I’ve always noticed that fatties seem to have decent calves. Not champion calves , but developed. Is this because they’ve been carrying tons around their whole life? Or coincidence?
I have to brag.
my legs are strong and I have good calves.
in my case I was laid up from an injury and piled on 100 pounds of weight and went to mid 30s body fat and 300 pounds.
I find it easy now even though im still 290ish but I am 24% now it is easy to work my legs.
I even stoped doing direct leg work it was pointless for me becuase the cardio and the walking and stuff was enough.
to get a really good leg workout all I have to do is stair stepper work but skip one step where I am taking really wide strides.
my legs give out before I am breathing hard most times.
the effort and energy it takes to move around that amount of weight does build some muscle.
usually its in there legs because they dont do much else besides walk around from time to time.
Its not even that they look big because their fat
Yes we do.
I think it might be cause its really easy to climb stairs using only your toes. that’s how I always did it. Just put toes on the step and calf raise yourself up it. That was back when I was lazy and fat though. Now I get my toes as high as possible and step through the heel and activate glutes and hammies on every stair.
Wait, why do we care about fat people calves? If the rest of them is fat, then it stands to reason that their “well developed calves” are just fat too.
[quote]msd0060 wrote:
Yes we do.
I think it might be cause its really easy to climb stairs using only your toes. that’s how I always did it. Just put toes on the step and calf raise yourself up it. That was back when I was lazy and fat though. Now I get my toes as high as possible and step through the heel and activate glutes and hammies on every stair.[/quote]
think about the simple task of walking.
what is taking the shock of the weight crashing down on your feet?
and also whats pushing you foward,no one walks flatfooted they flex there toes.
the calves get punished just by walking
and I know I have always walked alot.
I put a pedometer on at work one day to see and i walked 8 miles in a 10 hours shift.
[quote]Makavali wrote:
Wait, why do we care about fat people calves? If the rest of them is fat, then it stands to reason that their “well developed calves” are just fat too.[/quote]
As us fat people lean out, the calves stay large.
Mine are much larger than all my other friends’ calves (guys that have been thin their whole lives). I think it kind of looks stupid, but I’m a shorts and t-shirt kind of guy so everyone else can fuck off.
I’ll take my fat kid calves over the toothpicks all my friends have.
Some of them even wear those huge ass shorts that hang down, and it really makes them look like little sticks holding them up. See it often in the gym.
[quote]msd0060 wrote:
As us fat people lean out, the calves stay large.[/quote]
Active fat people usually don’t stay fat for long. But I see what you mean.
Naturally big calves seem to be a product of a short tendon relative to the muscle belly length. That’s my observation. I take note sometimes because I have unusually large calves for my frame, so much that I don’t work out calves at all, even though I was rather skinny before I started lifting.
My calf muscles come down very far. When I flex for people, I flex my soleus.
[quote]synthesis wrote:
Naturally big calves seem to be a product of a short tendon relative to the muscle belly length. That’s my observation.
I take note sometimes because I have unusually large calves for my frame, so much that I don’t work out calves at all, even though I was rather skinny before I started lifting. My calf muscles come down very far. When I flex for people, I flex my soleus.[/quote]
This is true. A lot of guys that actually have calves in the gym that I’ve noticed, looks like a fairly weak thin calf running all the way up, like just skin and bone, but then a huge fucking cannon ball right below their knee. That looks badass IMO.
Calves as we test readers are usually talking are based at the gastroc though, not the soleus. Most of us would give a shit if our soleus was well developed, so long as our gastrocs are massive.
I do however take a certain measure of that comment concerning “giving a shit” about the soleus and reiterate the point: in relation to our gastrocs.
In my observation, if one’s soleus is smaller, it allows the growth of the calve to be exacerbated to a certain degree due to the immediate tapering of the the mid calve into the ankle.
The gastroc is relatively high when it reaches it’s tendonous portion, in relation to the low point that the soleus becomes tenonous(practically at the very base of achilles’ tendon).
The gastroc is activated more in a state of full knee extention while plantar flexing, whereas the soleus is more activated during partial to complete knee flexion while plantar flexing.
In layman’s terms(to those less educated T-readers): a donkey calve raise stimulates more gastroc tissue, while seated calve raises activates more soleus tissue.
When walking you are obviously in more of a state of knee extension than full or even partial knee flexion, although there is an obvious layering affect(i never know if i’m using the right term in the case of effect/affect, if someone could help please do, for i’ve obviously forgotten what my 7th grade teacher Mrs. Kournikova had taught me, there were just too many distracting bitches in that class).
Size or hypertrophy is largely believed to be caused by high volume in a certain directly proportional intensity.
Volume being walking 8 miles in an hour, intensity being your weight in this case.
Therefore if a fat person walks around primarily in a state of knee extension, for any given amount of time, he would accrue better gastroc size results than someone at a lower weight.
