A (possibly silly) question!

Dudess

Hello all. I'm just wondering, can regular power walking lead to chunky, muscley calves? I go for a four-mile power walk pretty much every day (weather dictating), only a small section of which is uphill - the rest is on the flat/downhill. It feels like my calves are getting chunkier, but I'm not sure if this is actually the case or whether it's in my head. The reason I say the latter is because a friend of mine is very self-conscious about her calves, insisting they're chunky due to years of dance, and that has got me thinking that maybe the same is happening to me. And she has a point, because even though she's extremely slim, she can never wear knee-high boots as they just won't zip up her calves, and she is uncomfortable in short skirts. It's a shame because, otherwise, her figure is amazing and she has worked hard to achieve it.
The above might sound a bit silly and girly for the fitness forum, but appearance (after health, of course) does concern me to an extent.

Your responses would be most appreciated.

justsomebloke

ye but there is a hell of a lot of difference between dance and power walking though. chances are your friend did ballet for years and so a lot of point work and the such would put large train on the calves and could cause them to get bigger. My girlfriend would be in the exact same position as your friend, can't get boots to fit over her calves and doesn't feel comfortable in skirts. (well that was untill recently when she found a pair that fit her and so apparently did a lot of skirts soon after she had a pair of knee high boots)
but in your case I doubt the power walking will lead to bigger calves

Dudess

jsb wrote:

chances are your friend did ballet for years and so a lot of point work and the such would put large train on the calves and could cause them to get bigger.

Yep, ballet and modern dance. I actually did ballet and gymnastics myself between the ages of 5 and 11/12. But that came to an end a long time ago. However, I'm just wondering now were my calves always that little bit more muscley due to that, but I'm only aware of it now.

Thanks anyway, jsb.

JayRoc

1: Power walking a few miles is not going to make much difference to your calves, trust me.


2: Anyway, good strong calves are attractive on a woman.
Your friend shouldn't worry.

Sangre

Short answer, no.

Reasonable muscle mass requires resistance training which power walking doesn't provide adequately (but ballet would). Also the fact you're a girl means muscle growth is much harder and also the fact that calves are one of the hardest areas to build muscle.