Weak Point Training: Calves! 4 killer calf workouts included

----------------------------Courtesy of John Meadows (mountiandogdiet.com)

Now this is a body part that frustrates a lot of bodybuilders! Calves are arguably THE most genetic body part, and can be a frustrating muscle group to keep in proportion with the rest of your body. Even the Governator himself struggled for a long time with getting his calves to grow. Arnold wrote a story in his autobiography that he actually cut the bottom parts off all his training pants so that his calves would be exposed and he would have to see them the entire time he was in the gym. Arnold was rockin’ capri’s long before The Gap had them in production in hopes that seeing his weak point everyday would help prioritize training.

Calves are easy to skip too because most of us generally save them for the end of “more important” muscle group like chest, shoulders, or arms. By the time we’ve spent two hours pressing the entire gym the battle of calf training vs. post workout meal is often won by the oh-so-tasty post workout feast. Or a lot of times during a contest prep, there is a good amount of time still left to be spent on a step mill after the workout so training calves feels seems to just prolong the pain served up by postworkout cardio!

I’ll comment personally on this, because sadly I was once the guy that said “what’s the point they won’t grow anyway…” when it came to calf training. I trained calves hard with Steve Kuclo (and you’ve seen his calves!) for almost 2 years and while they improved it wasn’t by much. After that I kind of just wrote my calves off as genetically small. I would train them from time to time, but if there was something I would skip in a weak it was definitely calves!

The past 8 months I have really jumped back into calf training with a new motivation and a few new tricks and I’ll have to say the results have been great!

I have to credit, once again, the Mountain Dog, John Meadows for my favorite new trick and that is focusing on training the tibialis during calf training to bring as much blood into the lower leg as possible. John’s thought process is that just like during arm training when you get an incredible pump when doing biceps and triceps TOGETHER the same power can be harnessed for lower leg development. We’re lucky enough to have a tibialis machine by hammer strength at Metroflex but even if you don’t have access to this trip-hazard of a machine, you can simply do toe raises standing flat on the floor and get great results.

calves

Here is the calf routine I have been following as of lately and gotten great results!

** I train calves after I have finished my main muscle group for the day, so that split isn’t listed here, just the days I add calves, but it’s always on a training day, and it’s always at the end of the workout.

The Program

Monday – I focus on mainly the gastrocnemius on this day – It’s a circuit of 3 movements starting at the Standing Calf Raise. Do ten hard reps on the standing calf raise, all the way down, hard contraction at the top. Then using the platform of the machine, do one legged bodyweight calf raises, 15 on each leg. Then step down off the machine so you’re flat, hang on to something for support. Explode up onto your toes for a hard squeeze! Do this for 10-12. Repeat this 4 times through and your calves should be blown UP!

Tuesday – I focus on the soleus muscle along with the aforementioned tibialis work on this day. Do 1-2 light warm up sets of 20 on the seated calf raise to get warm and get a little blood pumping. Once you have a working weight do 15 FULL reps on the seated calf raise, immediately followed by 10 partials. Then do a 180 on the seat, I like to set up the tibia raise right next to the seated calf machine so I can crank out 20-40 tibia raises after I do the partials. Repeat this superset 4-5 times!

Friday – This is my leg day so I like to train calves in a circuit. One to get it over with and two, I really feel like I can get a SUPER PUMP with my quads and hams already pumped, the circuits are icing on the cake! I do 10 hard contractions on the standing calf raise, relatively light weight. Then I go to the donkey calf raise, and do 10 full heavy reps, followed by 10 partials. Then I stand with my feet elevated from the heel. You can use a plate, or edge of a machine here or even from flat on the ground, but then I do 50 tibia raises. I take a short break and repeat 3 more times for a total of 4 rounds.

Saturday- Here I like to go heavy on the leg press for calf raises. I’ll do a few light warm-up sets then load of 6 or 7 plates per side. Its heavy but not so heavy I can’t get a peak contraction for most of the reps. I do 15-20 hard reps here, then move over to light seated calf raises for 20-30 reps, then do the tibialis machine for another 20-30 reps. I do this 4 times at least.

Found from: http://metroflexplano.com/training-tips/weak-point-training-calves-4-kil...