Thread: Calves

Calves are considered the most difficult body part to develop, but it does not take a miracle to make your calves grow into cows! To acquire a decent pair of calves, you must be equipped with the correct principles on how to train them, and the motivation to train them intensively. Intensive calve training can be very painful with very little reward and will leave the calves feeling tender for days after. Since your calves are incredibly strong and carry your bodyweight throughout the day with ease, you must hit them with far heavier weights than they are accustomed to shock them. Use every high-intensity principle possible to force them into growing.

All I do for calves is the clean and press.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

All I do for calves is the clean and press.

Squats cause planterflextion, so do deadlifts.

Yes, but I would hardly call that direct work. At least with the clean and press you get a large ROM and the calves are some big movers with the lift.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

Yes, but I would hardly call that direct work. At least with the clean and press you get a large ROM and the calves are some big movers with the lift.

True. Do you front squat? Those kill my calves.

I usually rely on sprints and jogging uphill to take care of my calves, however I usually do 3 sets of calf raises, while holding dumbells.

No, but I'm going to start doing them for the first time tomorrow. I decided to drop back squats because I had some sort of mental block with them for a while and they just got boring. It's nice to change things up. I expect my calves, shoulders and wrists to be very sore after tomorrow, along with everything else that is typically sore with squats.

I think the secret to training calves is frequency. You can hit your calves a lot. If they are seriously lagging, you should consider hitting them 2-3 days per week, or possibly more.

A wide variety of repetition ranges seems to be important too. Calves are high in red fiber, and as such respond to lighter weight moreso than most muscles in the body.

Also, for whatever it's worth, the only thing that has ever made my calves really sore is plyometrics. I used to do jump squats and calf jumps, and my calves would be sore as Hell the following day. I'm not sure how much difference in size or strength it made though, as the routine was short-lived.

CowPimp is the calf pimp!

I had problems getting my calves to grow too. I simply increased the number of reps to 20, the sets to 4, increased the weight to nearly double in a month (I discovered that I wasn't maxing out my calves nearly as much as I thought I was), and hit my calves two or three times a week. BOOM! They started to grow.

I also started taking creatine, which inhibits the uptake of lactic acid and lessens the burn, allowing me to do more. Really though, I just had to suck it up and work through the burn.

Strength shoes and plyos!!!!

i usually do calves every other day you can try that cause your calves really aren't sore after your workouts so you can hit them 2 or 3 times a week

I started doing all calf exercises w/ out shoes. It allows me to squeeze the calf muscle harder. It helps my focus on increasing that blood volume. I do not go heavy either. Max 300lbs on standing calf raises. When I reach the peak of the motion...I hold and squeeze for 2-5 sec. Try it sometime

I've read about some sort of shoes (don't know if that's what was mentioned above by devildog) that have a raised toe. This makes you go through a huge ROM every step you take, and if you sprint in those, you're sure to grow. However, they're extremely expensive, and I'd be tempted to just duct tape a piece of wood instead of pay over $150 or something crazy.

Originally Posted by Squaggleboggin

I've read about some sort of shoes (don't know if that's what was mentioned above by devildog) that have a raised toe. This makes you go through a huge ROM every step you take, and if you sprint in those, you're sure to grow. However, they're extremely expensive, and I'd be tempted to just duct tape a piece of wood instead of pay over $150 or something crazy.

The shoes you mentioned are called strength shoes. I have to say that hese are the best training aide I have ever been around. They force you to put an insane amount of pressure on your clves. If you do the workout that comes with them your calfs will grow. I have athletes that take it a step farther and do plyo's with them on.