Calf Workouts | Building Bigger Calves

Calf Workouts

Weight Training Advice

The calves are one of the most genetically dependent muscles on the body. Some people who never exercise have huge calves while some other people who train regularly don't have much calf muscle. It depends a lot on how long your calf muscles are. If you have high calf attachments you'll likely have naturally smaller calves. Even if you are one of those people who weren't born with big calves you can still build them up with intense calf workouts.

The calves are constantly being used every time you're on your feet so you need to really push them to get a response. They also recover much quicker than most muscle groups so you can do calf workouts more often to get them to grow. High rep sets with as much weight as possible is also a must to get more calf muscle growth - even on a heavy day you shouldn't do less than 10-15 reps on every set. It's also very important to stretch the calves regularly to try to lengthen them a bit, which will also help in building more muscle size in them. When you're doing a set of a calf exercise start out by doing complete reps - stretching hard at the bottom of each rep and contracting hard at the top of them. Once you've done as many full reps as possible continue the set by doing some "bouncing" reps to really get the calves to burn.

To fully develop the calves you train both the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. To do this you need to do standing or straight legged (like on a leg press machine) calf raises and seated calf raises. You can also do exercises where you raise your toes to helpbuild the small muscle on the front of the lower legs to the side of the bone. Training this muscle during your calf workouts will also help you prevent shin splints.

This sample calf workout follows a light, medium, and heavy day scheme and should be done on your leg training day after you've worked out your quadriceps and hamstrings.

Light calf workout

2 sets of standing or leg press calf raises for 25+ reps

2 sets of seated calf raises for 25+ reps

2 sets of toes raises for 25+ reps

Medium calf workout

3 sets of standing or leg press calf raises for 15-25 reps

3 sets of seated calf raises for 15-25 reps

2 sets of toe raises for 15-25 reps

Heavy calf workout

4 sets of standing or leg press calf raises for 10-15 reps

4 sets of seated calf raises for 10-15 reps

3 sets of toe raises for 10-15 reps.

If you're calves recover quickly from this workout you may want to do some extra calf work on another day in your weight training routine. If you do some running and sprinting as part of your cardio routine it will also help build your calf muscles.