calves help!!!

[dsa8864667]

Ive bin working out for over a year now but cant get calves to grow. I still have chicken legs can someone help me out with this.

[Papi93]

Place legs first in the week when your are freshest. Most people put chest first in the week. Use compound movements like squats, deadlifts, etc. to really stimulate your appetite. Make sure you are getting in post-workout nutrition in a timely manner. What really helped give me the appearance of larger calves was making sure to hit all the major muscles: gastrocnemius, soleus, and tibialis anterior. If you don't have success with this, try what Ian King, Aussie Strength Coach, and alternate lower and upper body days, throughout the week. Most traditional bodybuilders won't have you do this. This program will guarantee you a better balance between your upper and lower body.

[JAYROD]

genetics suck!

[lcpl kill]

sprinting is awsome for putting size on your entire leg.

[G-Force]

my genetics suck in the calve department also, but i have been making significant progress with the following

work them Hard every other day
do slow reps with a long stretch at the bottom and a definite pause at the top
alternate between low reps and high reps
super sets are good too - use at least once a week
for example:

standing calve raise x 30
toe press (heavy) x 10 (really long, hard stretches)
seated calve raise x 20

REST: 1min REPEAT

you will be screaming in pain after 3 of these supersets

[needmorestrength]

I think one of the biggest mistakes for calves is over training. I tried every day, then every other day, and what works best for me is twice a week. I think its important to remember that you walk, stand and put pressure on your calves all day. My routine is a little different.
To start I stand on the back of an incline bench or military bench, holding on to the bar for support, I stand on the spotters platform, place my feet as wide as possible and perform 20 reps, then put my feet right together and perform 20 reps for 4 sets. Its important to go down as far as possible and as high as possible, you really feel the blood getting in there..
Then I do 4 sets till failure of standing calf raises on the smith machine. Placing my toes on a board to get a higher and lower stretch!
This is what I do, and it works wonderfully for me

[BigRandy]

donkey calf raises and going as high and as low as possible have worked for me

[Squatman51]

8 sets of 20 standing calf raises...rest 30 seconds each set.....keep the same wieght....your reps will drop eventually so the last set you will only be getting about 6

[G-Force]

I think one of the biggest mistakes for calves is over training. I tried every day, then every other day, and what works best for me is twice a week. I think its important to remember that you walk, stand and put pressure on your calves all day. My routine is a little different.
To start I stand on the back of an incline bench or military bench, holding on to the bar for support, I stand on the spotters platform, place my feet as wide as possible and perform 20 reps, then put my feet right together and perform 20 reps for 4 sets. Its important to go down as far as possible and as high as possible, you really feel the blood getting in there..
Then I do 4 sets till failure of standing calf raises on the smith machine. Placing my toes on a board to get a higher and lower stretch!
This is what I do, and it works wonderfully for me

it is very difficult to overtrain calves, many top pro's train them every single day (including arnold) sometimes twice a day - i recommend starting off slowly say twice a week, then moving up to every other day - and increase the intensity

the calves recover quickly from exercise, and is the only muscle (with the exception of abs) that you can hammer into oblivion without the worry of overtraining

hammer them to death, no holds barred, thats my advise

[Rhyalus]

I agree with these observations.

For me, working them 2x week was the trick, and I strongly recommend three different types of lifting -

Straight leg toe raises
Rotary calves (seated)
Some type of bent knee work, like plate loaded seated lifts or donkey raises.

Also, use BOTH heavy weight AND lower weight / high rep.

Regards,
R

[dsa8864667]

Thanks for all the help ill try it out.