Turning my Calves to Cows (guffaw)

[Karlito]

Been working out and most of my body has seen some improvement, but my Calves seem to be growing awfully slow.

Diet is ok, and I'm working Calves with 3 or 4 sets of 20-25 reps of pretty heavy weighted dumbells each week....at the end the Calves burn like a mother....

Is this effective over time? Do calves just grow slowly? Or should I really increase the weight and do fewer reps?

 

[Arnold]

Try increasing weight and decreasing reps.

 

[Scotty the Body]

Originally posted by Karlito
I'm working Calves with 3 or 4 sets of 20-25 reps of pretty heavy weighted dumbells each week....at the end the Calves burn like a mother....

With 20-25 reps with a good weight, the burn may be due to lactic acid build up more than muscle fatigue.
Lactic acid is a bad thing, even though I also think a higher rep range is good for calves, 20-25 is a little to much me thinks.

I was doing reps of 12-15 but have recently switched to doing 6-8 reps with as much weight as I can handle and I'm finding that I'm getting better results with it over higher reps ranges.

If your not seeing the growth you would think you should be, maybe you should try the lower rep/higher weight.

 

[tjwes]

Mix up your weights and reps always keep the calves guessing .Try doing supersets to shock them into growth,even tri-sets or giant sets.Above all make sure you are doing full reps.Stretch the calves don`t bounce as so many people do just to use more weight.

 

[Karlito]

Thanks, I'll up the weight and lower the reps....

I'm working out at home with an old soloflex (for dips and pullups and just general use of the bench itself ) and a ton of dumbells for everything else....

I just use a heavy dumbell, stand on a weight plate, and cross the un-used leg over the working ankle.....then I do two leg calve presses on two plates....

Is there another technique good for calves you can do at home?

 

[Scotty the Body]

Ok, I understand your high reps now.

It is hard to add a lot of weight if you only have DB to work with, I don't have any extra suggestions from what your already doing except to maybe have someone sit on your shoulders for some extra weight.

 

[Arnold]

you can do donkey calf raises.

you get someone (your wife?) to sit on your lower back/hips and bend over on the stairs.

 

[Karlito]

Heh....I'm afraid we might get....distracted....and I'd get a totally different type of workout, but I'll try that.



I did notice that running hills did add some mass to the front of my calves this past winter. Maybe I'll throw some more hills into my run....

But I should be able to add more weight to the dumbells for a while....