Originally Posted by Bakerboy

P-funk I thought a slight pause at the top was to hold and maintain the contraction to feel the burn (thus overloading the musscle fibers). What is the the theory behind pausing at the bottom? Is it for the stretch?

What do other people do? Pause at the top or the bottom of calf raises???

Originally Posted by P-funk

the pause at the top of the contraction is fine. The reason I say pause at the bottom is because the achilles tendon is very good at returning elastic energy via the stretch relflex. This is why people can load up that thing and bounce out of the bottom. By pausing at teh bottom for a 3-5 count, you decrease the response of the muscle spindles and the calves have to work that much harder to overcome the static inertia of the calf raise machine. Give it a shot. It will cut your weights in half but it will increase your results.

Originally Posted by Maxim

I just pushed my calves past the 17" mark through JReps. I started with 10" calves so I see this as quite an achievement! Obviously to get the most out of a set -- which only needs to be done once weekly -- you need to move deliberately between the two zones. As you overcome the sticking point, the hinderance in any exercise, you work the calves more uniformally along their entire length. All the best!

Originally Posted by Maxim

Sorry I don't get it?

Originally Posted by FishOrCutBait

nobody puts on 7" on their calves. ever. EVER. can i say it again? EVER