[quote]myself1992 wrote:
eh, I’ve tried everything for my calves and they just grow when everything else grows and I don’t think the rate of their growth would change with different training styles as long as you’re training them… btw how much are you weighing right now bro?[/quote]
As of this morning 307.
[quote]mutantcolors wrote:
[quote]Highjumper wrote:
Also in between sets stretch each calf separately[/quote]
Hey, just curious, do you recommend stretching each calf separately between sets?
[/quote]
hahaha ya if you couldn’t tell by the million posts I had
I read that the achilles stores a ton of elastic energy, so it would make sense to take long pauses between reps. I’ve always had pretty good calves, but when I train them directly I make sure to focus on long pauses (3-5 seconds) in both the fully stretched and fully contracted position For heavy weight (something like 5x5 with five second pauses both ways). This seems to be the most effective thing for growth.
My best approach, after years of very little to show for calf development, was a simple divide and conquer. So many people do half assed calf work after seriously draining leg sessions, so I adopted the following approach:
Also, as the soleus muscle is routinely comprised of endurance fibers, I focused my high rep day on seated raises. Similarly, as the gastroc is primarily comprised of fast twitch fibers, I kept my low rep work with straight leg raises/presses.
Volume-wise, as I would usually engage in a 4 day split, I end up hitting some part of the calves about 3x/week, which for me, seems to be the sweet spot.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
My best approach, after years of very little to show for calf development, was a simple divide and conquer. So many people do half assed calf work after seriously draining leg sessions, so I adopted the following approach:
Also, as the soleus muscle is routinely comprised of endurance fibers, I focused my high rep day on seated raises. Similarly, as the gastroc is primarily comprised of fast twitch fibers, I kept my low rep work with straight leg raises/presses.
Volume-wise, as I would usually engage in a 4 day split, I end up hitting some part of the calves about 3x/week, which for me, seems to be the sweet spot.
S[/quote]
Thank you Stu. I will take this advice and incorporate it into my routine. Going to start hitting them hard. As they are decent naturally have not really focused on blasting them yet.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
My best approach, after years of very little to show for calf development, was a simple divide and conquer. So many people do half assed calf work after seriously draining leg sessions, so I adopted the following approach:
Also, as the soleus muscle is routinely comprised of endurance fibers, I focused my high rep day on seated raises. Similarly, as the gastroc is primarily comprised of fast twitch fibers, I kept my low rep work with straight leg raises/presses.
Volume-wise, as I would usually engage in a 4 day split, I end up hitting some part of the calves about 3x/week, which for me, seems to be the sweet spot.
S[/quote]
Thank you so much Stu. I had no idea of the composition fast and slow twitch fibers in the different areas of the calves.
[quote]Bauber wrote:
[quote]myself1992 wrote:
eh, I’ve tried everything for my calves and they just grow when everything else grows and I don’t think the rate of their growth would change with different training styles as long as you’re training them… btw how much are you weighing right now bro?[/quote]
As of this morning 307.[/quote]
Same weight as Rammy… coincidence, I think not.
I’ll post my calf workout which has been influenced partially by Shelby’s teachings. I always hit calves first thing when I do them in my workout. Reason being - by the end of my workout I’m tired, calves are a point I need to bring up and I can’t afford to not put all of my oomph into it.
I do two alternating workouts. Both with the same exercises, but different rep schemes.
Workout A:
Seated Calf Raise: 5x20 - 1 minute rest
Donkey Calf Raise: 5x20 - 1 minute rest
Workout B:
Donkey Calf Raise: 5x10 - 30 second rest
Seated Calf Raise: 5x10 - 30 second rest.
I originally tried doing the high rep version at the start of my leg day and found that my calves would cramp by my final set of heavy Leg Press - not a good time. So I swapped to doing the lower reps with heavier weight on leg day and haven’t had issues. I do the high rep version as the start of back day. So for me, that’s Tuesday high reps, Sunday low reps.
