Recently went on vacation for 2 weeks to the coast.
During this time i spent a good hour or 2 walking in the soft sand around the beaches.Not only was this relaxing but i could really feel it in my calves.
When i got home i checked the measurement of my calves and they have increased by over a inch.A couple of people have asked me what i have been doing for my claves and i just told them walking in the soft sand at the beach.They just thought i was bullshitting.
So if your calf training sucks get on the soft sand and go for some fast walks.
[quote]Augustus wrote:
Of course, it may also have something to do with the fact that you were over-training your calves and they finally got a break.[/quote]
Who said i train my calf muscle’s??
I dont,they measure 17 inch but after my sand walking experience they shot up big time, 18.5 inch for a tall guy im happy with the gains
I have shedding my holiday fat. I’ve been going easy on the weights, dropping isolation lifts and focusing only on a few big lifts. I am spending a lot of time on a treadmill at an incline.
40 minutes of walking at a 10-15% incline and no direct calf work has brought me more definition that before, when I was doing high volume, varied reps and heavy weight.
that is some amazing growth! Let us know if it sticks - sometimes I have had high exposure and loss some size when inflamation decreased.
Your experience definitely is another example of the high volume of training and frequency like what CW talks about.
What I find most interesting is the load - you clearly where not stressing your calves enough each time where you could not use them again the next day.
I wonder if this effect was primarily because of the type of fiber build up, and that the calves needed that sort of volume to grow, or more because of the frequency of exposure.
And how could such a strategy be applied to another bodypart for brief periods?
i don’t train them either, but my job forces me to walk an average of 9 miles a day, but i can tell you that there’s no routine that would get me much better results than this…
Thanks HHH for this thread. I’m heading down to Florida in 2 months, and I"ll have to do that and see what happens. I remember walking barefoot on the beach when I was a kid one time and I do remember my calves hurting the day after.
i read in the arnold book that each of your legs can pretty much handle your body weight. that in mind if you wieght 200lb,you want 200lb for each calf min.so 500+ is what you should be hitting for serious gains.but what does arnold know.
[quote]mazilla wrote:
i read in the arnold book that each of your legs can pretty much handle your body weight. that in mind if you wieght 200lb,you want 200lb for each calf min.so 500+ is what you should be hitting for serious gains.but what does arnold know.[/quote]
yeah, that sounds about right…for something like squats…it seems like you are giving this number for calfs, and i doubt there’s many people going around doing 500lb sets of calf exercises…
i do. and i am not huge.well as close as i can get anyways. the rack holds 400, then i add 5 or 6 45’s to the top. it’s kinda akward having the plates like an inch from your face. i have the book, it’s in thier, except arnold quote’s 1000lb calf raises, and shows photo’s
[quote]HouseOfAtlas wrote:
Thanks HHH for this thread. I’m heading down to Florida in 2 months, and I"ll have to do that and see what happens. I remember walking barefoot on the beach when I was a kid one time and I do remember my calves hurting the day after.[/quote]
No worries brother.
One thing though.Make sure it is the really soft sand,the type when u go to walk your feet and sliding and trying u are trying to keep from not falling over.
I think my growth came from just the diffeerent angles i was pushing on each leg,a standard calf raise is up and down but with snad sometimes your feet slide in one direction and then another.
Being a whisker under 250 probably helped heaps
The bad thing was after i done my walks i jumped straight in the ocean for a swim,about 10 mins later i got some major fucking cramps in my calves(not good when in the water)
I managed to paddle my way back to shore
[quote]HHH wrote:
Recently went on vacation for 2 weeks to the coast.
During this time i spent a good hour or 2 walking in the soft sand around the beaches.Not only was this relaxing but i could really feel it in my calves.
When i got home i checked the measurement of my calves and they have increased by over a inch.A couple of people have asked me what i have been doing for my claves and i just told them walking in the soft sand at the beach.They just thought i was bullshitting.
So if your calf training sucks get on the soft sand and go for some fast walks.
Peace
HHH[/quote]
When my calves were @ they’re best I was doing sprints & endurance sprints on the beach. They were big & ripped. Around 16 inches, everyone would make comments. Also, would use those funny looking Strength Shoes, which do work! Look at the ladies who wear heels, they have nice shaply calves compared to those who don’t.
[quote]mazilla wrote:
i read in the arnold book that each of your legs can pretty much handle your body weight. that in mind if you wieght 200lb,you want 200lb for each calf min.so 500+ is what you should be hitting for serious gains.but what does arnold know.[/quote]
i read that also, and each leg can support ur bodyweight but the load is being distributed throughout your whole leg not just the calf
works for me. looks like i have upside down ass cracks on each calf.not exactly like ass crack that would be some funny ass shit, unless it was you.maybe that was not the best reference, but you get the idea. i have always had super calves though, i think it was from mountain biking for years when i was younger. i always peddal with my toes, keeps your calves flexed
