What do you do to get huge calves?
well, gaining weight all over comes to mind, so im thinking lots of food, lots of leg training, and frequent calf work. But thats just the route that im attempting to go, ill tell ya how it goes in about 5 years.
–JB
Huge calves make you look slow and unathletic. At least that is what I’m gonna say until I finally get huge calves.
mike is right on track, couldn’t agree more!
[quote]WS4JB wrote:
well, gaining weight all over comes to mind, so im thinking lots of food, lots of leg training, and frequent calf work. But thats just the route that im attempting to go, ill tell ya how it goes in about 5 years.
–JB[/quote]
This is true. Mine were small until I gained more overall body weight. Over the last two years or so I have trained them very regularly, doing so nearly every training session for the last year (I honestly think the Nike Free 5.0’s have helped as well just as for as increased flexion).
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Wearing shorts to the gym when you train helps you stay focused on them.
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Don’t expect to gain much size in that area without a great deal of overall body weight gain unless you are genetically gifted in that area to begin with.
There is a reason so many really fat people seem to have some of the best calf development ever seen and it is simply because their legs are carrying more weight all day long. Therefore, if you weigh 150lbs and your calves are tiny, don’t expect some huge growth response while remaining anywhere near that current weight.
The same goes for most of your other muscle groups as well.
Even when I could jump out of the gym, my calves sucked…and still do. I’ve put on a shitload of weight since I started lifting and they grew MAYBE an inch. I do need to start training them more consistently.
[quote]TheSicilian wrote:
Even when I could jump out of the gym, my calves sucked…and still do. I’ve put on a shitload of weight since I started lifting and they grew MAYBE an inch. I do need to start training them more consistently.[/quote]
Mine didn’t make significant progress until they became my main focus upon walking into the gym every session. Then again, if you only train 3 days a week, I can see how that would also be a problem.
My calves are certainly not genetically gifted and I am working on them for about 10 min in the beginning of my workout 2x a week (I workout 4x a week). I see strength rising and I feel the soreness . . . so that’s all that I can do I guess. I think it’ll just be time and weight until they actually get visibly bigger. I feel your pain. It sucks indeed.
Gotta train them heavy and often. One Leg raises are very effective. The key truly is frequency and load. Seriously, each individual calf is capable of supporting your bodyweight. So if you weigh say 200lbs. You need to be doing one legged raises with at least your own weight.
The best rep range I find is 4-8. But you do need occasional 12+ sessions as well as triples or lower
[quote]sapasion wrote:
Gotta train them heavy and often. One Leg raises are very effective. The key truly is frequency and load. Seriously, each individual calf is capable of supporting your bodyweight. So if you weigh say 200lbs. You need to be doing one legged raises with at least your own weight.
The best rep range I find is 4-8. But you do need occasional 12+ sessions as well as triples or lower[/quote]
leg raises? for abs?
no man, leg raises as in your balance all your weight (and then some in the form of a Dbell, or machine) on one leg and raise up to the ball of your foot
–JB
Gironda had his students work calves six days a week. 3 sessions hard and heavy, 3 sessions high reps for the pump. Something to think about.
Wear a weight vest all the time.
skipping. My calves got much bigger when I was skipping all the time for boxing. If heavy wieghts don’t work blast them with volume, they are used to being walked on all day.
My friend worked 6 months for a moving company and his calves grew with at least 3-4 inches.
Another friend I have is an obese chef, and the first time he tried a leg press machine he could lift 750 pounds in good form.
Bicyclists also come to mind when thinking of huge calves. Most of these examples translate to higher frequency = calf growth.
Some finnish powerlifters walk in shallow water for “GDP”, which gives a good calf workout too.
Generally walking with heavy weights work very well. A lot of times people wonder why nothing happens to their calves when they only train it once a week. It needs more attention, just like arms to be able to grow. Farmer’s walks, one leg calf stands with weight, donkey calf raises etc etc should work.
[quote]ill wrote:
Bicyclists also come to mind when thinking of huge calves. Most of these examples translate to higher frequency = calf growth.
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I’ve seen cyclists with very defined calves but certainly not large. Like everyone said overall bodyweight gain, frequent training sessions, prioritize them hitting them first EVERY gym session, and rest pause techniques have all helped me lots.
[quote]ill wrote:
Another friend I have is an obese chef, and the first time he tried a leg press machine he could lift 750 pounds in good form.[/quote]
I was a skinny, weak, unathletic 16 year old and the first time I tried a leg press machine I could lift about 750 lbs in good form too.
Yeah you gotta go heavy. I weigh about 250 right now and I use 545-590 for my one-legged calf raises and 1200 plus bands for two legged calf raises. Calves are capable of incredible strength since the range of motion is relatiovely small i.e. 4-6 inches or so.
[quote]WS4JB wrote:
no man, leg raises as in your balance all your weight (and then some in the form of a Dbell, or machine) on one leg and raise up to the ball of your foot
–JB[/quote]
oh, thanks
Become obese.