[quote]conorh wrote:
How much do you squat? For me, as my squat goes up, my calves get bigger.[/quote]
you got me man, i cant squat alot. not even worth repeating
Overhead Squats, especially till you get the flexibility can give you some calf growth amongst other things.
Charles Poliquin’s stuff has always made the most sense to me. This is out of all the coaches and bods writing articles. I’d go as far to say that just from his info alone I probably have a considerable amount of extra mass and strength. I don’t know if its still available but the ‘Poliquin Principles’ is an excellent book.
My calves are now 17" as well, and I haven’t been happy about the lack of progress in this area, although I have been training them. At 6’1" and 208 lbs I would see more size in them as I come up in weight, but I will try to incorporate some of your routine in my workouts for the next several months and see what happens.
Thanks for the thread!
[quote]Mr. Push Ups wrote:
conorh wrote:
How much do you squat? For me, as my squat goes up, my calves get bigger.
you got me man, i cant squat alot. not even worth repeating
[/quote]
You should do 1000 bodyweight squats after your normal push-up routine. You would never need to touch a weight again and would look great in your pink lycra shorts!
[quote]deanosumo wrote:
You should do 1000 bodyweight squats after your normal push-up routine. You would never need to touch a weight again and would look great in your pink lycra shorts!
[/quote]
After all, the only thing you need to do to get HUGE legs is body weight squats and body weight lunges.
Who needs all those bars and weights anyway?
For your calves, I don’t know why you ever tried anything other than body weight calf raises. They should give you huge calves if you do enough of them, right?
heres the fanclub
i dunno ronnie coleman seemed to get some nice mass from that bodyweight squat
Tom platz wasn’t that another guy usung a bodyweight movement.
hey leg presses are great, i’ll take a squat anyday
opinions vary, have a nice day
[quote]deanosumo wrote:
Mr. Push Ups wrote:
conorh wrote:
How much do you squat? For me, as my squat goes up, my calves get bigger.
you got me man, i cant squat alot. not even worth repeating
You should do 1000 bodyweight squats after your normal push-up routine. You would never need to touch a weight again and would look great in your pink lycra shorts!
[/quote]
these are the types of people that ruin informative threads
for years i have had “large” calves, i just measuered them for the first time being curious about prof x’s comment about body wieght contributing to calf size, it seems to be much of it. my calves measured 18.5", i tip the scale at 225, down from 245(for years). the other contributing factor was mountain biking, i’m sure. i always peddled with the my toes. i can rep out 600lb on a calf raise, 12rx5s. i do get sore though. in fact i’m sore now. i have heard around that idealy your calves and your biceps should be the same size. i don’t see how that could be poss. what if you have 20"+ bicep’s. maybe it’s just me, but i don’t know anybody with 20"+ calves. i guess that kinda answered my own question.
[quote]mazilla wrote:
for years i have had “large” calves, i just measuered them for the first time being curious about prof x’s comment about body wieght contributing to calf size, it seems to be much of it. my calves measured 18.5", i tip the scale at 225, down from 245(for years). the other contributing factor was mountain biking, i’m sure. i always peddled with the my toes. i can rep out 600lb on a calf raise, 12rx5s. i do get sore though. in fact i’m sore now. i have heard around that idealy your calves and your biceps should be the same size. i don’t see how that could be poss. what if you have 20"+ bicep’s. maybe it’s just me, but i don’t know anybody with 20"+ calves. i guess that kinda answered my own question. [/quote]
its hard to do, but i think Dorian Yates accomplished having his biceps and Calves around the same size…and we all know how big he was. Its possible. Arnold came close. but i think he had 22 oe 23 inch biceps and his calves were 20…well maybe not that close
[quote]SWR-1222D wrote:
After all, the only thing you need to do to get HUGE legs is body weight squats and body weight lunges.
Who needs all those bars and weights anyway?
