Calves - Help! [Forum Archive]

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Calves - Help!

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Posted by: BillKSS

Hi guys,

Ok, this is a calves question. Is it just the case that some people 'genetically' can't grow decent calves?

The rest of my body is fine and bodybuilding seems to have a positive affect on all other muscles, but no matter what I try - high rep/low weight Low reps/high weight. Large number of sets, small but heavy sets etc... No matter what I try I never achieve more than a slight improvement in their size.

I kinda look very top heavy right now despite working out for years. Any advice would be very welcome.

By the way I use the calve extension machine and occassionaly dumbell single leg calve raises.

BillKS

http://www.makemuscle.co.uk

Posted by: MyK

EAT

and quit spamming! bitch!

Posted by: CowPimp

You should consider trying a 5 second pause in the stretched position. The achilles tendon retains a lot of elastic energy. You should also consider training them at a very high frequency, as the calves can handle a high level of abuse and training them is not incredibly stressful on the nervous system.

Posted by: Bulwark

How do the quads look? Claves are just a pain to grow. Keep at or you can always get implants

Posted by: pengers84

Quote:

Originally Posted by CowPimp

You should consider trying a 5 second pause in the stretched position. The achilles tendon retains a lot of elastic energy. You should also consider training them at a very high frequency, as the calves can handle a high level of abuse and training them is not incredibly stressful on the nervous system.

What do you mean by very high frequency? everyday?

Posted by: AKIRA

Quote:

Originally Posted by pengers84

What do you mean by very high frequency? everyday?

Not everday, but frequency is defined as how many times you workout a week, a month, a year, etc.

Hmm....calves on higher frequency...does this go for forearms too?

Posted by: pengers84

Quote:

Originally Posted by AKIRA

Not everday, but frequency is defined as how many times you workout a week, a month, a year, etc.

Hmm....calves on higher frequency...does this go for forearms too?

I know what frequency means. I was asking cowpimp what his definition of "very high frequency" was.

Posted by: NMOY

my calves are the same way. I've found that doing heavy compound leg exercises (Squats/SLDL), combined with really slow- medium to low rep sets of standing and sitting calve raises 2x a week, PLUS changing up your foot angle:
\ / and | | and / \
have worked wonders for my size and definition in the past few months, where as I saw little improvement for 6 months before.

Posted by: BillKS

Thanks guys,

Think I'm prob just genetically prone to small calves, but will try your suggestions. Either that or stop wearing shorts at the gym ;-)

BillKS

http://www.makemuscle.co.uk

Posted by: Brutus_G

I used to have this problem. Then i found my calves respond best to 3-4 sets of 21-25 reps like cow pimp said you gotta stretch those fuckers. Working the calves is very painfull for me whereas squats are hard(lot of breathing and work). Calves should be easy to work but painful. Most people have calves that are predominately slow twitch so do high reps to hit em.

Posted by: CowPimp

Quote:

Originally Posted by pengers84

What do you mean by very high frequency? everyday?

Well, I would attempt to ramp up the volume. If you typically train each body part once per week, then start with twice each week. I think you could eventually get to the point where you're directly training your calves 3-4 times per week.

Posted by: AKIRA

Quote:

Originally Posted by NMOY

my calves are the same way. I've found that doing heavy compound leg exercises (Squats/SLDL), combined with really slow- medium to low rep sets of standing and sitting calve raises 2x a week, PLUS changing up your foot angle:
\ / and | | and / \
have worked wonders for my size and definition in the past few months, where as I saw little improvement for 6 months before.

I used to do that too. The angles and such, but I can never keep good form. They just slowly changed to l l.

Posted by: 22inchpump

Work them every other day with high reps, then hit them hard once a week heavy heavy. Do them in between sets of whatever else you are working.They will grow...my friend ..who is black..and has problems building his calves , trained with me like this for a couple of months before his comp and made huge improvements. Also ,like akira said you can do forearms pretty much every day as well. Anyway, check out my gallery if you want to see what that routine will do for your calves. Later and good luck with the calves.

Posted by: thatboyky

i have the same problem, they just wont grow.

are you flat footed? i went on a scientific research to find people that were flat footed. out of the 3 that i could find (LOLs), they all had little to no calf muscles. i am also flat footed

could this be part of the reason?

Posted by: assassin

calves won't have nice shape that easy first u must have low fat % in ur body second try sprints and jogging and cycling as ur cardio try to do high weighted sets and not too many reps actually i saw programs saying one set to failure 70 -75 reps i guess that won't work for most of ppl cause calves already do thousands of reps every day so go heavy to shock the muscle better just after ur legs workout because calves is in fatigue after compound movements like squats ...

Posted by: jasone

Funny how the streched position works for some of you. My calves responded after avoiding the stretch. This kept tension in the muscle throughout the set and I would get a bigger pump. Try superseting standing with seated calve raises. Standing works the length, seated works the solius or the width.

Posted by: NMOY

I have almost flat feet too!

Posted by: assassin

how super seting calves

after one set of seated calf raises i can't stand up again

Posted by: BillKS

Hi,

and thanks for the advice.

I squat - I have tried high and low rep - training often, training infrequently. No good!

I'll try some of your tips though - see if anything helps bulk them up.

Thanks again!!

BillKS

http://www.makemuscle.net

Posted by: AKIRA

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasone

Funny how the streched position works for some of you. My calves responded after avoiding the stretch. This kept tension in the muscle throughout the set and I would get a bigger pump. Try superseting standing with seated calve raises. Standing works the length, seated works the solius or the width.

This could be an example of how the body adapts. First there was a stretch, some muscle developed then stopped, you changed things big taking the stretch out, muscle development continued..

Next up, high reps, then low reps. Get it?

Posted by: Squaggleboggin

Carry a fifty pound backpack with you at all times and walk several miles over the course of the day, including several sets of stairs. That should work. It works for me.

Posted by: thebarbarianway

Nick Nillson wrote an awesome article for this site called Fascial Stretching and explained the limitations to muscle growth because tight connective tissue limiting growth...

He used the analogy...trying to grow bigger muscle with tight connective tissue is like trying to put a big pillow case into a small pillowcase...it's not going to happen no matter what kind of program or calories you take in....

Try stretching the heck out of them in between sets...calves have some of the most dense connective tissue than any other muscle...

Have you ever heard of Calves To Failure? It's pretty simple...One set of 75-100 reps...continue until you hit your goal reps and when you need to take breaks you only get 10 second rests!

Brutal stuff!

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