I will spare you on my beliefs as to why most of this is, because beyond this is more a matter of opinion, though if you wish to know my opinion versus what I believe to be highly accepted facts, PM me, I don’t wish to have people bashing me for lack of evidence.
Most of the knowledge I’ve just imparted is straight from this site so I hope you’ll agree for the most part what I’ve just laid out. Not that any of this knowledge is new, anything new is greeted with a large degree of skepticism that I don’t wish to be acquainted with.
Given this, call me crazy (4 out of 5 doctors agree(Hard Candy)), I’m trying to gain 30 pounds be it fat or muscle, then cut a drastic amount so my calves will actually take a greater load without me actively isolating them. (only a bodybuilder but not a huge fan of isolating my clients, for it yields less eyepopping results given the time I have to work with them)
Though I do intend to do an extremely high volume of donkey calve raises as well.
The weight gain is more to supplement, as well as win a bet.
That’s my peice, sorry for anyone that wishes to hate on any facet of the post.
We’re all brothers linked by the love of the iron. Hating is simply part of the game. Testosterone RULES.
[quote]synthesis wrote:
Naturally big calves seem to be a product of a short tendon relative to the muscle belly length. That’s my observation. I take note sometimes because I have unusually large calves for my frame, so much that I don’t work out calves at all, even though I was rather skinny before I started lifting. My calf muscles come down very far. When I flex for people, I flex my soleus.[/quote]
I believe this is because
A your soleus is more developed, as is the case with me and many others
B it is easier to display your soleus from a seated position (as is done in most cases as we are both lazy seated bastards, and trying to impress some hoe in a bar) and hard to identify when properly flexing gastrocs as they are part of our posterior chain(whereas soleus is obviously viewed form the lateral side, as it is deep to the gasroc), unfortunately for our underdeveloped calves we don’t have eyes in the back of our heads to determine which angle of toe(or ball of the foot) pointing (more has to do with internal/external rotation) will truly bring out the beast(or perhaps cow in this instance) in our calves.
try donkey calve raises with say 10 sets and 100 pounds(easier to strap the heaviest dumbbell in the gym to a chain than it is to grab multiple plates) to make them grow, then try looking in a mirror to see which angle truly sets that gastroc apart from the secondary soleus muscle.
word of advice it always helps to do antagonist work on the same day for the sake of lactate involvement and partitioning as well as neural adaptation. and i would strongly advice picking up some info on neural fatigue by Thib before doing too much calve work.
i was greatly pleased by Don Alessi’s calve routines, they are bomb though they do not involve any donkey calve raises i feel they are a great routine for intensity.
[quote]Makavali wrote:
Wait, why do we care about fat people calves? If the rest of them is fat, then it stands to reason that their “well developed calves” are just fat too.[/quote]
because you can use common logic to determine how they developed certain body parts and then find a way to apply it in your own training.
bascially, fat people hav big calves so…train calves with heavy weight.
[quote]caselorance wrote:
Calves as we test readers are usually talking are based at the gastroc though, not the soleus. Most of us would give a shit if our soleus was well developed, so long as our gastrocs are massive.
I do however take a certain measure of that comment concerning “giving a shit” about the soleus and reiterate the point: in relation to our gastrocs.
In my observation, if one’s soleus is smaller, it allows the growth of the calve to be exacerbated to a certain degree due to the immediate tapering of the the mid calve into the ankle.
The gastroc is relatively high when it reaches it’s tendonous portion, in relation to the low point that the soleus becomes tenonous(practically at the very base of achilles’ tendon).
The gastroc is activated more in a state of full knee extention while plantar flexing, whereas the soleus is more activated during partial to complete knee flexion while plantar flexing.
In layman’s terms(to those less educated T-readers): a donkey calve raise stimulates more gastroc tissue, while seated calve raises activates more soleus tissue.
When walking you are obviously in more of a state of knee extension than full or even partial knee flexion, although there is an obvious layering affect(i never know if i’m using the right term in the case of effect/affect, if someone could help please do, for i’ve obviously forgotten what my 7th grade teacher Mrs. Kournikova had taught me, there were just too many distracting bitches in that class).
Size or hypertrophy is largely believed to be caused by high volume in a certain directly proportional intensity.
Volume being walking 8 miles in an hour, intensity being your weight in this case.
Therefore if a fat person walks around primarily in a state of knee extension, for any given amount of time, he would accrue better gastroc size results than someone at a lower weight.
I will spare you on my beliefs as to why most of this is, because beyond this is more a matter of opinion, though if you wish to know my opinion versus what I believe to be highly accepted facts, PM me, I don’t wish to have people bashing me for lack of evidence.
Most of the knowledge I’ve just imparted is straight from this site so I hope you’ll agree for the most part what I’ve just laid out. Not that any of this knowledge is new, anything new is greeted with a large degree of skepticism that I don’t wish to be acquainted with.
