Two biggest calf mistakes...

[gymtime]

Bouncing and range of motion.

Bouncing: I see it all the time. Guys load up the weight on a seated calf machine and bounce their way into a half-assed calf workout. Calf raises, seated or standing, are about slow and steady, controlled movements, not bouncing a bunch of weight up and down for ten reps.

Range of motion: IMO, form is more imortant in calf raises than almost any other excercise. It's much more important to get a long range of motion than to load up on the weight that you barely end up moving. Start with your heel as low as you can get it. Then up on the balls of your feet like you're trying to look over a fence. Pause at the top, then back down slowly.

Calves are the densest muscles in the body next to those in the jaw, so they can handle a little more volume. Keep the reps from 10 up to as high as 16, and don't worry about weight. Long as the last few reps are a struggle, you'll be ok.

So all you guys who struggle with calves, remember this stuff on your next calf workout, no matter how you do it, and see what happens.

 

[Thaibox]

No matter how loud my walkman is, I can always tell when someone is doing calf raises. They do them like they're bouncing a little kid on their knees.

I agree with you on the form. But, I'm part of the few that believe heavy weight is important with calves.

Did that dude ever do that 100 sets of calves?

 

[CytoMel]

Good points

I brought up my calves over 3' and they are 17.5inches cold now.


Some other Calf tips

-Calf training is NOT adding 3 sets 10 reps at the end of a tough quad/ham workout.

-Lagging calves MUST be given priority. Train them 1st in the workout if they need serious growth.

-Train beyond the pain and accept calf pain. Calves will burn like nothing else you ever felt but you must get crazy with them and bust your ass to do grow them.

-20 hard sets of calves a week is NOT overtraining. Calves recover fast as hell and can take more sets than anything else. Calves support your whole weight all day so dot think anything less than busting your ass will grow them.

-Like was mentioned do your reps clean dont just bounce through them.

-Arnold started cutting the bottoms off his pants to expose his weak calves so he was forced to train them hard and grow them. I did this too and I got calves much faster than I think otherwise.

-A great routine is by Charles Poliquin in www.testosterone.net issue 1 from 1998. Follow it hard for a month and I swear it works.

And dont tell me your calves are geneticlly doomed or make some excuses! Like I said if you are doing 8 sets a week and still have pipecleaner calves, you need to blast them with more and more sets and Train beyond the pain and death is your only release!!

I have been mostly maintaining calf size lately since I got into powerlifting they arent top priority like they once were and are now within 1' of my arm size. I and my training partner were doing 50 SETS a WEEK of calves all had sets INCLUDING Round and round of drop sets and natural too and getting great results. My friend got about 2inches n his calves from late Sept to Decemeber 2000 months and we were both natural with minimal supplements.

I hope this helps everyone and if you have to make calves your #1 priority. Just walking around in shorts-calves are almost everything in visable leg development.

 

[b fold the truth]

Good points...I need to memorize them. I have good form...just lack the discipline to train them and the equipment to train them fully.

Those long feet of mine make for some HUGE range of motion though...

B True

 

[thriller]

but for athletics and power would you want ot explode up doing calves?

 

[rippedtrojan]

also, a lot of people never focus on the eccentric part of the motion at all. they just fall to the bottom position. do these with slow negatives (3 seconds). it's harder to do because the rom is so much shorter but it makes a difference.

 

[Cap'n Cooke]

My calves are too damn big. I guess being a fatass for so many years made 'em so huge. If I was proportionate... goddamn.

 

[nikkita]

great post! very useful information given that I have my calves lagging and will consider your tips for my next workout

 

[The Shadow]

Try squatting calf raises ...

 

[nikkita]

Cornholio, how do you perform squatting calf raises??

 

[The Shadow]

drop into a full squat position and do calf raises from that position, making sure to really get up high on the toes - severe cramping

 

[louden_swain]

drop into a full squat position and do calf raises from that position, making sure to really get up high on the toes - severe cramping

Those are killer. . . the forgotten exercise!!

 

[b fold the truth]

Anyone ever do full squats with an elevated toes? Just remember reading that they helped with calf development...

B True

 

[gymtime]

Anyone ever do full squats with an elevated toes? Just remember reading that they helped with calf development...

B True

Was that in Mad Magazine? Sounds like a great excercise if you're wanting to totally blow your knees out.

 

[strong island]

Good points

I brought up my calves over 3' and they are 17.5inches cold now.


Some other Calf tips

-Calf training is NOT adding 3 sets 10 reps at the end of a tough quad/ham workout.

-Lagging calves MUST be given priority. Train them 1st in the workout if they need serious growth.

-Train beyond the pain and accept calf pain. Calves will burn like nothing else you ever felt but you must get crazy with them and bust your ass to do grow them.

-20 hard sets of calves a week is NOT overtraining. Calves recover fast as hell and can take more sets than anything else. Calves support your whole weight all day so dot think anything less than busting your ass will grow them.

