Did you lose your calf flexibility during femur LL?

[kneehowguys]

Did you lose your calf flexibility during femur LL?

If so I'm wondering if people wanting to do femur LL first should bother with calf stretching if they are just going to lose it during femur LL and have to get it back from scratch.

Of course hamstrings/calves are connected but somehow I doubt that it is worth the time to stretch your calves alot if you're doing femur LL first.

[Captain America]

This image may be useful for you to examine.



As you can see, your calf muscles do indeed originate from the distal end of the femur. I do not suspect lenghtening the femur would decrease calf flexibility, strictly anatomically speaking. If talking only of the posterior aspect of the leg I do see the hamstrings group causing unwanted flexion at the knee if not properly stretched/conditioned. This may give the illusion of a loss of calf flexibility.

Maybe someone who has actually gone through with this procedure can chime in. Things become a lot different when you move from the text book to the real world.

[craig49]

no I didn't lose any calf flexibility when lengthening femurs.  The thought of calves at that time are virtually irrelevant as you will be unable to bend the knee fully, the hamstring will be tight, the hip muscles as well, those all take priority when lengthening femurs.  Also the crossing of legs, and getting the abductor muscles to stretch laterally as well.  Also the gluts are tight as well so there is a lot of things to stretch if you want to lengthen femurs.  Also my hip muscles got very weak so strengthening that via leg lifts is so important. 



 

[kneehowguys]

no I didn't lose any calf flexibility when lengthening femurs.  The thought of calves at that time are virtually irrelevant as you will be unable to bend the knee fully, the hamstring will be tight, the hip muscles as well, those all take priority when lengthening femurs.  Also the crossing of legs, and getting the abductor muscles to stretch laterally as well.  Also the gluts are tight as well so there is a lot of things to stretch if you want to lengthen femurs.  Also my hip muscles got very weak so strengthening that via leg lifts is so important. 



 

I'm surprised you didn't lose calf flexibility.

I know it would be hard to measure, but I had assumed that people will lose calf flexibility just because they are more sedentary during LL.

Actually don't know if femur LL patients do any calf stretches during lengthening. Do they?

[nsd_second]

Seems like Lion's estimation is correct. Dr Guichet doesn't require that you strech your calves in preparation for femur LL, as it is not mentioned in the pre operative papers you are given by him.

Lion, take your time before doing LL, your medical knowledge might have some benefit for this community 

[kneehowguys]

Basically I'm wondering

if you're going to do femur LL first

or for some people in the forum who have vague hopes of doing LL twice,

do you even bother to stretch your calves to prepare for the second?

It seems like it would be a waste of time because you won't be able to do any real calf stretches during femur LL