Welcome back to Get Fit Guy. I'm your host, Dr. Jonathan Sue. Every week, I'll share

science-backed tips to help you get fit, stay fit, and optimize performance. If you do a lot of

walking, running, or hiking, the calf muscle on the back of your

lower leg can become stiff and painful. I'm always surprised by how many walkers and runners

let this problem brew until it becomes serious enough to seek out someone like me to help

them fix the problem. I always tell my patience that the solution is simple, but the execution is difficult.

If you really want to fix this problem, you have to care enough about it to get the execution down.

That means making time to do maintenance work on your body and ensuring that what you're doing

is done right.

One of the simplest solutions to a stiff and painful calf muscle is static stretching.

This is where you lengthen your calf muscle to its limit or place of tension

and stay in that position for up to a minute.

Stretching can help keep the calf muscle supple and pain-free, and I highly recommend

it as part of your daily, thrice weekly, or at the very least, once-weekly body maintenance

routine. If you're a walker, runner, or hiker, this is one stretch that you should be doing

after every workout. Even though performing the calf stretch seems simple,

properly executing this stretch is often elusive

because there are several elements that all need to come together

to get the most effective stretch.

Trust me when I say that this is one of the most difficult stretches to nail down.

I see the stretch performed

suboptimally by almost everyone at the gym, and I'm always needing to make adjustments for my

...