need help with calves?

[kentykentkent]

first of all i know this is the wrong section, hwever i know that alot of people have trouble with them, so heres a little excercise that i hope will help all of you..

smith machine calf raises, but here is the catch, take your shoes off for that extra range of motion, grab a plank of wood to stand on the end.... do 10 sets of 10 reps with only 15secs rest in between sets, and every set add weight on the smith machine.

provides a killer pump and if done correctly will have you unable to walk properly 3 days.
goodluck!!

[zmcdole]

I've done many sets of calves on the Smith machine except I keep my shoes on and use stacked up 35lb plates to stand on to get the stretch/full ROM. It's one of my favorite ways to train calves. Most people have trouble with calves because they don't train them right. Check out this article about training calves: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/training-the-calves.html

[Slovation]

I wish I had calves to match my legs. My soleus seems to need the most developement and Ive been doing seated calf raises in hopes of bringing them up. Only problem is on the contraction I dont seem to feel it in the soleus as much as the gastrocnemeous no matter how I position my feet.

[Slovation]

I've done many sets of calves on the Smith machine except I keep my shoes on and use stacked up 35lb plates to stand on to get the stretch/full ROM. It's one of my favorite ways to train calves. Most people have trouble with calves because they don't train them right. Check out this article about training calves: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/training-the-calves.html


also great link. I love reading Lyles stuff.

[Sporto1633]

first of all i know this is the wrong section, hwever i know that alot of people have trouble with them, so heres a little excercise that i hope will help all of you..

smith machine calf raises, but here is the catch, take your shoes off for that extra range of motion, grab a plank of wood to stand on the end.... do 10 sets of 10 reps with only 15secs rest in between sets, and every set add weight on the smith machine.

provides a killer pump and if done correctly will have you unable to walk properly 3 days.
goodluck!!

1) "Pump" has nothing to do with muscular development
2) Calves shouldn't be trained any different than you train other muscle groups - they need heavy work as well as hypertrophy work (for both straight-leg and bent leg movements)
3) The main reason most people have problems with their calves is because they don't take the elasticity of the achilles tendon out of the movement. They "bounce" the weight continuously where the tendon is doing the majority of the work, not the muscle; hence why the development sucks. This can easily be corrected by pausing for at least a count at the top as well as at least a count at the bottom (or waiting until the weight stops bouncing).

Sporto tempo FTW!

Think about it...how often do you see guys (especially black guys) that have small calves but can do ungodly amounts of weight with their calf raises? They can literally "bounce" a TON of weight through the movement, but they usually still have poor development in the calf department. But, those are also the same guys that can jump extremely high (as well as other athletic attributes). That's because they have an enormous amount of elasticity in their tendons doing the majority of the work.


I've done many sets of calves on the Smith machine except I keep my shoes on and use stacked up 35lb plates to stand on to get the stretch/full ROM. It's one of my favorite ways to train calves. Most people have trouble with calves because they don't train them right. Check out this article about training calves: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/training-the-calves.html

Great read! It was Lyle that taught me how to properly train calves to begin with several years ago...and now I have COWS!

Sporto

[woofman81]

first of all i know this is the wrong section, hwever i know that alot of people have trouble with them, so heres a little excercise that i hope will help all of you..

smith machine calf raises, but here is the catch, take your shoes off for that extra range of motion, grab a plank of wood to stand on the end.... do 10 sets of 10 reps with only 15secs rest in between sets, and every set add weight on the smith machine.

provides a killer pump and if done correctly will have you unable to walk properly 3 days.
goodluck!!

I do something similar but I wear vibrams so no need to take my shoes off :)

gPerDSV8rSs

[N01SYtZ]

when training calves its all about the stretch and squeeze!

stretch inbetween sets also
make sure you're really squeezing at the top, and stretching at the bottom.