I was wondering if anybody has had experience with the shoes that are suppost to help you in calf development? I was wondering do they actually make your calves grow in size or do they just help you in the jumping department?
I have used these shoes. My calves grew from the workouts. The things you have to do on these shoes are not easy. But if you stick with it. Your calves should grow.
I think that the “jumping shoes” would mainly act to stretch out your Achilles tendons. If you’ve read Poliquin on the subject of vertical leap, he thinks that calf muscles have very little bearing on it. Take a look at Vince Carter’s, Scottie Pippen’s, or Kevin Garnett’s calves sometime–they are extremely skinny.
I think these shoes are a scam, personally. Even if they exercise your calves, it’s just going to be slow-twitch fibers, as you are maintaining loads for many minutes at a time. If you want to increase your vertical leap, look into lifting moves like the power clean and the reverse hyperextension.
not much size increase for me and not very good hops increases (much better when i started squating seriously)
The shoes come with a plyometrics program that will help to jump higher; as for calf size, they didn’t really help me. They DID get a lot more cut however…
i aggravated the fuck out of a previously sprained ankle jumping off a plyo box the first time i put a pair on. there was a hell of a loud pop and that was the end of that. advice: don’t try these if you have bad ankles and don’t jump off plyo boxes to start off your first time wearing them. anyway, my friend that i borrowed them from swears by them. he’s 5’9" and can probably jump better than me at 6’2". (i’m sure he has a higher vertical anyway) his calves are pretty decent size but they were before he started using them. i would say its more of a strength developer rather than hypertrophy enhancer, but that’s just an observer’s opinion.
Any new stimulus may cause some size gains, but that’s not really the main purpose of these shoes. The problem I have with them is that the calves play only a very small role in jumping. Jumping is all about your posterior chain- mainly the glutes and the hams. Deep squats, stiff-leg deads, and good mornings combined with power cleans and plyo is the usual protocol for increasing your “ups.” The shoes may help a little but why focus so much on what’s only a very small part of jumping ability.
These shoes are a tool, nothing more, but can be effective if used properly, somehting rarely done. However, “jumpsoles” are poor in quality, if your get them get “strength shoes” they are more expensive, but they are also more durable and safer.