Calves needed....

[Chrizzum]

My calves are by far my weekness. How many days should I train them? What are some good workouts? Any input would be appreciated.

[The Shredder]

ed in my opinion

[rodge]

donky raises are the absolute best
hurts like hell but they will grow

[Alexander the Graet]

walk daily for 20 min! at an increased rate with the treadmill elevated!

[***xxx***]

wrong forum...

[GettinSwoll47]

dont forget that genetics plays a big part in having diamonds for calfs...i say work them out eod, doing 3 exercises (include donkey raises like stated above) at 3 sets of fifteen. do them slow and get the full stretch. also you could do some drop sets

[Hot-Rox]

Those aren't calves - they are cows (is what my trainer says)- lol. How many time per week are you working out?

[GettinSwoll47]

Those aren't calves - they are cows (is what my trainer says)- lol. How many time per week are you working out?

haha yeah...he must have read last months MD with jay culter

[GetinBig]

Post this in the work out forum bro.

Just work them out harder than you do. LOL

[Hed]

Best technique for working them. Pause for about 2-3 seconds at the bottom of the lift. Your tendon in your lower leg is one of the most elastic in the body, and makes it really easy to lift a lot of weight quickly doing calf exercises. Pause at the bottom, and lower your weight. Trust me, youll feel it.

[Chrizzum]

Thanks... Gonna give that a try...

[Mr. Sparkle]

B/c its already at the top, ill post

If you do sets, do 9 sets... seems like a lot but its working for me... I work then out EOD. I even do the same exersize for 9 sets... I mean there is not a whole lot of calve workouts...

[Chrizzum]

Do you keep the weight high or reps high?

[Hed]

weight high and reps at like 10

[Hed]

weight high and reps at like 10

[Hed]

weight high and reps at like 10

[t-money]

I mix up the reps and weights, but I always make sure I do at least 8 sets. I hit mine every 5 days.

T

[Mr. Sparkle]

Hedzilla we heard you the first time

[The Baron]

Two conflicting schools of thought... both approaches work okay for most people but be aware that you can try one for a few months and then try the other. One says that since, as a lower body part, there are a lot of slow-twitch fibers in the gastrocs and soleus, that you should run high reps and multiple sets and exercises. The other says that since you hit them with 10,000 bodyweight reps every day just walking around, you must hit them to failure with one or two sets at multiples of bodyweight to make them grow. Personally I prefer the latter style... try a good warmup and then ONE or TWO working sets to failure... should be around 3x bodyweight in a standing calf raise machine. Sounds like a lot of iron, I know... but trust me... it works. Try to keep the negative strictly controlled. Also make sure you go to the absolute extremes of the range of motion in your warmup. A big stretch actually reduces the amount of weight you can lift, but nonetheless it seems to assist in hypertrophy... perhaps it stretches the fascia and makes room for growth... I don't know.

Donkeys are good. Standing calf raises in a machine are good. In the Smith Machine is really good but don't be surprised or disappointed when you push 700 lbs in the SCR machine and only do 450 or 500 in the smith... no leverage in the smith. Don't worry... failure is still failure. Just take it to failure at 8 to 10 reps. You can also do them with dumbbells, a leg at a time. You got to use straps and use them correctly or you won't be able to handle the weight. Full bodyweight is a good goal but you will probably have to make up your dumbbell on a 20" olympic handle.

SEATED calf raises do not have a place in this routine. In a high volume program they serve a purpose. When doing only one or two sets for calves, forget about them. Why? Because seated calf raises hit the soleus only. Standing or donkeys hit both soleus and gastrocnemeus. If you do them in a high volume program, I suggest standing or donkeys FIRST, and then seated, so you don't hit failure in standing because the soleus muscles give out.

For a high volume program, you can figure maybe 3 sets of a standing exercise, two or three sets of donkeys, and a couple sets of seated, and run around 15 reps per set. Now if you want to do the magic growing calf trick, do this for two or three months and then hit the high intensity, low volume program for a couple of months. If you can time it so that the low volume coincides with a bulking cycle, you will probably find you need bell bottom jeans before it is over.

[Swifto]

some useful info here!

[Whitey]

Solid post, Baron. Thanks, bro.

[t-money]

Probably the best post about calf training I have seen in a great while...no BS, just the info you want to know. Great post!

T

[TheBrent]

thanks for posting this, i learned a lot from the responses. my calves appreciate it

[The Baron]

Probably the best post about calf training I have seen in a great while...no BS, just the info you want to know. Great post!

T

Darn... I forgot to add some BS... I will be more conscientous next time! Thanks for the kind words, everyone. It is fun to give back, where I have received so much knowledge from others!

[justin2305]

2-3 days a wk should be good some of those days do heavy low reps and some of those days do light high reps

[Chrizzum]

Thanks Baron... I just got home from the gym and I can already feel a difference