I’ve always had very, very cut calves from years of playing football and doing olympic lifts, squats and deads, but my calves are a little small. So about 2 months ago i started working them 3x a week and they’ve really grown a lot. Haven’t measured, but they clearly look bigger than they did 2 months ago.
Now I’ve heard that increasing calf size can make you slower and lower your vertical. Is this true or another silly myth? Anyone have any experience with this???
[quote]OKLAHOMA STATE wrote:
I’ve always had very, very cut calves from years of playing football and doing olympic lifts, squats and deads, but my calves are a little small. So about 2 months ago i started working them 3x a week and they’ve really grown a lot. Haven’t measured, but they clearly look bigger than they did 2 months ago.
Now I’ve heard that increasing calf size can make you slower and lower your vertical. Is this true or another silly myth? Anyone have any experience with this??[/quote]
Why would bigger calves make someone slower?
I have never heard the myth of calves making anyone slower, but if your calves have grown a lot, you may consider some dorsiflexion work to balance out the the tension. Just a thought. I’m curious to hear what anyone else thinks about this.
-MAtt
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Why would bigger calves make someone slower?
[/quote]
ummm, the same way any other bigger muscle makes you weaker in that muscle’s function?? duh
[quote]Professor X wrote:
OKLAHOMA STATE wrote:
I’ve always had very, very cut calves from years of playing football and doing olympic lifts, squats and deads, but my calves are a little small. So about 2 months ago i started working them 3x a week and they’ve really grown a lot. Haven’t measured, but they clearly look bigger than they did 2 months ago.
Now I’ve heard that increasing calf size can make you slower and lower your vertical. Is this true or another silly myth? Anyone have any experience with this??
Why would bigger calves make someone slower?
[/quote]
that’s gotto be like slappin 15 pounds to each leg and tryin to run! obviously those huge calves would slow down any man or beast.
[quote]OKLAHOMA STATE wrote:
I’ve always had very, very cut calves from years of playing football and doing olympic lifts, squats and deads, but my calves are a little small. So about 2 months ago i started working them 3x a week and they’ve really grown a lot. Haven’t measured, but they clearly look bigger than they did 2 months ago.
Now I’ve heard that increasing calf size can make you slower and lower your vertical. Is this true or another silly myth? Anyone have any experience with this???[/quote]
Try and do a verticle jump without using your calfs (just using your heels) and then with using your calfs to see the difference then ask the same question to yourself.
[quote]superscience wrote:
Try and do a verticle jump without using your calfs (just using your heels) and then with using your calfs to see the difference then ask the same question to yourself.
[/quote]
Yes, do that. Then try to do a vertical jump with just your calves. Finally, put it all together.
What does this tell you?
Most of the power in a jump comes from the hips and thighs. The calves act as an accelerator.
Strengthening the calves will help your vertical, but to make the largest gains and have the greatest effect you need to spend the majority of your time strengthing the thighs and hips.
The calf action is minimal in sprinting and jumping and just used to transfer power generated thru hips and thighs. you probably would be quicker losing some weight down tere while maintaining power.
however tere are sprinters and footballers with “big calves” for their size, not HUGE ones, but not the stick like calves eiter.
Two who came to mind was Michael Johnson and who was that Colorodo Football player who came to the league and had his baby mamma killed ( ran like a 4.2 ) Ray Carruth. Eric Bienemy had pretty big calves.
Additionally Michael Johnson physique was way out of wack for the “prototypical sprinter” created by stick modelling in the 80’s and 90’s. He had shorter legs ( probably avg man length or shorter ), a long torso, a pretty big head.
However the thought is rigt, if the calves can be smaller and lighter, with the same power you going to be faster.
I think the big calves myth you’ve heard may be a bastardization of something true. People who have “higher” calves, or calves with longer tendons compared to muscle bellies, tend to be faster/jump higher because connective tissue acts like a spring in ballistic movents. So, someone with genetically “larger” calves would always be just a little bit slower/have a little less vertical than someone like Michael Jordan who appeard to have smaller calves everything else equal.
Getting them stronger/more hypertrophied won’t slow you down, though, unless taken to extremes.
-Dan
Its an inertia ting too for sprinter.
