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HOW TO TRAIN YOUR PUNY CALVES
For many people, the calf
muscle is the most difficult to train. It’s harder to make the calf muscle grow
and harder to strengthen it.
There are several reasons the
calf muscle is hard to improve:
Genetics
Yes, the old excuse of
blaming the problem on your parents sometimes holds true. My daughter had four
knee surgeries by her late thirties. She got that from me.
I wore corrective shoes until
I was six years old and have had three knee surgeries myself.
But there is a saying that
says “Genetics may load the gun but you
don’t have to pull the trigger and then reload twice”, meaning that many
genetic challenges can be overcome if you don’t use it as an excuse. It just
means you have to work a little harder than some.
I’ll be honest; I have to put
myself in the category of not working as hard as I could have on my lagging
calves.
Calves Have a Very Short Range of Motion
Having a short range of
motion (ROM), the calves don’t spend as much “time under tension” (TUT) for
each rep you do as most other muscles. Compare the calves to the range of
motion of your quads or biceps. ROM for quads and biceps can be measured in
feet. ROM for your calves is measured in inches.
The Achilles Tendon
The Achilles tendon does a
large part of the work for any movement of the ankle joint. It’s designed that
way. It’s more efficient. It enables humans to do a tremendous amount of
walking without exhausting the calf muscle and the rest of the leg. In very quick movements, the way most people
exercise their calves, the Achilles tendon takes on almost the entire work
load. It’s called “stretch-reflex”
and the purpose is to protect the calf muscle from tears.
Adaptive Response
“Adaptive- response” simply
means that you body will quickly respond to any new stimuli by getting stronger or bigger or both. Any new growth
in size or strength requires that stimuli be greater than what the muscle is
already accustomed to. And the calves are accustomed to very heavy stimuli.
Your calves support you full
body weight whenever you are walking or standing. Usually for several hours
almost every day of your life since you graduated from “rug-rat” to “toddler”.
Every time you take a step you are pushing your entire body weight on one
foot. Do you really think two or three quick sets of 10-12 reps are going to
make them grow?
Before we talk about
solutions, a quick anatomy lesson…..
We’re actually talking about
two muscles. The Gastrocnemius, which
is visible from the rear of the leg and has 2 heads. And the Soleus, which runs underneath the
Gastrocnemius but is partly visible on the outside surface of the lower leg.
SOLUTIONS
The solutions for the Genetic issue and the Adaptive-Response issue are actually
the same; More work!
More sets, more reps, more
weight, more exercises and more often.
·
Remember how much
weight your calves push every time you take a step? Move as much weight as you
can handle with a full range of motion
·
Remember; volume
is the key (weight x sets x reps). Sets should be a minimum of 4 to 6 and reps
should be 12 to 20
·
Do seated calf
raise, standing calf raise, donkey raises and calf extensions on leg press.
Switch up the exercises and alternate sets with toes turned out and toes
straight ahead.
·
Work the calves daily
or as often as you can. The calf muscle is nearly impossible to over train.
Remember how much work they do simply by walking.
Extend the Time Under Tension and Stretch Reflex
Issues
·
Raise and lower
the weight slowly. No jerking the
weight up or letting it drop. Raising the weight in a fast jerking motion is what
activates the Stretch-Reflex and puts the Achilles tendon in play taking
stimulus off the calf muscle.
·
Hold a 2 second
stretch at the bottom and a 2 second contraction at the top
·
On the last rep
of each set hold the contraction for a full 10-20 seconds
If this sounds brutal, it is. It just depends on how
bad you want to get rid of those puny calves.
Oh, I almost forgot the most
important rule of all!
Don't skip leg day!
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