I’ve been stretching between sets each calf, one because it feels good, and two if that myofacial tendon (or whatever its called) is tight it may help. I was doing heavy on the Seated Calf Raises but it was pissing my knees off having the weight rest so close to my kneecap (at the bottom of my quads) so I’m thinking of swapping heavy weight on the 5x10 Seated Calf Raises to doing very slow, squeezing reps at lighter weight - ie TUT focus as opposed to pure weight.
Don’t do any bouncing with your calf work, the calves are designed to be elastic. As others stated, slow and controlled, and keep it smooth. I’m hoping in the next 5 years to have respectable calves…
[quote]SSC wrote:
I think calf training is a topic that has been beaten to absolute death, in total honesty.
This may sound like a jest, but I’m 100% serious. There is no mass-builder for calves like years of morbid obesity. Or being Korean.[/quote]
I live in Korea, a few days ago I saw a skinny fat guy on the subway with the biggest calves I have ever seen. They looked wrong, his ankles were slim yet his calves looked like Arnolds bicep peak. He had clearly never trained them, just great genetics. They looked so out of place.
One superset I love is:
A1) Flatfoot standing calf raises 3-4x5-8
A2) “Regular” standing calf raises 3-4x10-15
On the flatfoot raises, stand on the ground instead of the step and pause at the bottom to avoid bouncing and hold the peak contraction for a 1 or 2-count. On the “regular” standing calf raises, cut the weight around half and, again, hold each peak for a 1 or 2-count.
Also, whenever I use seated calf raises, I prefer to keep my fingertips on the calves throughout the whole set to maximize the contraction. In general, I think touch-training is underutilized.
Last thing: Train the tibialis with high reps (12-20+). I read Yates suggest it once, and it was good enough for me. It’s also a good way to ward off shin splints. Because I know you guys are always getting shin splints from all the jogging and cardio.
I have had a love/hate relationship with calf training ever since I decided to grow me a pair about this time last year.
They’re coming along (relatively) nicely. I will try to summise my findings in a few bullet points:
Ben Pakulski had a short video on calf training and he had some absolute gems in there. One was to tiptoe onto the ball of your foot, onto your big toe keeping the ankles together instead of flaring out. I didn’t even realise I was doing this until I watched the vid.
Also he said to try this - do a set of 10 standing calf raises (weighted) then for your ‘rest’ perform 10 bodyweight raises. Drop the weight if necessary but always make sure to get 10 reps. I think he said to perform 10 sets, if he meant 10 of EACH then he’s a sick man. I’m up to 6 of each until my calves are sweating pure beads of lactic acid.
Speaking of shin splints, I only ever got them at my heaviest at 255lbs. Man they sucked trying to do cardio. I’d go for walks/jogs at night with one of my 3 dogs and on the treck back home they’d get so bad walking was nearly impossible and my knee started to hurt (I’m guessing the tight shins removed some of the flexion/cushion and so there was more impact on the knee).
Now that I’m lighter, no issues, though I’m not doing things on an incline for cardio, I just do steady-state cardio bunny elliptical/treadmill stuff.
Training your shins is a good idea.
[quote]lemony2j wrote:
Ben Pakulski…Is a sick man. [/quote]
Obviously. Have you seen his calves?
My calves respond easily but for me the most important thing was focusing on the stretch at the bottom. Hill sprints also helped a great deal.
If calves are super stubborn generally I think you need to work on getting them much much stronger over time with reps schemes like 5x5 as well as regularly bombing them with bucket loads of high rep sets.
[quote]mutantcolors wrote:
Srs though, what’s with the Korean calves? Fucking lower leg tumors that make white guys jealous.[/quote]
Constant standing on tip-toe to seem taller?
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
Also, as the soleus muscle is routinely comprised of endurance fibers, I focused my high rep day on seated raises. Similarly, as the gastroc is primarily comprised of fast twitch fibers, I kept my low rep work with straight leg raises/presses.
[/quote]
Exactly. I read an article on here that said the best way to train calves is high rep standing calf raises. The article recommended doing a 100 a day something like 5 days a week or maybe even 7? I forget, but it’s because calves recover quickly.
