My calves are terrible. I have never put much/any effort into training calves apart from the workout they recieve from other exercises eg snatch, high pulls etc. One reason for this is that i am not sure how to train them for max effect.
I have access to lost of equipment at the gym, except a seated calf raise machine.
Any good programs, or any wokout you’ve personally had excellent results with.
Thank you.
The best gains in strength and size i got were from using the ‘white man cant jump progarm’ by ian king. Look it up. Hopefully it will help.
Also check out Functionally Correct Calves in issue 268, might give you some ideas.
I got good results from training my calves twice per week, one heavy and one light workout.
Wo 1. Standing and seated calfraises for 12-15 sets, reps 3-6.
Wo 2. Standing calfraise-donkey calfraise-jumping. All on one leg, bodyweight only. Maximum reps! Do your weak leg first. Rest 15-20 sec and do your other leg. 3-4 sets total (per leg). Rest a few minutes and continue with calfraises in legpress machine, 3-5 set 10-15 reps.
Importent, do all reps nice and slow, let the muscle work. Tempo 1211.
Start with a lower amount of sets and work up gradually, trust me on that one, I learnt the hard way!!
Seated calfraise w/o machint. Easy, sit on a bench, balance a dumbell on your knee, slide your foot back untill the heal lifts from the floor. Rep away!!
Good luck!
Another thing I found important when training is consistency, keep hammering those calves and they will grow. Change program every three weeks. Have two programs that you alternate.
You could also give my calf program a try that I mentioned in one of my earlier Branding Iron columns. It’s excellent for hypertrophy.
what i have read/ heard is that u should train your calves fast because they are a fast reacting muscle. what i do is calf raises with a standing machine with a semi-heavy weight for 4 sets of 25 reps. trick is to go all the way do and all the way up.preferably do one leg at a time, you can bend you knee a little, but dont use the quads. but if u cant, 2 legs is fine as well. do em fast as if you are jumping.
hope that helped.
Hi. My calves are also terrible, 16inches, my arms are 18 and thats not a nice symetri! They just never ever seem to grow. For the past 2years I have done all I can to make them grow. I have used several different programs, but the only thing that makes them grow a little is to beat the crap out of em! I have got a smal range of motion so i do a lot of streching(sorry about the bad english). I do calves 2times/week att about 15-20setts every time! Day1 heavy and day2 high reps. I use only 2 different exersises. 1seatet to hit the soleus and one standing to primary hit the gastrocnemius.
Day1: 120sec rest between sets)
Standing calvraise smithmachine 8x4
Seated calvraise 8x4
Killer day
Day2: (30sec rest betwenns sets)
Seated calveraise smithmachine(place bar over your knees) 10x30 Standing Calverais/Donkyraise or cavleraise in a leggpress machine 8x30
Dropp the wight so you can keep the reps high! (I only use my bw at the last setts)
Im almost dead after this workout! This is what works for me. All the programs out there don`t make my calves grow att all! I have to beat the shit out of them!
After 2-3weeks i change my routine and puts all the seated work at day 1 and all the standing work at day2! 8setts and 15-20reps att all of the exersises. Yes thats 16setts att the setated leggpress
Give this a try, maybe it works for u to! (Most of my clients make great gains on this program) But remember to cut down the total amout of setts at your best bodyparts when doing this routine! Once again Im sorry for the bad english!
//Powerman
It takes time to build great calves.
Start now.
bump
Luckily G-man gave me a decent pair to work with but I still continue to hit them hard during workouts to keep them strong.
If I’m doing bodyweight standing raises, I will throw them in as the 30-60 second break between supersets or normal sets of upper body workouts. Hi rep range of 20+ so that by the 3-4 set I can trully feel the calves screaming.
If I am doing them weighted, I do it on leg day as my last exercises. One, because I like to have the legs warmed up a bit and two, my calves get a nice stretch before taking on the weight directly.
On leg day I hit squats, leg press/hack squat and then leg ext (I hit hams on back day). When I am done I head back to the leg press for calf raise dropsets and then seated calf raises to failure.
But the best work I have found to really get them pumping is steep hill and sled work. Real hill and sled work, the kind that when you are done you just have to lay there for awhile to keep from puking and gather your strength to go home. getting up on the toes and driving your legs with not only build your calves but your quads as well.
Sprout
You could always use the Smith machine to do seated calf raises.