"How to Make Your Calves Bigger"

If you're a natural bodybuilder with naturally small calves, I fully empathize. The starting point for my calves was something resembling pipes extending from my knees to my ankles. They weren't of a respectable size and were equally devoid of even the nascent stages of the coveted "diamond shape" that would have vastly improved their appearance.

If you're a natural bodybuilder with small calves, don't despair. 'Bigger calves' are mostly a matter of using a good strategy to acquire them.

 

Those days are gone. My calves are up to a respectable size and shape. And they're making unstoppable progress. Here is a list of my 'how to make your calves bigger' recommendations:

• Perform intense and infrequent workouts
• Make 'donkey calf raises' your cornerstone exercise
• Utilize full-rep sets in the 6 to 8 reps range
• Utilize partial (burn) reps in the high rep ranges

Performing intense and infrequent workouts is a big key to success at building any muscle in the body. The difference with calves, however, is the degree of necessary intensity. Since the calves are such a dense muscle with more fibers per square inch than others (with exception of the jaws), they tend to need a workload shellacking to provide stimulus. I provide this extra stimulus by way of "burn reps" toward the end of my workout.

Donkey calf raise machines are a God-send for calf development. The reasons I love them: fuller range of motion on calf raises minus the excessive lower back pressure caused by standing calf raise machines. Both standing calf raises and donkey calf raises target the gastrocnemius medial head and soleus muscles. Therefore, there's no need to do the standing variety if you can do the donkey type and doing both is merely a redundancy. Donkey calf raises are my recommendation as the best choice exercise in your 'how to make your calves bigger' formula.

I like doing full rep sets in the six to eight reps range. At this point in the workout, I utilize the very effective system that I fully describe in HardBody Success. I also make sure to go all the way from the top of the movement to the bottom; a full range of motion. At the bottom of the movement, I pause for a split second before bringing the heels back up so as to not allow cheating by way of bouncing.

To finish off - the calves seem to love high repetition/partial range movements. These are also known as "burn reps" and I highly recommend them in a 'how to make your calves bigger' routine.

The way I do burn reps is as follows: After I finish my 'Hardbody Success' method of working my calves, I immediately start counting out fast reps that I do in a range of about one-third of my full range reps. On these fast/finish-off reps, I don't really worry about where within the nearly half circle of a calf raise that I'm making that 1/3 movement. In other words, I'm just knocking out some sloppy high-speed reps for the highest number I can get. Of course, I try to beat my previous best number each time I do these.

After a good long rest to get the lactic acid out of the muscles, I increase the weight by about twenty percent and proceed with a set of as many super slow burn reps as I can do.

Another long rest is followed by two more high-rep sets of partial reps. However, this time I again go super slow while working the bottom half of the calf raise (from fully extended to the halfway point) on the first set and from the halfway point to standing tip-toed on the second set. I use the heaviest weight possible on the lower half-rep movement. I reduce the weight by about thirty percent (by necessity) for the top half/tip-toed reps.

Again, I make sure to max out on the "burn reps" and beat my previous best number on each workout. Whenever possible, I increase the weight on all sets.

This basic workout (done infrequently) has taken my calves from being nearly non-existent to growing continuously. I recommend its basic tenets (especially the donkey calf raises) in your 'how to make your calves bigger' quest.

Comments

[somanabolic]

What i do to build my calves are standing calf raises.
usaually for building big muscles, you have to do heavy weigths with about 8-10 reps at the most. But with calves and abs you can get away with doing more reps and still build muscle.

To do standing calf raises you'll need,
- just a heavy dumbell,
-a stepping board
-and something to hold for balance.

-hold the dumbell in your left hand if you're working your left calf.
-step on to the board with the balls of your left foot securely on the board.
-place your right hand on something for balance.
-rest your right foot behind your left heel.
-now proceed to do your calf raises, do 12-15 reps. no more than that. if you can do more, up the amount of weight.
-when finished your left calf, immediately do your right calf the exact same way. Also, try not to bend your knees.
-do four sets for each calf. with a 2-3 min break in between.

-Then move on to the seated calf raises machine. and do just the same amount of reps and sets. (seated calf raises work the soleus part of your calves)

*don't listen to some of the people here telling you to bike, which doesn't work your calves at all. Or to run, which doesn't build bulkier calves. Or to walk on your toes, which is retarded and doesn't build big calves either lol. you'll need much more than just your body weight to build bulkier, bigger calves.

RE: also listen to the woman above me, she mentioned how to work the different parts of your calves, inner, outer, upper(gastrocniemius), and lower (soleus) which is great.