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??