Now I know people have issues with neo-phytes doing curls in the squat rack, however, I am sure that what I saw yesterday has this beat.
A young guy, nice physique, puts two thick plates on the floor, places the balls of his feet on the plates, grasps a weighted barbell [@80kg] and begins to do calf raises…I kid you not.
Then there was the guy doing admiration curls…
I’m sure this looked funny, but it sounds to me like just a different way to hit the calves. I do an awful lot of strange looking exercises, myself and many are just variations on a theme to tweak things just a little differently and encourage progress.
Sounds like a hell of a balancing act, though.
Not so much strange looking as inefficient. The plates lift the ball of the foot about 1-1.5 inches off the floor; thus no eccentric phase to the lift.
Also when considering the load calves can bear, the weight used was essentially redundant. IMHO, really light weight is really only effective when the foot/ ankle and thus calves are adjusting to an unstable environment
There were far better things he could have spent his time doing
Just my opinion but im sick of seeing newbies doing 16 working sets for bi’s on the one day every third week they come in.