-Like was mentioned do your reps clean dont just bounce through them.

-Arnold started cutting the bottoms off his pants to expose his weak calves so he was forced to train them hard and grow them. I did this too and I got calves much faster than I think otherwise.

-A great routine is by Charles Poliquin in www.testosterone.net issue 1 from 1998. Follow it hard for a month and I swear it works.

And dont tell me your calves are geneticlly doomed or make some excuses! Like I said if you are doing 8 sets a week and still have pipecleaner calves, you need to blast them with more and more sets and Train beyond the pain and death is your only release!!

I have been mostly maintaining calf size lately since I got into powerlifting they arent top priority like they once were and are now within 1' of my arm size. I and my training partner were doing 50 SETS a WEEK of calves all had sets INCLUDING Round and round of drop sets and natural too and getting great results. My friend got about 2inches n his calves from late Sept to Decemeber 2000 months and we were both natural with minimal supplements.

I hope this helps everyone and if you have to make calves your #1 priority. Just walking around in shorts-calves are almost everything in visable leg development.

Great points....

I have been doing that Poliquin Calve routine for a few weeks. It is great.

My soleus has blown up and the separation between the two heads of my gastroc has become a lot clearer.

 

[gymtime]

No matter how loud my walkman is, I can always tell when someone is doing calf raises. They do them like they're bouncing a little kid on their knees.

I agree with you on the form. But, I'm part of the few that believe heavy weight is important with calves.

Did that dude ever do that 100 sets of calves?

I think a challenging weight is important as well. However, like any other excercise, good form = less weight. Really pointing your toes at the top of a calf raise will mean using less weight for a lot of people. But since the difficulty has increased, the weight would still be considered heavy.

BTW, you in AZ yet bro?

 

[gettinlarger]

excellent post, as well as the replies. from everyone.

 

[nikkita]

What's that "Poliquin Calve routine" about??

 

[vinylgroover]

If you want calves, forget about the gym. Go to the beach and run in dry sand, mixing it up between sprints and jogging and also running backwards. You'll soon turn those calves into cows.

 

[Thaibox]

I think a challenging weight is important as well. However, like any other excercise, good form = less weight. Really pointing your toes at the top of a calf raise will mean using less weight for a lot of people. But since the difficulty has increased, the weight would still be considered heavy.

BTW, you in AZ yet bro?

I wasn't suggesting sacrificing form for weight. My calves respond best to exactly what you said, just with 6-8 reps. I'll take my shoes off sometimes(unless there's girls around to smell my stinky-ass feet) so I can get full stretch, then get up onto my toes as much as possible and squeeze the shit out of them. I think we're saying the same thing, I just created confusion when pointing out weight.

I made my first trip out to your oven. I came back to Cali, and will make my final trip in a couple weeks. I'm waiting to sell two cars. All I have to say bro, is its fucking hot there. But, I was stationed in TX for a while in the summer, and prefer your dry heat anyday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Lots of beautiful women. I'll be out there for 3 months before my girl gets there. I hope I can be good

 

[Doktor Bollix]

http://testosterone.net/html/1cp.html


Question of Strength
By Charles Poliquin





Testosterone® | No. 1 | May 15, 1998



Q: I've got calves that look like Tara Lipinski's. Once and for all, high reps or low reps? Standing calf raises or seated calf raises? A bullet to my head or a good dose of anthrax?

A: Perhaps you should stop watching the lithe, supple bodies of young women floating along the ice as their tiny skirts are buoyed upwards by gentle drafts, their budding young breasts delineated by…oh, sorry. I digress. My point is, working calves involves all the brain work you can muster. Calves, physiologically speaking, are problematic. A lot of trainees are frustrated with their calf training because the optimum loading parameters for lower leg development are a lot more restricted than they are, for say, arm training. Contrary to something like biceps work, your calf exercise repertoire is limited. To counter this, you have to be more diligent about manipulating reps, sets, and even rest intervals to give yourself more exercise routine permutations.

Another problem is the limited range of motion afforded by calf movements. Let's say you were doing squats. The range of motion in a squat is considerable and it's easy to vary the tempo. For example, it might take you 3,4,5 or more seconds to complete the eccentric portion of the movement. However, during calf exercises, you have a limited range of motion and you can't vary your tempo as easily as you can in the squat or other exercises.

During the last Olympics in Nagano, a bunch of my athletes from different sports were riding the bus after an event. For some reason, they started discussing the merits of the calf routines I had given them, and in particular, the one I had given to Luke Sauder, one of my alpine skiers. One skier recalled the fact that Luke had come into training camp sporting a new pair of calves, and the ski company rep was freaking out because he had to remold him a new set of boots. I recalled that Luke had wanted a calf routine because big calves prevent knee injuries in alpine skiing (they actually provide a cushion to prevent the skier's knees from reaching too acute an angle as they jet down a mountain).

