There is a severe lack of calf building in the gym today, even moreso than the upper legs themselves. One of my friends, 6’4", 250 lbs with under 10% BF tells me that it is unnecessary to attempt building up large calf muscles. From this statement, one could guess that everything but his calves are large on him.
I have yet to see one person in my gym in 7 months do 1 set of calf raises of any variation when they goal was to build muscle mass. Why are calves ignored so heavily? I have built over 2 inches on my calves in the past 7 months, so it’s not like it is difficult to do such a thing.
I realized that. I couldn’t delete the thread, so I quickly made a new subject that had some sort of meritable argument with it. Just go with it.
EDIT: If people want to read the other thread bushy is talking about, I’m remaking one in the male animal section. And I hope you got a laugh out of my mishap, Bushy haha.
[quote]drummerofgod89 wrote:
There is a severe lack of calf building in the gym today, even moreso than the upper legs themselves. One of my friends, 6’4", 250 lbs with under 10% BF tells me that it is unnecessary to attempt building up large calf muscles. From this statement, one could guess that everything but his calves are large on him.
I have yet to see one person in my gym in 7 months do 1 set of calf raises of any variation when they goal was to build muscle mass. Why are calves ignored so heavily? I have built over 2 inches on my calves in the past 7 months, so it’s not like it is difficult to do such a thing.[/quote]
Then either:
you don’t work out at the right time of day, and all of the serious lifters have already left, or haven’t arrived yet
or
your gym sucks.
Honestly I see a lot more people working calves than I see doing full ROM squats (or heck, even parallel)or deadlifts. But I do see people doing all 3.
Maybe you might want to think about checking out the other gyms in your area to see if maybe the serious lifters might go someplace else. Or, just don’t worry about it and know that in the long run, you will have better calves than the people who are neglecting them.
Has it occurred to you that maybe most of the people at your gym just aren�??t into bodybuilding, that they only work out for their health, and that they have things to do other than bang out calf sets on top of the rest of their workouts?
At my college’s gym, I would say that 80% of the dedicated work out their calves, which is pretty good in my estimation. Sure, you have the occasional upper body hero who doesn’t believe in legs, but for the most part, if they work out seriously, they work out legs, and additionally, calves.
As for myself, I always do calf raises. My calves aren’t lightbulbs below my knee, but they are solid, so I’m proud.
I honestly think I’m the only person at my gym that actually works on my calves. I just realized out of nowhere one day that my calves were pretty big, even though I never worked em. So I decided to work em in. My calves are actually bigger than my arms right now. It’s awesome.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
drummerofgod89 wrote:
There is a severe lack of calf building in the gym today, even moreso than the upper legs themselves. One of my friends, 6’4", 250 lbs with under 10% BF tells me that it is unnecessary to attempt building up large calf muscles. From this statement, one could guess that everything but his calves are large on him.
I have yet to see one person in my gym in 7 months do 1 set of calf raises of any variation when they goal was to build muscle mass. Why are calves ignored so heavily? I have built over 2 inches on my calves in the past 7 months, so it’s not like it is difficult to do such a thing.
Then either:
you don’t work out at the right time of day, and all of the serious lifters have already left, or haven’t arrived yet
or
your gym sucks.
Honestly I see a lot more people working calves than I see doing full ROM squats (or heck, even parallel)or deadlifts. But I do see people doing all 3.
Maybe you might want to think about checking out the other gyms in your area to see if maybe the serious lifters might go someplace else. Or, just don’t worry about it and know that in the long run, you will have better calves than the people who are neglecting them. [/quote]
No, I go all times of the day and never see people doing them. All of the guys trying to build up mass just seem to completely ignore any calf work. My gym does not have any calf machines in it, but there are still plenty of ways to work out the calves. For example, I’ll just load up a bar and do standing calf raises, or use the leg press machine. Then there’s the smith machine. Just put the squat neck pad on it, put some weight on it, grab the calf raise foot thing, and go at it.
I do one-legged weighted raises on a platform, it’s worked pretty well so far. (2-3 inches in 6 months) Currently 16". (Up from one 30lb dumbell to one 100lb dumbell as well.)
I see people doing calves but I’m one of the few who does deadlifts, that’s at the real gym I go to. At my country club gym I never see anyone do calves or deadlifts. I have a guy friend who doesn’t even do legs! It’s pathetic.
I don’t work calves, they seem to get pretty good workout just from various cardio and various squats/deadlifting. Their fairly big but I guess its more common on heavy guys. At my gym calves are one of the only leg parts that are worked it seems, while squats are almost never done and deadlifts even less.
[quote]Shadowzz4 wrote:
I deadlift, squat etc… but I never work calves directly, personally, that is a muscle group that does just fine playing basketball and other sports.[/quote]
Just like thighs do just fine doing running and other sports?
On a more serious note, I often leave my calf-development for heavy lower-body movements too. I feel I should be doing more direct calf work, though.
My gym only has an old standing calf machine and the seated variation.
You’ll occasionally see someone on the seated machine.
I myself have just decided to do some calves and legs after a few years of not doing them. It’s taken my upper body that long just to get close to my lower!
I think it looks really funny, kind of hideous, when guys have massive chests and chicken calves to go with them. Sometimes I tap them just to see if they will tip over, and I tell them that is why I tapped/shoved them. For the next few weeks they hit their calves twice as hard as me trying to play catch up. People are self conscious like that.