Quote (Anilator(A) @ Sun, Mar 15 2009, 11:05pm)
what is your theory on calf training?
Ah...a GREAT question.
I have come to realize several things:
1. Genetics play about 90% in calf development. Some people will never have good calves who work them 3 hours a week....others will have great calves who sit on the couch and eat potato chips all day.
2. For those who have broken the genetic barrier and managed to build superior calves while having terrible genetics, you have put more time and effort into calf training than any other muscle group...and have manged to correctly balance the stimulation of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers in the calves for your particular body.
3. The other possibility is that you were or are greatly over-weight and often play intense sports like Soccer, football, lacrosse, etc. I have noticed that vastly overweight people who engage in sports that require a lot of leg-work often have gigantic developed calves (obviously because of the type of weight they have to support on them with each step).
However, for those of us who have genetically terrible calves, do not want to spend tons of times dedicated to building calves, don't want to use synthol (or plastic surgery), don't take steroids, and don't use electrical muscle stimulation therapy....there is still hope!
Sometimes calf muscles will be able to develop by pure experimentation and determining the right combination of exercise required to build the calves.
A good way to test this out, is to try doing one-leg calf raises on a stairmaster.
FIRST, MEASURE YOUR CALVES!!!!
Just walk on the stairmaster like usual, but do a full one-leg calf raise with each step...squeezing the calf at the top each time. Make sure to go VERY slowly on the stairmaster (as slow as it will go) and focus on form.
Do this every day for 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week (before or after regular workouts).
At the end of 4 weeks, take a tape measure to your calves and see if they have grown at all. If they have NOT grown at all, you might respond to less but more focused and heavier/intense training. If they have grown slightly, you might need to do MORE calf work. If they have grown considerably...then keep it up!!!
Ok, so saying that the stairmaster failed and you did not stimulate calf muscle growth...now we shall try the alternative...one day of intense calf training per week.
You will now dedicate one of your workout days for at least 1.5 hours of calf training (in addition to 10-15 minutes of some kind of cardio each day that requires you using your legs).
Your calf routine can be one of two ways.
Workout 1:
Standing calf raises (machine, barbell, or bodyweight) - 5 sets ascending in weight (low to high) till failure.
Donkey calf raises - 5 sets same way
leg-press calf raises - 5 sets same way
one leg bodyweight calf raises - 5 sets till failure
workout 2:
same exercises, but instead of ascending, try starting heavy and descending to lower weight with NO BREAKS in between for each set (except the last set, which you will perform with just bodyweight but still no breaks).
If you responded to workout 1 - congrats, you have found the right method for you!
If you responded to workout 2 - also congrats, you have found the right method!
If you didn't respond to either workout 1, workout 2, or the stairmaster workout....there is ONE final possibility.
This is called "The calf destruction workout"
You will blitz your calves so bad that it will make 2-a-days of failure split sets seem like a merry-go-round ride.
Every day - 6 days a week - sundays off
Wake up, immediately do bodyweight calf raises until failure.
Walk around all day on your toes...NO MATTER WHAT!
When you are sitting, flex each calf individually by raising and lowering the calf...just like a calf raise flexing the muscle intensely.
When you are showering, eating, walking...doesn't matter...HIT THE CALVES.
When you are at the gym, you will spend 1 hour a day on calves...in the workout mentioned above (alternating between workout #1 and #2 each day)
Before going to bed, you will perform 5 sets of bodyweight calf raises till failure with no rest.
(adding ankle weights or backpack weights for everyday use is recommended!!!)
This is for the most extreme condition. I have trained only TWO people in my life that demanded calves enough to try this plan...one of them stuck it out for only 3 days and quit...the other stuck it out for 2months and gained 3 inches in each calf....and then started seeing gains by doing regular calf exercises only twice a week.
At this point, you will have build calves no matter what. There is no option past this point...if somehow by some magical intervention...you do not have any progress......just be happy with what you have.....and you can always try plastic surgery, synthol (NOT RECOMMENDED OR ADVISED!), or illegal substances that are not supported in this board.
I hope this comprehensive calf guide helps anyone out that needs it. Arnold himself had the calf problem, and did his own version of the calf destruction workout to get nice diamond shaped calves.