💘Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy, Safe, & Prosperous 2022! I get asked frequently How to grow bigger calves, So I'm going to give you my recommendations based on my over 40 years of training experiences.
As you can see from the diagram below, there are (2) muscles on the back of the leg, just below the knee, that constitutes as part of the calf muscle, and those are the Gastrocnemius (Gastroc), and the Soleus.
The Gastroc is higher on the back of the leg and has a split down the center of the muscle with a Lateral head, and a medial head, and when trained has a rounder look. The Soleus is the longer vertical muscle lying underneath the Gastroc.
Any calf exercise that you perform weather standing, or seated, will target the overall muscle. However, it should be known that when you do seated exercises with a bend at the knee you're more so Isolating the Soleus, and Standing exercises more so Isolate the Gastroc. So I recommend doing both for maximum growth.
As for weight, and volume, that will vary from person to person. I'm only giving you my perspective, and what's worked best for me. You can probably ask 10 different people this question, and get 10 different answers. You will have to experiment to see what works best for you.
Over the years, I've changed my training methods, and I believe variety with any exercise is key, because you're keeping your body off balance, which makes it much harder to adapt. If you do the same exercises, with the same weights, and rep ranges, your body adapts to what you're doing, and your gains will come at a much slower pace. Nothing is etched in stone, but you should try to change it up about every 4-6 weeks.
At the moment, I'm in the gym 5 days per week, and train my calves everyday. Typically it's not good to train any muscle on back to back days, because it needs time to heal, and repair, but in the case of calves, you can train them as often as you like, because it's a different type of muscle. Our calves get a bit of a workout everyday anyway, because we walk on them.
When I train my calves, I use a light, to moderate weight, and sometimes use nothing more than my own bodyweight, while keeping my rep range around 20-25, with slow controlled, full range of motion. Good squeeze at the top of the movement, and a good stretch at the bottom. If you can go heavier, and still have good form, then by all means, continue!
Try this for about a year, every training day, and see if you don't force some growth. Genetics do play a huge part in how much gains you can get. Somedays, I will do nothing but standing exercises, and other days I will do nothing but seated. For variety, I sometimes do both. Usually I do anywhere from about 5 sets, and as high as about 15 sets. When I can get in the gym and there isn't many people, I will do an exercise, and then go right to some form of calf exercise, and sprinkle those in during whatever body part I'm working that day, with very little rest between sets. Just enough to walk from one area, to another area. about 30-45 seconds in between sets. I can fatigue the muscle much quicker, and also get finished sooner with my workout.
Incidentally, Calves are primarily constructed of slow-twitch muscle fibers which means they can handle a lot of endurance, and volume, but fall short on power. I've listed a few exercises you can try for optimum calf gain. (Obviously as listed, walking is something we all do)
{Exercises You Can Try}:
1) Jogging
2) Sprints
3) Skating
4) Skiing
5) Jumping Rope
6) Box Jumping
7) Squats
8) Seated Calf Raises (2 legs, or unilaterally)
9) Calf Raises on a Smith Machine
10) Body Weight Calf Raises
11) Calf Raises using a Hip Sled
12) Calf Raises using a Hack Squat Machine
13) Calf Raises using a Vertical Leg Press Machine
14) Calf Raises using Dumbbells
15) Calf Raises using Kettle Bells
16) Seated Calf Raises with a 45 pound plate on your lap, and a plate under your feet.
17) Cycling
18) Hiking
➤I walk around the gym, and will do calf raises on any piece of equipment that is elevated off the ground, and I do this because every piece is constructed differently, which allows me to hit the muscle from a slightly different angle. My final tip is to always stretch the muscle you're working. I stretch before, during and after. short, light, stretches will allow you to keep your mobility, and flexibility.
💥Since I've talked about calf training, I will close this out by adding one more muscle that people really never train, other than walking, and that is the Tibia (Shin). You can train this at home if you like. It's best to stand, but you can try it seated, and that is to keep both feet planted firmly on the floor, and by keeping your heel on the floor, lift the front part of your foot as high as you can, and squeeze. This will allow you to flex the Tibia muscle. Do this for 3 or 4 quick set, about 20-25 reps each time. You can do this anywhere, at any time. If you really want to be creative, you can tie, or tape a small weight on the bottom of your shoe, and either stand, or lye down, and perform the same movement. The weight doesn't need to be anymore than about 3-5 pounds. Just a little something for resistance.
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😀Hope you enjoyed my post, and will give some of these a try!!!
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