I’ve found that agility work and heavy wheelbarrow walks have added a new dimension to my calves.
-ton
I think getting that full explosion from the drive phase of a stride or jump is where the gastroc is worked the most, being that it is fast twitch. Some of the other posts above referred to sled dragging, but it sounded like they were talking about walking, not running. I think with a weight sled, you’ve got to be sprinting to really hit the calves to their maximum.
With that said, it seems impossible to sprint with a sled behind you and have your heel hit the ground first. In a forward lean, pulling a sled, driving your legs, even with your foot fully dorsiflexed, your footstrike will be on the ball of your foot.
Here are my favorite calf workouts. If you’ve never tried them, I guarentee you will be extremely sore afterwards. Both of these need to be done as explosively as possible.
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Hill sprints - Best results are on an inclined hill and not steps. The angle of the hill against your foot works your calf through a much greater range of motion.
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Sprinting workouts in track spikes - Just sprinting in general does great for my calves; short explosive, driving sprints, like 30 or 40 yd dashes. But using track spikes really kicks it up a notch for me. The abscence of a raised heal found in a normal running shoe again increases the calf range of motion while sprinting. If you’re not already used to sprinting though, work up to track spikes slowly. Otherwise, it can lead to an arch or calf strain, because track spikes don’t have very much support.
Tate mentions walking around big= bigger calves and squatting big=bigger claves. One other powerlifting element he doesn’t mention is Glute Ham Raises.
If performed correctly with a toeplate it’s really a Glute-Ham-Gastroc raise. Do a bunch of those with some weight=calf hypertrophy
Great discussion - thanks for the clarification on the calve fiber type. I have still seen impressive calves with low-medium weight reps (whether working the gastroc or soleus) and tons of volume. Plus, I haven’t seen too many “jumpers” (track or Fball) with big calves - powerful yes, big not usually. Then again, they don’t know what it means to eat hypercalorically!
As for sled sprinting, you can most definitely perform that, although you won’t need much load - just the weight of the sled will kick your ass. But, only if you are going for fitness/physique; if you are a sprinter you can ruin your gait technique, so be careful.
I STILL don’t see sled dragging (even walking up-right) being a posterior chain develeper superior to other isolateral lifts for power lifting because you STILL have to use the ball of the foot to walk with locomotion and that is NOT how you do any power lift. Great GPP sure, but I would still not use it in place of an assistance/auxiliary lift.
I’m all for cross-training for sport, but lifting is a skill within a sport, meaning it’s not very dynamic compared to football, track, etc. Sled dragging is dynamic and is therefore biomechanically much different than a power lift. It will not mimic the power lifts in such a manner to directly carry over to their developement. But by all means, use it to get those calves in shape lose that gut so you can drop down a weight class! 
TS
[quote]matticus wrote:
Tate mentions walking around big= bigger calves and squatting big=bigger claves. One other powerlifting element he doesn’t mention is Glute Ham Raises.
If performed correctly with a toeplate it’s really a Glute-Ham-Gastroc raise. Do a bunch of those with some weight=calf hypertrophy[/quote]
If the foot plate puts your foot in deep dorsiflexion or if you drive ONLY the heel into the plate, keeping the foot pull back hard (like when performing a leg curl) then I could see it hitting the gastroc. But, if the foot stays neutral the gastroc is not very active.
As a side note, you could get a semi-isometric calf workout by pushing only with the ball of the foot while performing the hip extension. Only draw back is this will still work the glutes but not as much hamstring.
TS
Squats work the calves but not that great. You just have to have a long layoff from direct calfwork for a while and then do a hard calf workout to realize this. You’ll be be feeling it.