calves wont grow!!

[beezlebubb666]

just like it said fellas they just wont grow.. i blast them twice a week hard and nothing. Im starting to think im genetically doomed...

[auslifta]

i feel your pain brother, loads of drop sets help me a bit but my calves suck, so i cant give much advice

[JAYROD]

i know all about it too.

[nalbano34]

What type of exercises and rep ranges are you doing?

[asvt]

I generally do 3 sets 15-25 reps of standing calf raises once or twice a week ***ending on how my calfs feel my reps are usually 25, 22, 17. since training them this way I have added 1/8" to them in about a month not exactly major growth but it's better than nothing. Hope this helps.

[SVTMuscle*]

What type of exercises and rep ranges are you doing?

bump.



Alot of people belive calves should be hit high rep being a smaller less dense muscle. but that is not true! you wanna go heavy for 8-10 reps and shock them.

[skoaler29]

bump.



Alot of people belive calves should be hit high rep being a smaller less dense muscle. but that is not true! you wanna go heavy for 8-10 reps and shock them.

ya thats what I always seemed to do. high reps. Ill try heavy for a few weeks and see how that goes. It will def. shock them cause ive always done 15-20 reps.

[Serotonin]

I'm in the same boat and recently switched up my calf raises. I read somewhere that doing 10 sets of 10 with only about 15 seconds in between each set will help. I've been doing it for about 2 weeks now and even with that many reps I've kept the weight pretty heavy and my calves have been absolutely DOMINATED!

Its still a tad early to decide if my calves are gaining in size but doing an insane amount of reps with them makes sense because of the difference in muscle fiber in the calf.

[ALPHAMALE77]

try bent over donkey calf raises with someone setting on lowerback/or hip area or weight hangin btween legs...only workout that seems to help my calves...theres my 2 cents

[beezlebubb666]

well my current routine was like 20 reps of a moderately heavy amount.. i would do standing raises and seated.. maybe i need to try stacking on the weight a little more... this sucks b/c my upper half is jacked and my calves look like toothpicks

[BigJames]

Calves are used to high rep type stimulation - you walk and run around on them all day long and rarely feel it. I used to follow a similar routine to some of the above - high reps with what I thought was good weight. I got more results when I reduced the reps and upped the weight. I start with 25 reps with straight legs to hit the gastroc. muscle: donkey raise, leg press calve presses. This gets the blood flowing. Then I up the weight so that I get about 12-15 reps and fail on the 16th. Then I up the weight again and aim for a 10-12 rep failure. Then I up it again and aim for 8-10 rep failure. On this last set I sometimes do a drop set and complete 10 more reps.

Then I move on to seated calf raises to hit the soleus muscle. I try to follow a similar rep scheme as above and it hurts! I almost always do a drop set on seated raises.

I do this twice a week: after back training and after leg training.

I had small calves once upon a time, but they are decent now. I found that I gained the most mass using a hack squat machine in the reverse position. At my gym's machine there was a steel bracket in just the right place for nice, full range calf raises and the support of the pad against the front of the torso and hips provided excellent support for heavy lifting.

The key (imo) is heavy, heavy weight for 8-12 reps per set. Calves recover fast, so twice a week is good to.

Good luck.

[skoaler29]

BigJames, thats a great point about high reps from walking. It def. makes sense. I never even made that correlation.

[beezlebubb666]

Calves are used to high rep type stimulation - you walk and run around on them all day long and rarely feel it. I used to follow a similar routine to some of the above - high reps with what I thought was good weight. I got more results when I reduced the reps and upped the weight. I start with 25 reps with straight legs to hit the gastroc. muscle: donkey raise, leg press calve presses. This gets the blood flowing. Then I up the weight so that I get about 12-15 reps and fail on the 16th. Then I up the weight again and aim for a 10-12 rep failure. Then I up it again and aim for 8-10 rep failure. On this last set I sometimes do a drop set and complete 10 more reps.

Then I move on to seated calf raises to hit the soleus muscle. I try to follow a similar rep scheme as above and it hurts! I almost always do a drop set on seated raises.

I do this twice a week: after back training and after leg training.

I had small calves once upon a time, but they are decent now. I found that I gained the most mass using a hack squat machine in the reverse position. At my gym's machine there was a steel bracket in just the right place for nice, full range calf raises and the support of the pad against the front of the torso and hips provided excellent support for heavy lifting.

The key (imo) is heavy, heavy weight for 8-12 reps per set. Calves recover fast, so twice a week is good to.

Good luck.

how exactly did you use the hack squat machine?

[getpaid]

Hey man this is the routine that IBD gave me and it is the only thing that has made my calves grow..

Hey bro,
Give this a try on you next leg day.