For your calves, I don’t know why you ever tried anything other than body weight calf raises. They should give you huge calves if you do enough of them, right?[/quote]
well 3 of the 4 exercises in Poliquins Calf Routine are Bodyweight exercises. all except for the seated raises isnt. And the seated raises are done at such llow reps, i really feel this is the strength building part of the regimen. the other 3 bodyweight exercises are pretty much the ones bulking. The soleus responds to the heavier weight and the gastrocnemius is the part thats growing on me and its using some very high reps.
so yeah, these bodyweight exercises are working great for me. 1000 lbs on the leg press machine is less effective for me than using a standing raise with maybe not even 1/4 of that weight. And the donkeys i use maybe 200.
i didnt say it will work for everyone, i just said it worked for me.
same goes with the bodyweight push up.
i get more outta doing an elevated push up between chairs with a 100 lb backpack on than i do with 250 lb on the bench press.
just a point of view, not a law
peace
This made me get the tape measure outand my calevs are slightly over 18 inches; that’s 40centimetres for us Europeans. Problem is it doesn’t matter what gains I make I always look like a skinny shit in the mirror, to me It doesn’t look like I have any muscle and I always have to console myself by stepping on the scales or getting the tape-measure out; because they can’t lie about progress. Anyhow I’m going to try this out; thanks for your feedback.
[quote]Le Stig wrote:
I don’t know if its still available but the ‘Poliquin Principles’ is an excellent book. [/quote]
This was the second weightlifting book I bought(a couple years after I had been using Arnold’s Encyclopedia…I know, I know.) The first workout I designed after reading this was a mishmash of the workouts he had in there, and a horrible design looking back on it, but I saw the great gains over the course of that program which I used for about four months with tweaks to the lifts used, rep ranges, and sets. In short, it is my favorite book on weightraining.
Just wanted to stir the pot alittle Mr. Push up, good Luck!!
[quote]slimjim wrote:
Le Stig wrote:
I don’t know if its still available but the ‘Poliquin Principles’ is an excellent book.
This was the second weightlifting book I bought(a couple years after I had been using Arnold’s Encyclopedia…I know, I know.) The first workout I designed after reading this was a mishmash of the workouts he had in there, and a horrible design looking back on it, but I saw the great gains over the course of that program which I used for about four months with tweaks to the lifts used, rep ranges, and sets. In short, it is my favorite book on weightraining.[/quote]
Arnolds Book…I bought that the same day a friend of mine told me it was out. $50 well spent. I’m just glad there are other experts out there to rely on. I think about 90% of what’s in that book is usefull to everyone, and the other 10% is only useful for Arnold. He has always been my favorite. But, I’ve realized unless you are Arnold, do your own thing that works best for you. Dorian & Ronnie didn’t really lift like him and got super hugh.
For me Waterbury makes alot of sense, Poliquin, Dorian, Arnold, even Bruce Lee i stole stuff from. Bottom line, is find out what works for you and use it. I tried Arnolds calf routine and failed training that way, maybe it was my execution and not the routine. But until I found Poliquins routine, I’ve been struggeling with calves. And I’ve been after hugh calves for years. I’ve managed to figure what works best for me on every muscle except for my forearms. And I’m getting close.
Gironda is the key to that i think, i just need to employ more of his techniques “drag curls”. Right now I’m experimenting with all kinds of things but I’ll figure them out to. Wish I had those natural forearms, would save me alot of experimenting.
Anyways I agree with you & the other guy that really liked Poliquins principles. Another genius in the muscle building world.
Have you tried doing push-ups?
[quote]harris447 wrote:
Have you tried doing push-ups?[/quote]
lol
Ok you win today harris.
I don’t have enough left in me to start a flame war with ya over that topic.
I’ll give ya this
The bench press built 75% of the mass on my chest. After I hit a plateau, the push ups was the only thing i could find to get over that hump. (just remeber that i add alot of weight and elevate that exercise)
you win…
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Bottom line, I feel that calves need higher frequency of training and that body weight may help them grow if they are suddenly carrying more weight around all day.[/quote]
Fair point. I don’t disagree. It is certainly evident with a lot of bigger guys I’ve seen who I know do not spend any time training calves and yet their calves are huge. I was just thinking over the factr that I have not spent any time focusing on higher weekly frequency.
