Calf Workouts Are Ineffective Unless You Do These 2 Things
To build the calves you need to work with high reps and maximise the stretch while under tension…
Let me break this down for you…
1: High reps:
Calve muscles, being at the bottom of the body, and used constantly for walking, need to be super-dense muscles which are very hard to fatigue, and that is precisely what they are.
Comparison: the biceps have 40,000 muscle fibres compared to the calves which have 1.2 million!
That is a lot of muscle fibres you have to fatigue to get good growth. And, that is precisely what you need to do – using every trick in the book you can.
The first trick is using high reps. Very high reps. 15-25. And between 3 – 5 sets.
You need to do this many reps because there are so many muscle fibres to fatigue to get noticeable growth in the calves, that’s how many it takes. Enough said.
2: Stretch under tension:
Besides increasing poundage, one of the most effective methods for building muscle size is by maximising the stretch in the muscle while under tension. In other words, you’ve got to really stretch your muscles out whilst they are under the tension of the weight.
It’s been known for years that some of the freakiest body parts ever seen – Tom Platz thighs, and Arnolds chest spring to mind – were largely attributed to the extra stretching under tension effort the two bodybuilders went to, which forced even more out of the muscle to make a phenomenal difference.
Anyway, here’s how you can exploit the stretch under tension of the calves in order to really work them…
- Do Donkey Calve Raises. Because of the stiff-legged and bent forward at the hip position of donkey calve raises, this forces the calves into a greater stretch position. Then, throw a person on your back for weight, and you’ve got the most effective calf exercise known to man.
- Perform bottom partials to failure. Calve training is very intense and difficult. Once you feel yourself failing, rather than stop, you can continue to hammer the calve muscles (which you need to do) by using partial reps at the bottom – where your calves are at their most stretched. This helps you to get more out of your exercise.
You may even take the advice of Vince Gironda, who recommended reps of 15 for donkey calf raises, with the first 12 being full reps, and the final 8 being partials.
