calves giving problems

Hi,

I have been working out for the past 1 1/2 months now and following the below routine for 6 days a week since the begining.

morning - cardio - jogging + brisk walking (45 - 60 minutes)
evening - workout (one body part)

Last friday while doing cardio i felt some pain in my left calf and couldnt continue my jog due to it. later in the evening i did leg workout including calves.

Sat and sun i did not do anything as i was busy with some office work.

Today i again went for my morning jog and even before i could start my session i felt extreme pain in the left calf. I could not even stretch my ankles.

I eat properly like 4 - 5 meals a day, supplement with whey, creatine and amino tabs. and sleep for around 6 - 7 hrs.

What could be the problem? is it lack of proper rest? am i overtraining my calves by doing cardio everyday?

What can i do to avoid such things in future?

For the time being i have planned to stay away from cardio and leg workout for the entire week this week in order to give full rest to my calves. hope this might provide me the solution.

please advise.

regards - Sunil

I'm no profesional but u probably just pulled something taking an akward step. Rest it for bout a week or more depending on pain levels. Than slowly work your way up with training it. Be careful while u stretch it. You want to feel a slight comforatable tension not a painful pull. I recomend doing a 10 min. warmup before u stretch.

Hi Sunil, if this is causing you some serious pain you might not be best off only obtaining advice from here. If it is still persisting after two weeks of rest and a little intervention, go see a doctor who may help you get back on track a little quicker.
 
If you are just starting out, especially from a relatively sedentary lifestyle, you should ease into the routine slowly. If the you are unable to stretch your calf when the pain happenes, it could be cramp. This needs rest, stretching and massaging (take care not to apply pressue on varicose veins). If its microtrauma, the pain might be more sharp and focused to a point in the muscle. This also needs rest as continuing exercise will lead to more injury.

Give your body a little time to repair itself and keep your calves, hamstrings flexible. When you are back to your routine, look into doing more core exercises especially those which work the transversus abdominis (squats, deadlifts, lying leg raises, lying bicycle, trunk raises etc.). These may help you sort out any posture and strength imbalances which lead to injuries like this.
 
You mention doing one body part a day in your weight training. I assume from this you are perhaps doing a lot of isolated exercises and open chain movements? I did a quick google search on this for you, you might find it interesting...
http://www.healthline.com/hlbook/art-open-chain-versus-closed-chain-exercise

If you are just starting out with the weights, I would suggest you make sure you are following a routine which focuses more on axial training (working muscles close to the spine, pelvis and shoulder girdle) rather than peripheral training (like biceps, triceps etc.). This would be using the squats, deadlifts, rows and overhead press. They work all the major muslces in a more functional mannor which better assists everyday life activities. It is harder to form muslce imbalances with these too as compared to overworking a bicep in comparison to the tricep which beginners often dont realise that the relative strenght difference should be the other way around.

I have to go prepare a 1.8 kilo roast. Feel free to put out any questions you have on the forum. 

Is it your calf more or your achiles heel?