Given this, call me crazy (4 out of 5 doctors agree(Hard Candy)), I’m trying to gain 30 pounds be it fat or muscle, then cut a drastic amount so my calves will actually take a greater load without me actively isolating them. (only a bodybuilder but not a huge fan of isolating my clients, for it yields less eyepopping results given the time I have to work with them)
Though I do intend to do an extremely high volume of donkey calve raises as well.
The weight gain is more to supplement, as well as win a bet.
That’s my peice, sorry for anyone that wishes to hate on any facet of the post.
We’re all brothers linked by the love of the iron. Hating is simply part of the game. Testosterone RULES.[/quote]
Affect is a verb.
Effect is a noun.
Remembering that should make it very easy to distinguish to two assuming you have a basic understanding of the English language.
[quote]caselorance wrote:
Calves as we test readers are usually talking are based at the gastroc though, not the soleus. Most of us would give a shit if our soleus was well developed, so long as our gastrocs are massive.
I do however take a certain measure of that comment concerning “giving a shit” about the soleus and reiterate the point: in relation to our gastrocs.
In my observation, if one’s soleus is smaller, it allows the growth of the calve to be exacerbated to a certain degree due to the immediate tapering of the the mid calve into the ankle.
The gastroc is relatively high when it reaches it’s tendonous portion, in relation to the low point that the soleus becomes tenonous(practically at the very base of achilles’ tendon).
The gastroc is activated more in a state of full knee extention while plantar flexing, whereas the soleus is more activated during partial to complete knee flexion while plantar flexing.
In layman’s terms(to those less educated T-readers): a donkey calve raise stimulates more gastroc tissue, while seated calve raises activates more soleus tissue.
When walking you are obviously in more of a state of knee extension than full or even partial knee flexion, although there is an obvious layering affect(i never know if i’m using the right term in the case of effect/affect, if someone could help please do, for i’ve obviously forgotten what my 7th grade teacher Mrs. Kournikova had taught me, there were just too many distracting bitches in that class).
Size or hypertrophy is largely believed to be caused by high volume in a certain directly proportional intensity.
Volume being walking 8 miles in an hour, intensity being your weight in this case.
Therefore if a fat person walks around primarily in a state of knee extension, for any given amount of time, he would accrue better gastroc size results than someone at a lower weight.
I will spare you on my beliefs as to why most of this is, because beyond this is more a matter of opinion, though if you wish to know my opinion versus what I believe to be highly accepted facts, PM me, I don’t wish to have people bashing me for lack of evidence.
Most of the knowledge I’ve just imparted is straight from this site so I hope you’ll agree for the most part what I’ve just laid out. Not that any of this knowledge is new, anything new is greeted with a large degree of skepticism that I don’t wish to be acquainted with.
Given this, call me crazy (4 out of 5 doctors agree(Hard Candy)), I’m trying to gain 30 pounds be it fat or muscle, then cut a drastic amount so my calves will actually take a greater load without me actively isolating them. (only a bodybuilder but not a huge fan of isolating my clients, for it yields less eyepopping results given the time I have to work with them)
Though I do intend to do an extremely high volume of donkey calve raises as well.
The weight gain is more to supplement, as well as win a bet.
That’s my peice, sorry for anyone that wishes to hate on any facet of the post.
We’re all brothers linked by the love of the iron. Hating is simply part of the game. Testosterone RULES.[/quote]
dayuuuum!!
I have big calves (well, big legs all around for that matter). I don’t think it was as a result of being fat though, The most i’ve ever weighed was 215 at 6’1 and that was only 16% bf. Even when I never worked out my calves/quads looked pretty huge and I can’t fit into anything aside from size 36 jeans even though my waist is like a 32 maybe. I have (proportionally) shorter legs and a longer torso.
Wow, ummm…that was partially a joke. I do show off my soleus sometimes, mostly because it is not the most well known muscle.
Anyway, I may not have impressive calves in themselves, but if you take into account the size of my ankles, they look really big.
Also, affect can be a noun and effect can be a verb, but hardly anybody uses the latter correctly.
[quote]msd0060 wrote:
Makavali wrote:
Wait, why do we care about fat people calves? If the rest of them is fat, then it stands to reason that their “well developed calves” are just fat too.
As us fat people lean out, the calves stay large.
Mine are much larger than all my other friends’ calves (guys that have been thin their whole lives). I think it kind of looks stupid, but I’m a shorts and t-shirt kind of guy so everyone else can fuck off.
I’ll take my fat kid calves over the toothpicks all my friends have.
Some of them even wear those huge ass shorts that hang down, and it really makes them look like little sticks holding them up. See it often in the gym.[/quote]
I agree… while I will admit my dad has some freakish calves (and I probably got those naturally,) as I’ve lost weight my calves have without a doubt retained all of their size. It’s funny, you don’t normally see calves out-balance biceps in terms of size.
[quote]LiveFromThe781 wrote:
bascially, fat people hav big calves so…train calves with heavy weight.[/quote]
I’m glad we were able to figure that out.