Improving calf strength

alx

alx

alx

Soldato
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My calf's have lagged behind strength wise for a while now and I'm looking to remedy this.

Atm I'm not too concerned with calf size, more improving their strength.

What sort of rep, set and frequency of calf training should I do when focusing on improving their strength? Is it any different from normal (size based) calf training seeing as calf's don't always respond in the same way as other muscle groups?

Any advice welcome :)
 
Calfs are a funny muscle. Some people respond to a normal rep/set routine, others to high reps and burn out.

This really is the one part where I have seen so much variation!

Try donkey calf raises and seated ones. Try working them 3 times a week. So many things you could try lol
 
My calves have never been stronger than when I was boxing and main thing I done for them there was skipping - which is also a great warm-up exercise, 15-20 mins.

I can tell you all about variations and stuff if you're interested, pretty straight-forward though.
 
Thanks for the advice guys.

Think I may start with something like 3 sets of 6-12 and once I reach 25 reps in the three sets move up a weight (like this rep set idea).


davestar_delux if you could tell me about the variations etc that would be great :)
 
Well when your starting out wanna keep your feet together til you can actually skip.

Then the best thing I found was altering the pace, so you go as fast as you can for 30 seconds or a minute or 3 and then gradually slow back down, it's like fartlek training if you ever run. Then you can throw in hopping on one foot for a bit, doubles where you get the rope round twice in one jump and crosses - I don't know the fitness benefit of these, I think it's just to make it more fun. You can see how many you can do in a minute as well, that kinda thing. They will ache after 15 mins but it's worthwhile - I guess it's all fast-action stuff so will work on the fast-twitch muscles, might be a good compliment to slower weights work.

Make sure to stretch your calves out when done.

Actually now I started thinking about it, I done a few other exercises at boxing as well, like running up and down 2 or 3 steps in a circuit and jumping over a stick on two chairs - but I think that is more quads working.
 
davestar_delux said:
Well when your starting out wanna keep your feet together til you can actually skip.

Then the best thing I found was altering the pace, so you go as fast as you can for 30 seconds or a minute or 3 and then gradually slow back down, it's like fartlek training if you ever run. Then you can throw in hopping on one foot for a bit, doubles where you get the rope round twice in one jump and crosses - I don't know the fitness benefit of these, I think it's just to make it more fun. You can see how many you can do in a minute as well, that kinda thing. They will ache after 15 mins but it's worthwhile - I guess it's all fast-action stuff so will work on the fast-twitch muscles, might be a good compliment to slower weights work.

Make sure to stretch your calves out when done.

Actually now I started thinking about it, I done a few other exercises at boxing as well, like running up and down 2 or 3 steps in a circuit and jumping over a stick on two chairs - but I think that is more quads working.
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Cheers for the advice :)

Another thing I heard which is meant to be good for calf conditioning is to get on the treadmill after a workout, set it to the highest incline and go at a fast walking pace for 5-15 mins. Sounds like it could help conditioning wise as well!
 
Seated calf raises are pretty good, do them on the leg press and move the seat as far back as possible so your toes touch the bottom, choose a fairly light weight, say 50kg and go from the tips of your toes and down again. My calfs are currently feeling the pain of doing that yesterday. Didn't stretch off long enough.
 
I've always had uber big calves, which I'm pretty sure is just down to genes.

I'm overweight which of course increases their size but when they are fully clenched they are around 20 inches with muscle definition.
 
cycle. uphill. in too high a gear

when i was younger i rode bmx (theyre pretty highly geared) literally every day where the majority of my time was spent sprinting at ramps in short bursts. my calfs where freakily big
 
The things with calves is you need to work them extra hard, because they're pretty tough. Everyone uses them day in day out.

My Sifu (he used to play tennis professionally aswell) basically told me that I need to beat the crap out of them, I'm not to worry about the size of them, they are what they are.

Anywho, calf raises are a good exercise, I do mine standing, on the edge of a step, it's best to stretch up and down as far as you can, without feeling any pain obviously. 15-20 reps is usually a good range to start at, you'll prob even find you can do more.
 
I found my calves very very hard to grow, I've tried all sorts of different exercises for them in the gym from heavy weights / low reps to low weights / high reps without much success, sure they got stronger but hardly grew. The only exercise I found that made any significant difference is cycling, although I'm sure some of that is down to dropping body fat and therefore the muscles looking more defined.

Interestly I often notice women that wear high heels all the time have good calves...
 
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