Anyhow, when I got home, I dug out the routine that I had given Luke from my computer archives. It's one that would serve anyone well. Here it is:


The Luke Sauder Calf Routine

Day 1: High-Volume

Exercise A: Calf Superset*

A1) Seated Calf Raises
3 x 10-5-5 (one set of 10 reps, followed by two of 5 reps) at a 101 tempo (1 second to lower the weight, no pause, and 1 second to raise the weight)

A2) Donkey Calf Raises
3 x 30-50 at a 101 tempo

*After finishing a set of the A1 exercise, proceed immediately to exercise A2. Then rest two minutes before repeating the super set.

Exercise B: Standing Calf Raises

B1) Standing Calf Raises
10 x 10-30 at a 111 tempo, ten seconds**

**In other words, you'll be doing one, long, extended set, resting ten seconds between each mini-set and lowering the weight in between.

After day one, you'll probably have to call the fire department to extinguish the fire in your calves. You may also find that you have the same walk as Homer Simpson's 80-year-old father.


Day 2: Low-Volume (to be done 48 hours after Day 1)

Exercise A: Triple Drop Standing Calf Raises

A1) Triple Drop Standing Calf Raises
3 x 10-10-10 (in other words, three drop sets) at a 121 tempo,*** resting 90 seconds between sets.

***The pause is taken in the bottom stretch position, and be sure to take the full two seconds.

This routine provides freaky size increases. As you can see, it uses a great number of total reps. I've found that in order to build calves, you need some frequency of training and some volume, but you can't have both high volume and high frequency. Therefore, I advise training them twice over a five-day cycle, one workout being very high sets (16) and high total reps (250-510 reps); and the other being low sets (3) for a low amount of total reps (90). I've known people to gain in between 5/8ths of an inch to a full inch with this routine in as little as 30 days.

If you fail to meet the aforementioned results, and as far as your suicide option is concerned, may I suggest instead that you watch six back-to-back episodes of "Gilligan's Island": you'd be braindead within the day.

 

[b fold the truth]

Was that in Mad Magazine? Sounds like a great excercise if you're wanting to totally blow your knees out.

haha...who knows. I do elevated heel squats from time to time...and vaguely remember reading to do elevated toe squats for the calves...probably the most stupid idea...but who knows...lol

B True

 

[princess]

so it sounds like you need to train calves with a little more frequency than other body parts...but, do you train them if they're still sore from the previous workout...or wait until they're fully recuperated?

 

[Enock]

bump!

I trained calves saturday, todays tues.

There still sore and training them goes against normal judgement but then again being what there function is.


Should I hit em again?

 

[b fold the truth]

I really don't train anything if it is sore...I think that the risk of injury is too high.

B True

 

[gymtime]

bump!

I trained calves saturday, todays tues.

There still sore and training them goes against normal judgement but then again being what there function is.


Should I hit em again?

Twice a week is plenty, IMO. You can train them today if you want, even if they're sore. You still have more than two full days of recovery time in there.

 

[kingslender]

Great thread. Calves are often overlooked or misunderstood and some of you guys are giving great information. One distinction that I think is important to make is whether one is training for size and symnetry, to compete in a bodybuilding competition or just to look good in shorts, or training for power and explosiveness, to play sports, etc. Because these two goals will likely lead to divergent calf routines. I think the idea of running on sand has great merit, unfortunately I don't live near a beach...
Has anyone ever tried those Strength Training (C) shoes, the ones with the raised platforms coming from the toes? Anyone know what I', talking about? They're supposed to really increase speed and jumping ability.

 

[princess]

another? for you...what do you do if your calves are uneven...one is more developed than the other? do you just train them individually, or cut back on training the more developed one? it just seems kinda weird to me to "forget" about one leg for a while.

 

[CytoMel]

another? for you...what do you do if your calves are uneven...one is more developed than the other? do you just train them individually, or cut back on training the more developed one? it just seems kinda weird to me to "forget" about one leg for a while.

Hey some great posts here on this thread!

If you have calves that are uneven I suggest doing some extra sets of one legged calf raises for the weaker calf. Dont cut back on calf sets for your routine just do extra 1 legged sets for the smaller one. Hope this helps.

 

[growin']

Poliquin's ideas transformed my calves, never tried any programs written by him persay. Here is what I do:

-emphasize negatives
-hold stretch position
-sets of leg extended raises are 20-40 seconds in duration
-sets of leg bent extensions are over 40 seconds
-unilateral movements for maximum muscular contraction

ie:

1. Standing single leg calf raise with DB
4 sets, 4-6 reps, 3-2-1 tempo
2. Seated calf raise
2 sets, 15-20 reps, 2-1-1 tempo

 

[princess]

great idea cytomel...thanks!!!