Painful Calf Muscles.

Hi there.

I have recently (August 1st) started doing the EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge. On top of this, I have changed my diet and have also been going to the gym 2-3 times a week. And I sit in my hot tub every night (or at least every other night) for 30 minutes. I work as a nanny for two active kids who keep me on my toes for my full 10 hour (but 4 days a week) shifts.

I weigh 220lbs (5'2")

I drink at least 80oz of water. I eat enough calories. I stretch before I work out, espesically working on my calves (after 12 years of ice skating and 4 years of rugby, they are nearly all muscle with very little flub)

Now that you have that background information, onto the problem.

I get horrible pain in my calfs. At night, when I am laying in bed they have that feeling of needing to stretch but soon as I start to stretch and point my toes, they start to get that pre-muscle tearing feeling. So of course I stop, and ignore the urge.
During the day, they are usually quite tender. I try to massage them each night in the hot tub and also when they are causing me more than normal pain during the day. On days that I don't go to the gym, they still hurt. Yesterday, even after just a 10 hour shift at work (in which 3 hours was spent in a pool so I wasn't putting that much pressure on them) and a 25m soak in the hot tub, I went to bed with them throbbing. I woke up this morning and stretched, without remembering the pain, and got sharp pain in my leg. Normally, I get up out of bed right away and walk it off, but I couldn't move from the amount of pain. Turned out that it helped, because while normally I would have had the pain last a few days, it went away within 10 minutes from laying still, and I can walk on it fine now.
There's been times that I can't straighten it after these incidents. That I can barely put pressure on it. My doctor doesn't have any suggestions. I couldn't find anything online. My next step is to go see one of those sports doctors who are more trained with dealing with muscle problems.
I get bruising all over my calves when I do pull or tear the muscle. They are usually very dark brown/purple.

Any suggestions?

(Sorry for the long winded post!)

This definitely sounds like something you need to discuss with your doctor.

You need another doctor. A doctor should have SOME clue as to what this is, maybe it's vascular, in which case it is very serious. At any rate, get to MD with a clue!!

I get that feeling when I become dehydrated/eat too much salt. When I stretch in the morning my calf muscles with spasm and HOLY MAN. It is PAINFUL.

Perhaps try drinking even more water or cutting back your salt intake for a while to see if it gets any better? :) 

This happens to me all the time, minus the bruising. If I hydrate more, and up my potassium (YUM bananas!), they occur much less frequently.  I tend to get them most after a night of drinking, when I'm most dehydrated.

Good luck to ya

I drink more than the recommended water intake.
I eat one banana a day for potassium.
My diet is low-salt (I don't eat anything with added salt, anything I eat is low sodium)

I don't drink alcohol. At all. Ever. (I can't stand the taste)

Not trying to knock your attempts of ideas what might be wrong.

Though, I have been going in the hot tub for 30m a day for the past week and I can't tell if it is making them feel better or not. I have been drinking more water to make up for dehydration that is common from saunas and hot tubs.

I have a doctor appointment with a specialist in five and a half months so hopefully that will produce some answers. (Yes, you read right, 5.5 months.)