activities, the problem might be that your calves are just weak and the exercise you have been doing whether that’s running or playing a sport is too hard on them at the moment. This means you may need to try strengthening your calves while keeping them as loose as possible.

The Vive Foot Rocker (Calf Stretcher) is a great way to isolate and engage the lower leg muscles like the calves and ankles for light strengthening while getting a stretch.

Assuming that no other calf-specific exercise is being done at this time, start with some very basic calf-isolated exercises. Some reliable ones are regular two-footed calf raises on the edge of a stair or if those feel too easy, try single-leg calf raises. Make sure you are dipping your heel as low as it can go when you come back down.

To isolate the soleus muscle, you can perform these same raises but with the knees slightly bent. You should feel the tension move a few inches lower in your leg to know if you’re doing it right.

You can also do a conventional wall sit with your back against the wall and your legs bent at a 90 degree angle and your feet under your knees. To isolate the soleus muscle, lift the heels off the ground and hold for a few seconds at a time and do this repeatedly as it feels comfortable to you.

I recommend starting out slow with these exercises as you are already experiencing tightness in your calf so I would not recommend pushing it too hard.