Calves lagging.

[gettinlarger]

I've always noticed, since I started lifting, that my calves are lagging behind the rest of my body. A buddy of mine was talking to me and he was like "dude, you have these big ass shoulders and arms, good upper body ..... and your calves suck." yeah, i agree. they do. how can i them them caught up? i normally work them once a week, with the rest of my legs. should i add more volume to just my calves?

 

[havoc]

Dont train them on leg days.
Train them twice a week.
Pick 3 exercises per session.
Be very methodical with the movement, all the way up (ballet, tippy toe style) and all the way down.
Weight is not as important.

Good luck. peace

 

[strong island]

volume volume and volume.

try to work them at least 3 times per week. and do a shit load of sets.

I saw an example of Arnold's calve workout...he did 24 sets! He spent hours a week.

 

[havoc]

volume volume and volume.

try to work them at least 3 times per week. and do a shit load of sets.

I saw an example of Arnold's calve workout...he did 24 sets! He spent hours a week.

And thats why he got calf implants. peace

 

[strong island]

Dont train them on leg days.
Train them twice a week.
Pick 3 exercises per session.
Be very methodical with the movement, all the way up (ballet, tippy toe style) and all the way down.
Weight is not as important.

Good luck. peace

I think full range of motion is very important BUT i also believe weight is very important. Got to get those babies stronger is you want them to get bigger.

Also try both high and low reps. Partial reps are also great especially on your last set. When you can't do anymore full reps on your last set start doing as many partial reps as possible. Try to do 50. THIS WILL HURT!

 

[SAGAT]

And thats why he got calf implants. peace

explain yourself please?

 

[dsco]

u need to use heavy weight that u can handle with good reange of motion. You use your calves everytime you walk which is a lot. Really blast your calves , not a lot of rest between sets, fast and heavy till you cant walk.

 

[Vortexx]

training them 3 times a week with a rotating schedule and a combination of low and high reps should render results:

sesion 1:
- standing calve raise 4 * 10 reps
- seated calve raise 4 * 15
- calve raises on legpress machine 4 * 30

session 2:
- calve raises on legpress machine 4 * 10
- standing calve raise 4 * 15 reps
- seated calve raise 4 * 30

session 3:
- seated calve raise 4 * 10
- calve raises on legpress machine 4 * 15
- standing calve raise 4 * 30 reps

This will insure that all bases are covered in one week

 

[strong island]

u need to use heavy weight that u can handle with good reange of motion. You use your calves everytime you walk which is a lot. Really blast your calves , not a lot of rest between sets, fast and heavy till you cant walk.

Great point...I made great progress when I cut down the rest between sets to less than a minute.

Don't give them a chance to catch their breath.

 

[coolcolj]

Calves= fast twitch = low endurance = low reps

calf raise - 6 reps, explode the concentric, hold to top for 2 secs, lower in 4 secs - hold the bottom for 2 secs and repeat. Go to failure.

I do 2 sets

I have some calf size

 

[b fold the truth]

Well, I am a firm believer that calves take one major thing to develop them corretcly...:

TIME

I don't have anything to do calf raises on so I get most of mine from doing event training: harness pulls, vehicle pushes, sled dragging, tire flipping, etc...

I do NOT have big calves compared to the rest of my body (17.5") but I have gotten a lot of growth lately from hitting them with my events. I highly suggest doing some vehicle pushes a time a week...

Remember that I am limited in equipment though...

B True

 

[CytoMel]

Bullshit. Arnold didnt have calf implants.

 

[strong island]

Poliquin Calve workout

I am going to try this for a few weeks.

Here is one of Poliquin's Calve workouts:

Day 1

A1) Seated 3 x 10/5/5 1-0-1 tempo

A2) Donkey 3 x 30-50 1-0-1 tempo

B1) Standing 10 x 10-30 1-1-1 tempo


Day 2 (48 hours later)

A1) Triple drop set: Standing 3 x 10/10/10 1-2-1 tempo


* A1 and A2 means they are supersetted
* 1-0-1 means 1 second to lower, no pause at bottom, 1 second to raise.

 

[BlkWS6]

It's strange a lot of you advocate to hit calves with really heavy weight, which I have been doing for the last couple of months or so. However, I went for a ton of reps the other night w/ a lighter weight and not a lot of rest, and for the first time in a long time my calves are actually sore! They would never get sore off of the heavy/low rep workouts I was doing before. Whether this is the way to go or not, it was definitely a shock to my calves that never seem to experience the joy of soreness.

 

[bignate73]

soreness is not an indicator of growth.

 

[coolcolj]

walk on your toes for 30 mins will get them sore in a hurry

 

[BlkWS6]

Originally posted by bignate73
soreness is not an indicator of growth.



Hhaha, yeah I knew someone would throw that in. And yeah I know what you are saying, but my point is that I must have somewhat "shocked" the muscle, and this may dictate growth in the future.

 

[bignate73]

true, true.

 

[strong island]

Did day 1 yesterday and my calves are very sore...definately because of the high reps involved. The high reps hit the slow twitch muscle fibers which I am now realizing that I neglect. Here it is corrected with rest intervals:

Day 1

A1) Seated 3 x 10/5/5 1-0-1 tempo

A2) Donkey 3 x 30-50 1-0-1 tempo

B1) Standing 10 x 10-30 1-1-1 tempo (10 seconds between sets, basically giant drop set)


Day 2 (48 hours later)

A1) Triple drop set: Standing 3 x 10/10/10 1-2-1 tempo (90 seconds between sets)


* A1 and A2 means they are supersetted
* 1-0-1 means 1 second to lower, no pause at bottom, 1 second to raise.