[quote]Mr. Push Ups wrote:
I didn’t come up with this routine. A T-Nation author did awhile back and I think it was Poliquin. I’m not sure, sorry if I got that wrong. I think I have it exactly but it might not be completly accurate as I did copy this down a long time ago.
I decided to promote this workout for 2 reasons.
One,
because i’m part of the group with the most stubburn & geneticly inferior calves who have done everything under the sun to make them grow. Well i have used over 1000 lbs on the leg press machine doing toe raises and got little growth. Used every standing raise machine in the gym on the heaviest setting and got little results. Seated raises with it filled with six 45lb plates and my training partner sitting on top of that, little growth. Weight sleds full of 45’s, little growth. Also I have done 100’s of reps with just a basic bodyweight raise and gotten little growth. I wanted freakish size, not little growth.
Two,
I got freakish size from this routine. I’ve been using it for almost 5 months.
And I’ve added almost 2 inches to my calves. Didn’t want to promote someone elses routine until I recieved major benefits from it personaly.
I thought I had put the effort in doing the exercises heavy, frequently, and intensely. The key ingredient i was missing was tacticly.
Here is how.
First-
the calves need to be worked heavy & light but with a concentration on the concentric & ecentric movement rather than just moving alot of weight or doing alot of reps. More of a visualization technique of the muscle actually contracting and expanding. (Mind into muscle)
Second-
since the range of motion is short, you have to intensify the time under stress rather than the stressload itself.
Third-sets/reps/weight/frequency/rest…is a science that is probably different for everyone in what thier calves respond to, but a general blueprint in blasting hypertrophy is probably not. this routine can be tweaked to your own needs. but i found it to be ideal for extremely fast calf blasting hypertrophy.
Finally- here is the program and the routine that has worked better for me than about 100 things i’ve tried.
DAY 1…
Supersets A & B, rest 2 minutes between sets. After A, immediately to B
Exercise A - Seated Raise
3 sets
10-5-5 reps
Tempo- 101, 1 second up, 1 second down, no pause anywhere in the movement
Exercise B - Donkey Raise
3 sets
50 to 30 reps
Tempo- 101
Then…
Exercise C - Standing Raises
10 sets
30 to 10 reps
Tempo- 111, 1 second up, 1 second down, 1 second pause as you hold stretch at the bottom
Rest- 10 seconds between sets
Then you can limp or crawl out to the parking lot.
DAY 2…
OFF
DAY 3…
Dropests
Sets- 3 dropsets
reps 10-10-10 per dropset, no rest between rest, do immediately after weight is dropped
Tempo- 121, 1 second down, 2 second pause at the bottom stretch, 1 second up
Rest- 90 seconds between dropsets
Not as killer as day one, but just enough frequency to keep them growing and not overkill the volume
DAY 4…
OFF
DAY 5…
OFF
Thats it. Hit them twice every 5 days.
Unbelievable how well this is working. Just the right combo of high intensity and frequency. And the key was hitting high and low rep ranges while working the muscle, not the weight.
These muscles will grow if you train them smarter not harder.
Anyways, thanks to the author who wrote this workout. I’m about 99% sure it was Charles Poliquin, but I could be wrong.[/quote]
Forgot something. I left out the the exercise to do on the dropsets. It’s Standing Raises by the way.
I would give this a try if your having trouble with calves. Even a person with 20" calves could maybe use this as a shocker to thier program if thier looking for new growth. I got an intial shock from hell on this program. My calves were used to lifting heavier weights with horrible form and no concentration on the muscle.
I also forgot to say one of the things that hammered my calves was rest pausing to 100 reps. You have never experienced pain other wise. Do a weight you fail at about 20 with then rep pause to 100, your calves recover so quickly that you will make the hundred it just might take 10+ rest pauses. give it a shot.
[quote]X-Factor wrote:
I also forgot to say one of the things that hammered my calves was rest pausing to 100 reps. You have never experienced pain other wise. Do a weight you fail at about 20 with then rep pause to 100, your calves recover so quickly that you will make the hundred it just might take 10+ rest pauses. give it a shot.[/quote]
how long are those rest pauses? 5-10 seconds? or 30 seconds? or what?
I could add that to my routine. Maybe a just a couple sets somwhere in there.