Calves

[bhults]

I did legs this past Sunday, as I do on most Sunday's. At the end of my workout, I did 2 calf exercises--3 sets of 12 each (calf raises on a step w/ weight, and super horizontal). I didn't think it was much at all...but now I'm practically crippled. Every 1/2 hour or so, I HAVE to get up to stretch....walking down stairs is practically impossible.

My quads and glutes are in great shape from my leg workouts, but my claves have never been much....I'd like to build the lower halves of my legs to make them more proportionate to the rest of my leg...what other calf exercises can help to add more mass?

 

[Yanick]

basically you have two ways of hitting your calves, straight legged and bent legged, straight hits the gastroc and bent hits the soleus (or it might be the other way around, i'm a little foggy on that). There are a couple of variations on both look at exrx.net for suggestions.

 

[DrChiro]

If you do cardio try using the stair master with only the balls of your feet on the steps (heels hanging off)...20-30 min of this is like doing 1000 reps of calf raises plus you get your cardio in.

More often than not calves seem to respond to higher rep work.....give it a shot.

If not try the high weight low rep stuff

as always make sure you are doing stiff leg and bent leg movements to hit the gastrocs and soleus if you aren't already.

good luck...i know calves can be a bitch for some people to get growing!

 

[bhults]

Yeah....they def are. I was a swimmer thru college, so, while I have no problem getting my upper legs to grow, the calves were just never in the mix (as with runners, for example)... I like the stair master idea---maybe I'll try that once the intense pain I'm experiencing right now goes away.

 

[DrChiro]

yeah....wait for the pain to go away first....then you can hurt yourself again...isn't bodybuilding fun!

why do we do this to ourselves again?

 

[Mead187]

A good one for me is riding my bike, use the tips of your toes to push the pedals and go up hills, if you bend your feet outward whilst doing this it works the outside of your calves, dunno if this work on a cycling machine but i guess it would if you set it to a high resistance

 

[bhults]

yeah....wait for the pain to go away first....then you can hurt yourself again...isn't bodybuilding fun!

why do we do this to ourselves again?

At first I thought it was for my good health....then I thought it was for impressing the opposite sex....now I realize it's for the PAIN, baby, YEAH!

 

[dodgethis]

I started doing mucho reps on calves with as much weight as I can do. I just do the simple calf raises on the smith machine. I make sure I can rep out at least 50 so the weight is very light. I have noticed a great increase in tone and strength by doing more reps at lighter weight. My buddy was doing 10 sets of 10 reps at 800 pounds on the calf raises and he said he made no progress and then when he started doing 50 and then 100 reps, his calves blew up. If you don't believe me, check out his site at hrfit.net

 

[Duncans Donuts]

I have trouble believing that

 

[Velvet]

800 lbs? Get out!

 

[berealjohn]

The gast... makes up 2/3 of the calves. u'r stiff leg movement hits this region. I'd concentrate on the stiff legs movement for awhile. We walk around a lot of the day and our calve handle this load without tiring....if you what growth u got to over load! 10-15 sets of heavy weight & moderate reps 12-20. u should do no less than 2X u'r body weight. train them twice per week. If this don't work u need implants!...hehehe

 

[Duncans Donuts]

10-15 sets? This workload is in the same category of what our legs are used to (high volumes of work). To "shock" the calves you need lower sets of maximal intenisty with enormously heavy weight.

 

[tjwes]

I mix the reps up at different workouts,sometimes high,sometimes low,but always as heavy as I can go for the rep range I`m looking for.

I think the main problem most people have with calves not growing is,they go too heavy to try to impress others, and wind up doing half reps and a kind of bobbing motion.

Use a full range of motion, putting an emphasis on the stretch and the contraction ,and they`ll respond if you train hard enough!!


The calves adapt to a workloard very quickly so I think it`s best to mix things up rep wise and I also do Super-Sets,Tri-Sets,Drop-Sets,and other intensity techniques at times.

Always kep `em guessing!!

 

[dodgethis]

http://www.hrfit.net/bb/training/articles/article3.asp is where I got the 10 reps for 10 sets at 800 pounds. He told me the story of when he was doing these and that another guy was lifting with Hugo and Todd and the other guy was puking from doing that exercise. Believe what you want but I have met both these people and I totally believe everything that they say.

 

[tjwes]

I don`t find it that hard to beleive at all.

 

[Duncans Donuts]

Puking from hard work isn't uncommon

 

[Mudge]

I'd say a very large percentage of the time its blood sugar fluctuation, on the low side.

 

[CowPimp]

I find that concentrating on contracting the calves at the peak of a motion is very important; as well, I feel the same is true for making sure a full range of motion is used. These two items have sparked a regrowth in my calves.

 

[Mortality]

most of the weight should be on your toes at top of movement.
i use a mixture of high rep and low rep for calves. when i use low rep, i use super heavy weight and i do 6-8 reps very explosively, i do 15-20 sets. when i use high reps, i do 100 reps on each set, 2-3 sets. i generally train my calves 2-3 times a week, first workout low reps, second workout high reps and alternating like that. i use dropsets every 4-5 weeks, i.e. first set 50 reps, second set 40 reps, last set increase weight and do 10 reps.
not everyone have good calve genetics, so if you want them to grow you gotta work them harrrd!! because you use them everyday!!

 

[bhults]

Great information, guys....I can totally understand having to overload 'em since (yes) they are used everyday. I didn't know stiff legs hit them so hard....alls I know is that the pain is finally beginning to subside...can't wait to hit em again. Thanks again!