Calves and bulking

jman0

Looking for suggestions on bulking calf muscles, particularly the soleus muslces

So far in the various gyms i've used the following:
http://www.homegymcentral.com/body_solid_powerline_fitness_seated_calf_raise_machine.html
Which is rubbish, because it doesn't work the soleus primarily, but rather the long muscles near the front inside of the lower leg.

This one:
http://www.homegymcentral.com/maximus_mx_509_calf_machine.html
Which is my favorite. Unfortunately my current gym doesn't have one.

This yoke which my current gym has:
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/training/exercises/30
Which seems ok except i find eventually i get a pain in my back and am worried i'm about to slip a disc.
Maybe i should reduce the weight? (currently doing 3 reps of 15 but it's tough).

Is there anything else i could be doing?
Something i could do at home maybe?

Dragan

Try siting in a 45 degree leg press with just your toes on the plate, extend the legs and work the calves.

Works for me.

Easygainer

Only got a second to post this, but...

Most painful and best way to do any calf exercise (Leg press calf raises, standing calf raises etc) is how you do them. Do 12 reps, controlled positive phase, 5 second negative, 15 second static at absolute bottom to stretch them. This way it take 4mins for a 12 rep set, you'll hate me, and won't be able to walk, but your calves will grow. One set, one exercise in one workout is plenty.

Reyman

Calf raises of any sort won't develop your Soleus muscle. They primarily affect the large Gastrocnemius muscle.

The Soleus muscle comes into play when the legs are bent.

Sit down with a heavy barbell on your knees and and go up and down on your toes preferably through a full range of motion. (There are machines in some Gyms for this).

Another isolation exercise for the Soleus is to bend your knees about 30 degrees and do calf raises (go up on your toes) in the normal way.

You'll notice the difference very quickly

t-ha

yup, the gastro attaches at the top of the knee so it gets left out of the movement when your knee is bent. Knee bent - gastro, knee straight - soleus.

Also easygainer brings up a good point. Your calves and achilles tendons form an MTU (muscle tendon unit) which is designed to help you run efficiently, especially over long distances. The point is that as your foot lands your calves activate to stop your heel smashing into the ground, and consequently store up alot of elastic energy in the achilles tendon - this energy is recycled (released) by the tendons to push off your foot on the subsequent stride.

If you do calf raises quickly (i.e. just bouncing your heels up and down), then this same basic mechanism is used, whereby the energy from the eccentric phase of the exercise is stored in the achilles and used to raise your heel on the next rep instead of your calf muscles. 4/5 seconds stretching at the bottom of the movement is plenty of time to disperse this elastic energy. The slow negative is a good idea and also a five second hold at maximum contraction doesn't hurt either (well it does but that's the point). Your calves don't really transfer the load to your skeletal structure even when fully contracted so hold the squeeze at the top for a few seconds.

I've personally found if you really want to hit your calves then doing the tempo varying method when doing the standing calf raise or equivalent works great. I also find the 45 deg leg press machine great for this for some reason. The tempo varying method simply works as follows;

rep 1 & 2, up fast - down slow

rep 3 & 4, up slow - down slow

rep 5 & 6, up fast - down slow

rep 7 & 8, up slow - down slow

etc.

Do as many reps as appropriate for the weight your using. Also, it helps your calf development to balance your overall development, i.e. superset your calf raises with reverse calf presses or some other exercise for your tibialis anterior.

Incidentally, this is my first post - I couldn't find an intro thread so....


...hey everyone! Great board - although your stickies took flippin' ages to read .

Reyman

Interesting posts- EG and t-h. I tried that technique of holding the weight in the streched and contracted position and could only handle half my normal weight using good form. Painful and obviously very beneficial !

On another issue does anyone know how to exercise the balancing muscle - Tibialis Anterior ?

t-ha

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/TibialisAnterior/SLSeatedReverseCalfPress.html

+ variations