It also said to add 5 pounds whenever you can do something like more than 20 reps in one set easily. You do your reps slowly and focus on feeling the muscle contract. Maybe someone here knows what I’m talking about and can find the article. I gained a little over an inch in a month like the article said.
edit: I’ve been doing jump rope for cardio and I noticed that my calves have been growing even though I haven’t been training them (I just got back from a break due to injury). So maybe combine that with standing calf raises? It should work good. I think I’m gonna start doing that and see what happens. I would do my calf raises first and then jump rope.
Ok so the gym dosent have a machine for everything I never work my calves and they r fuckin huge anyway take a 2 wheel dolly a hand cart if u no what I mean throw 500lbs on it find a nice lil hill give it hell bro push the cart up the hill a couple times then throw more weight on u will love the intense workout this gives ur calves trust me I do this at work every other day my calves r fuckin huge and bauber brother that pro card will b coming ur way buddy
Everytime I hear someone say ‘calves are genetic’ or some other form of self defeating advice I always wonder if these guys have trained their calves consistantly for years.
Most guys who have been lifting for 2+ years, have in all likely hood, never gone a week without training chest or bicep unless it was a week out of the gym or injury. So even at only training 1x a week bodypart, after 2 years lets say 90 workouts. And not to many people train only 1 exercise, usually around 3, so lets say the average person training in a bodypart split trains arms/chest with around 270 exercises and if we assume 3 sets, 810 sets.
How many of these people can honestly say they hit their calves EVERY week, and not just a half assed set or two of calf raises after their leg workout when they have no juice in the tank. It is probly more like 1 or 2x a month(and that is being generous for most people) and sometimes periods of just nothing, or just a 3-4 week blast that they stop after no or little results. Maybe they hit 1-2 exercises for 2-3 sets on average 1-2 times per month.
In that same 2 year time frame they hit biceps/chest for 810 sets, they hit their calves for a generous estimate of 150 sets.
Yeah… its gotta be genetics.
[quote]Waittz wrote:
Everytime I hear someone say ‘calves are genetic’ or some other form of self defeating advice I always wonder if these guys have trained their calves consistantly for years.
Most guys who have been lifting for 2+ years, have in all likely hood, never gone a week without training chest or bicep unless it was a week out of the gym or injury. So even at only training 1x a week bodypart, after 2 years lets say 90 workouts. And not to many people train only 1 exercise, usually around 3, so lets say the average person training in a bodypart split trains arms/chest with around 270 exercises and if we assume 3 sets, 810 sets.
How many of these people can honestly say they hit their calves EVERY week, and not just a half assed set or two of calf raises after their leg workout when they have no juice in the tank. It is probly more like 1 or 2x a month(and that is being generous for most people) and sometimes periods of just nothing, or just a 3-4 week blast that they stop after no or little results. Maybe they hit 1-2 exercises for 2-3 sets on average 1-2 times per month.
In that same 2 year time frame they hit biceps/chest for 810 sets, they hit their calves for a generous estimate of 150 sets.
Yeah… its gotta be genetics.
[/quote]
Personally, I can say I have put as much effort into my calves in the last 10 years as I have my other body parts. I had an above average squat and that came with some upper leg size. All that tapered down to some shitty calve development. I looked like a peg-leg in those short shorts from the late 80’s (Ok, I dated myself). I hit my lower legs with all I had, reps, sets, angles, high weight, slow, fast, etc. all for little gain.
I agree some people get genetics mixed up with laziness! But in all fairness, you should look at the body’s composition prior to weight training for the truth. If you did not have mush to go on at 16 years old, you have a tough row to hoe.
Good points above abt. folks not training calves consistently. Guilty as charged, I’d rather miss a calf session than a pec one (or delt, tri, bi, whatever).
But I’ve done the prioritazion thing w/calves. For extended periods. Some results, sure, but nothing compared to other muscle groups. The only thing that made any real difference for me calf-wise was to gain weight. Fat, muscle or (usually) a combo of the two. The heavier I’ve been, the bigger my calves have been. I lose weight, and they tend to shrink.