Calves: (follow this protocol with each movement, One rep will consist of the following and should take approx 10seconds to complete, so a set will last around 2mins or so.)
Use this time variation on EACH rep. 1second up (positive) and squeeze for 2 seconds at the top of the movement (on the very tip of your toes), then slowely decend for 3-5seconds until you're in the fully stretched position where you'll let the weight stretch your calves to their max for another 3-5seconds. Only then will you explode up (1sec) to the top and squeeze again for 2seconds and REPEAT.
This is ONE rep, count real seconds, do not cheat yourself. After it feels as if someone lit a torch on you calf, do 2 more reps! They should feel as if they will pop after each set.

Standing calve raises 3 working sets.
1 warmup lighter weight, very slow and get a good strech 12-15reps
2nd set 12-20 reps (if you can hit 20 without almost failing out then you're not doing enough weight).
3rd + 4th set 6-10reps, do not cheat yourself count slow and make it HURT.

Seated calf raises 3 working sets no warmup.
Same as above.
1st set - 12-20reps
2+3 - 6-10reps

Try it out and see for yourself, you should have trouble walking after the last set.
I'd take approx 1-2min inbetween sets.

[beezlebubb666]

good shit thanks man

[anabolicshark]

I have been made fun of my calves all my life, I am a swimmer, so almost never really used my calves as much as other athletes do... when i started to "try" to get them... nothing worked, and i mean nothing
i would be sore and i couldn't even drive after the sets..
but size was same if not smaller
and then just out of my mind set, i started doing them "ALL THE TIME" if not in between every set, it helped getting my mind away from the pain... it helped me talk less in the gym, workout harder... after 4 months of seriously doing calves in between every set, i can honestly say i got calves in 4 months...
btw... i still do them all the time, but in between every set

[IronReload04]

just like it said fellas they just wont grow.. i blast them twice a week hard and nothing. Im starting to think im genetically doomed...

first and foremost, a bigger quad will probably lead to better potential for calves


secondly- pick an exercize where you can get a rediculous range of motion ie all the way the **** down. 10 second negatives, 5 second stretch at the bottom of the rep (hold and push hard and stretch maximally and explode up to complete a rep. Look at getting 15-16 reps like this....AND LIGHTEN THE LOAD. THIS WILL BE ONE OF THE MOST INTENSE PAINS YOU WILL EXPERIENCE IN A WEIGHT ROOOM IF DONE PROPERLY. you should feel like you want to quit at 10 or 11, but keep pushing till 15 or 16. you should have tears running down your face past 11. pain is the limiting factor with calves, not strength. you ignore pain and the set is over when you are offered 1 billion dollars to do one more rep and you cant do it. the set is done when its physcally impossible to do one more rep. you ignore pain. the set is over when you give it everything you have and cant budge the weight.

[IronReload04]

the main probem i used to have, and i see other people doing is this. They pick to heavy of a weight, and use shitty range of motion and use momentum while not realizing that pain is a bigger factor than strength. calves without a doubt are the most painful muscle to train. quads suck to, but its the after effects you feel, in the moment, calves are the most painful.

you need to get it drilled in your head that a bigger leg will have a bigger calve..

hope this helps

[IronReload04]

o ya, 1.5-2 grams of protein per pound helps too

[beezlebubb666]

i also read that calves are hella genetically predetermined.. what do you guys think about that?

[MFT81]

^^ well yeah, all your muscles are,

here is my tip for calves (but mine are like 15 inches or somthing pathetic like that sooo)

I used to do all my calf raises off a elevated platform like a block and would go down all the way, a FULL stretch, cause thats what everyone else did

But after thinking about it I decided to start doing standing calf raises from the floor instead of elevated on a block. I find that most people, esp begginers dont have enough strenght to raise up when they are going beyond parallel with there heels.

give it a try once or twice and see if you dont feel a difference, you'll be able to use a heavier weight but you'll also have a better contraction as well.

[Prime]

i also read that calves are hella genetically predetermined.. what do you guys think about that?

This is something i totally agree with.
I know guys who never train them and have gigantic calves, i on the other hand train them as hard as any bodypart and they just don't grow. can't polish a turd unfortunatley.

[Mike Dura]

Are they high set? Is there shape there? I have high set calves however, I worked those muthf'ers 45 min to 1.5 every day for a year and a half - bombing them in every conceivable way and I put an inch on them. One inch on calves makes a big difference. They looked cool. Post a pic of your calves. If there's some shape there, you've got potential. If they are high set, you'll never have legs like Platz but you may have calves like Coleman.

just like it said fellas they just wont grow.. i blast them twice a week hard and nothing. Im starting to think im genetically doomed...

[Saunacrank]

sucks that calves are mostly genetics

[Ronnie Rowland]

Work in the 6-15 rep range for all sets and use perform form. Building lower legs is mostly determined by ones genetics. I know- it's not fair.