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Why Calf Raises Are Not That Great for Knee Pain

2024-11-19

Uncategorized, Foundational Programs, Moderate Training, Strenuous Training, Extreme Training

corrective exercise

Jessica Bento, Physical Therapist (Creator DVRT Restoration Certification, DVRT Rx Shoulder, Knees, Pelvic Control, & Gait Courses)

Ah, the calf raise. You know the drill. Stand tall, plant your feet shoulder-width apart, and slowly raise your heels off the ground, balancing on your tippy toes like a ballerina. Then lower yourself back down, and repeat, repeat, repeat until your calves are sore enough to make you question why you’ve ever stood in the first place.

calf raises

Calf raises are often touted as a fantastic exercise for building calf strength . After all, the calves are pretty important for things like walking, running, jumping, and so forth. But nowadays people have taken what is sorta true and made it into a “social media” fact that calf raises are important when it comes to knee health. Sorry to burst the internet bubble, but the calf raise might not be the magical exercise it’s cracked up to be. In fact, if you care about your knees (which, spoiler alert, you should), it might be time to broaden your perspective and stop getting too obsessed with the calves.

Welcome to a better world of understanding knees through the kinetic chain. This is an essential concept that’s going to shatter your calf-raise-obsessed dreams. Here’s why relying on isolated calf raises for knee health is like using a paperclip to fix a broken bridge. Let’s dive in.

The Kinetic Chain: It’s All Connected

Imagine your body as one big, interconnected system where muscles, joints, and bones are all linked together like gears in a watch. This is the Kinetic Chain. Just like how a chain can’t function properly if one link is weak or damaged, your body won’t work optimally if you focus on strengthening just one part of it in isolation.

squats

The kinetic chain operates from the feet all the way up to the spine, and it includes your knees, hips, and even your shoulders. When one part of your body moves, others must move in coordination to maintain balance, stability, and efficient movement.

Now, let’s zoom in on the knee joint. It’s a pretty important player in this whole “moving through life” thing, right? But here’s the kicker: the knee doesn’t work alone. It’s deeply affected by what’s going on both above and below it. As physical therapist Gary Gray has said in the past, “The knee joint is a rather stupid joint.”

hip mobility

Calf Raises: Cute, but Not the Answer for Knee Pain

Let’s get this out of the way first: calf raises do an okay job of targeting the gastrocnemius and the soleus, those lovely muscles at the back of your lower legs. And yes, strong calves can improve things like ankle stability, propulsion during running, and even performance in activities like jumping. But the thing is, the calf raise is an isolated exercise that focuses on a single muscle group. It’s like trying to fix a leaky roof by replacing one tile, but ignoring the entire foundation underneath.

In terms of knee health, the benefits of calf raises are limited. Here’s why:

1. The Knees Aren’t Just About the Calves: The knee joint is like the middle child of the kinetic chain—it needs attention from both the hips and ankles to function properly. Focusing solely on the calves means you’re neglecting the larger and more influential muscles that affect the knee.

2. Lack of Hip Involvement: For optimal knee health, your hips and knees should work together as a team. If your hips lack mobility, are weak, or lack stability, it can put excessive strain on the knees. Calf raises don’t address this—because they’re not asking your hips to do any of the work. If you’re only working the calves, you’re missing a huge piece of the puzzle that helps stabilize the knee during movement.

3. No Control Over Tibial Rotation: The tibia (your shin bone) rotates during many movements—especially when you walk, run, or squat. If your calves aren’t coordinated with your shins and thighs, this rotation becomes dysfunctional. Guess what’s one of the easiest ways to reduce this dysfunction? Exercises that train the whole chain, like squats, lunges, and deadlifts—not isolated calf raises.

4. Limited Range of Motion: When you’re doing calf raises, the range of motion is pretty restricted. You’re not encouraging full extension and flexion of the knee or hip joints, both of which are important for joint health and mobility. If you’re only moving in one plane (up and down) without integrating the full range of motion in the body, you’re leaving important movements unaddressed.

A Better Approach To Knee Pain: Total Integration of the Kinetic Chain

If you care about knee pain, it’s time to ditch the sole focus on calf raises and shift towards exercises that promote the integration of the entire kinetic chain. Think integrated, not isolated.

Here are a few exercises that target multiple parts of the kinetic chain and promote knee health through full-body coordination:

1. Squats  

Squats are like the Swiss Army knife of lower-body exercises. They engage the calves, quads, hamstrings, and glutes—while also requiring stability from the knees and hips. When done with good form, squats help improve overall leg strength and mobility, taking the pressure off the knees and improving their function over time.

2. Lunges 

Lunges are another great full-body exercise that challenges your balance, stability, and mobility. They engage your calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, and even your core. The beauty of lunges is that they require dynamic movement, which means you’re teaching your knee joint to move properly in a controlled way. If you think lunges with knee pain are impossible, try these progressions…

3. Deadlifts

This one’s a bit of a curveball, but bear with me. Deadlifts target the posterior chain (which includes the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back), and believe it or not, they help stabilize the knees by addressing imbalances in the hips, core, ankles, and feet. I’m not just taking about going heavier and heavier in your typical stable bilateral deadlifts. Progressions like these deadlifts can do wonders for knee pain issues…

4. Hip Bridges 

Your hips are the powerhouse of your lower body, and hip bridges are one of the best ways to activate the glutes, which, in turn, helps improve knee alignment and stability. Improving motor control of the glutes takes a lot of pressure off the knees. Keeping in mind it is usually more or a motor control issue vs a strength issues when it comes to the glutes. Don’t just throw a barbell, or even an Ultimate Sandbag, on your thighs, do these instead…

5. Step-Ups

Step-ups are fantastic for improving overall knee health. When you step onto an elevated platform, you engage the foot, quads, glutes, and calves while training knee stability through a full range of motion. You are working on preventing knee pain by training the lower kinetic chain through all planes of motion.

Final Thoughts: Think Bigger Than Calf Raises

So, next time you’re at the gym or staring at the calf-raise machine like it’s the only thing standing between you and a bulletproof set of knees, remember this: knee health isn’t about isolating one muscle group. It’s about total integration of the kinetic chain. Your calves are important, but they’re just one piece of the puzzle. 

Instead of obsessing over isolated movements, try incorporating more compound, full-body exercises that engage multiple muscle groups at once. Your knees (and the rest of you) will thank you.

Don’t miss saving 40% of physical therapist, Jessica Bento’s, DVRT Rx courses and our Restoration certifications! This includes her excellent and comprehensive knee programs HERE with code “40edu”. 

 

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