Imagine the lower leg as a “rod”, make it a metal pole for simplification.
you got a weigt, the size of a grapefruit. The closer the mass is to the knee, the easier its going to be for the rod to move faster back and fort.
I don’t think increasing the size of your calves is going to make you slower, as long as you continue sprinting, and explosive training. I don’t think large calves are especially important for sprinters…more important that they can absorb and transfer force as fast as possible, ie minimizing heel drop during sprinting.
[quote]buffalokilla wrote:
I think the big calves myth you’ve heard may be a bastardization of something true. People who have “higher” calves, or calves with longer tendons compared to muscle bellies, tend to be faster/jump higher because connective tissue acts like a spring in ballistic movents. So, someone with genetically “larger” calves would always be just a little bit slower/have a little less vertical than someone like Michael Jordan who appeard to have smaller calves everything else equal.
Getting them stronger/more hypertrophied won’t slow you down, though, unless taken to extremes.
-Dan[/quote]
That’s what I was going to say.
[quote]djrobins wrote:
Its an inertia ting too for sprinter.
Imagine the lower leg as a “rod”, make it a metal pole for simplification.
you got a weigt, the size of a grapefruit. The closer the mass is to the knee, the easier its going to be for the rod to move faster back and fort.[/quote]
Sprinters flex the knee when pulling the hind leg to the front to minimize the moment of inertia.
A heavier calf should make it a little harder for you to shift your legs forward (nothing serious), but having the benefit of extra power would outweigh this, imo.
Then again, having big heavy calfs that aren’t powerful may slow you down.
[quote]chicanerous wrote:
superscience wrote:
Try and do a verticle jump without using your calfs (just using your heels) and then with using your calfs to see the difference then ask the same question to yourself.
Yes, do that. Then try to do a vertical jump with just your calves. Finally, put it all together.
What does this tell you?
Most of the power in a jump comes from the hips and thighs. The calves act as an accelerator.
Strengthening the calves will help your vertical, but to make the largest gains and have the greatest effect you need to spend the majority of your time strengthing the thighs and hips.[/quote]
I can only get maybe 2 inchs off the ground using my calfs and about ten inches on my heels (using my glutes and quads only). When i combine the both i can do a 30 inch vert, intersting.
[quote]superscience wrote:
chicanerous wrote:
superscience wrote:
Try and do a verticle jump without using your calfs (just using your heels) and then with using your calfs to see the difference then ask the same question to yourself.
Yes, do that. Then try to do a vertical jump with just your calves. Finally, put it all together.
What does this tell you?
Most of the power in a jump comes from the hips and thighs. The calves act as an accelerator.
Strengthening the calves will help your vertical, but to make the largest gains and have the greatest effect you need to spend the majority of your time strengthing the thighs and hips.
I can only get maybe 2 inchs off the ground using my calfs and about ten inches on my heels (using my glutes and quads only). When i combine the both i can do a 30 inch vert, intersting.
[/quote]
Vertical= calve jump(2.5) x heel jump
I have very large calves and am a recreational runner/marathoner. When weight-training I never do direct calf work, they grow disproportionately large very quickly (I know, poor me.). Anyway, whenever I do my speed work leading up to a running event, my calves get bigger.
Hmmm, I get faster… calves get bigger.
In my experience - bigger calves do not equate to slower speed.
[quote]Krollmonster wrote:
I don’t think increasing the size of your calves is going to make you slower, as long as you continue sprinting, and explosive training. I don’t think large calves are especially important for sprinters…more important that they can absorb and transfer force as fast as possible, ie minimizing heel drop during sprinting.[/quote]
I was wondering when somebody was gonna post this.
Actually I meant to quote buffalokilla’s post, and also, has anybody heard the notion that Achilles tendon length is proportional to penis length. As one increases, the other increases - not sure if the claim is that they’re exactly the same length though.
Generally larger calves mean a lower insertion point, which isn’t optimal for speed, but there’s nothing you can do about it. Also if your calves are heavier (and lower) it require more torque to flex your leg. The same goes for larger (and heavier) joints. This is why most high level sprinters have high calves and smaller joints. Again, you can’t really do anything about this so as long as you’re not toting alot of extra fat around you’re doing the best you can.
The size of the muscle has nothing to do with speed…its the composition of twitch fibers (fast vs. slow) and the amount of power you can get from them.