With Coach Alexa, Online Running Coach and in-person coaching in South Oxfordshire
Exploring the Lower Leg: Connecting Foot to Calf
I said in my last video that I might go a little bit further up into the lower leg, because every aspect of our body is connected and interconnected with the next bit. I thought it would be useful to show how some of that foot and ankle stuff connects further up.
So if we start off with this leg – lower leg – this is the back of your right calf muscle. These are the bits you can probably see. If somebody’s quite muscular, you can normally see the two parts of the biggest calf muscle. This is the tendon that becomes your Achilles tendon – the bit you can feel at the bottom. But it starts all the way up here.
There are two other muscles. One of the muscles that joins into it is underneath. These are the big propulsion muscles – the ones that propel you along, like big elastic bands I talked about a couple of videos ago. These are the ones we use for propulsion, particularly when we’re running.
What Lies Beneath: More Than Just Propulsion
You can also see this in the pictures. The image furthest to the right is another view of exactly the same area – the back of your right leg – but with the bigger muscles removed so you can see what’s underneath.
So we’ve got the propulsion muscles, but also a lot of other stuff going on. You can start to see that these muscles, which come right up to just below the back of the knee, actually attach to tendons that run down into the arch of the foot. On the other side, this outer muscle goes into the outside edge of the foot.
There are lots of muscles in that calf, underneath the big propulsion muscles, that are controlling movement in our feet and providing stability. When we land on an uneven surface on a trail, or nearly go over on our ankle, it’s all these muscles kicking in to keep the ankle stable and keep us upright as we run and walk.
A Look from the Outside and Front
Here’s a slightly different view. This is the outside edge of your right leg. You can see the bigger propulsion muscles sitting on top, attaching to the Achilles. Then even down the front of the shin – if you’re watching this and you pull your toes up while placing a hand across the front or outside of your shin bone – you’ll feel these muscles kicking in.
These muscles lift your foot up. So as your foot comes through under your hips while you walk or run, you want to make sure your toes and the ball of your foot are lifted so you don’t scuff your feet.
These front muscles can also lift each toe individually with practice. You’ll feel it’s muscles up the front of the calf doing that work.
The Complex Mechanics of Motion
There’s a huge amount of complexity here. In this final view – the front of your leg – you can see some quite big muscles that flex your ankle and pull your toes upwards toward your shin.
There are loads of different muscles and ligaments because the foot and ankle have a huge amount of motion. The ankle can straighten, bend, rotate inwards and outwards. You can draw a whole circle with it. All of these muscles get involved – including the ones I talked about in the last video – to support all of that movement.
Stability in Every Step
When we’re running, these muscles also provide stability. Even if you were just to stand on one leg now, you’d see little tendons moving in the top of your foot – if you’re barefoot. All of these muscles are constantly adjusting to keep you standing upright.
Amazingly clever, but pretty complicated setup here.
Hope that’s useful. Happy running.
