How to Get Bigger Calves

How to Get Bigger Calves

This is a frequently asked question among the genetically ungifted. Many people will just accept what god gave them, but for the rest of us who are willing to put in the work, how should we go about training? We already talked about the “commitment” level of certain people and how nothing will happen without increasing the training time. Of the thousands of workout routines online and in magazines, which will work for each of us? The answer lies in looking at each individual person’s muscular structure. Take a look at the picture above to get an understanding of the muscular structures.

Gastrocnemius-This is the muscles in the back of the leg that consists of a medial head and lateral head. On a bodybuilder, this is the most prominent muscle showing on the back of the calf. Depending on the person, one side or maybe both need to be trained with a lot more weight to get the size increase we want. I myself am lacking size on the medial head of the Gastrocnemius (inside).  To fix this issue, straight leg standing calve lifts are optimal to hone in on this muscle.  To get either side of the Gastrocnemius, you must move your heel slightly to the side of your leg that needs the most help.

Soleus- This is the muscle underneath the Gastrocnemius, positioned slightly more to outside of your leg. This muscle doesn’t show as much to the naked eye as it just adds pure volume to the calve as a whole. I call this issue skinny or slim calve. Someone might have a great diamond shape muscle with high definition at the top of the calve, but lack in overall inches. This is a problem with the Soleus muscle.  To train this specific muscle, a seated calve position is needed or any set up you can create to allow a 90 degree angle in the leg while performing the lifts. 

Fast twitch/Slow twitch- This refers to the type of muscle fibers in the calve muscle and what it’s genetically designed to do. Each person is born with a different set of varying amounts of each type and we’ll go into more depth in later postings about each type. The main thing to get from this post today is to find out if you have more slow twitch fibers. This is the reason why you have small calves in the first place. To change this problem, it takes more time, effort and HEAVIER WEIGHT! None of us were gifted from birth with Arnold calves and must work at something we want.

Check out our Build Calf Muscles Video #2 that is coming soon to watch how we position our heel to get the most out of training the upper Gastrocnemius muscles.

Build Calf Muscles Workout #1

Build Calf Muscles Workout #1

This post is to complement the Video Blog #1 in written form.  For those of you starting out, please watch the video first and then read the following workout:

Month 1

Week 1: (perform workout one time...preferably Monday)

1st Set:  Pick a weight for single leg seated calves (or modified like shown in the video blog #1) that you can do 20 reps on your first try.  That is where you will start the program at.  The first exercise is to complete 100 reps on BOTH legs (total of 200 reps) in any increments that you can handle with the weight you have selected.

2nd Set:  Get some type of platform that you can stay balanced and perform your single leg standing calves.  The total amount of reps will be the same, which is 100 reps per leg.  As before, any increment amounts are satisfactory as long as you finish before moving on.

3rd Set-  Pick up a pair of 30lb dumbells in each hand (more if you can handle it) and perform the heavy pedals.  It might take a few attempts to last the 100 total pedals, but once your quadriceps get used to the explosive movement,  you'll be fine.  This is creating a shock to the calves, but watch how hard you are hitting the ground as you don't want to put too much stress on the knees.  This will be very important when you make it up to the higher weights.

4th Set-  The squating calve stretch is just meant as a final burn out and allows a higher blood flow to accumulate in your calve muscles.

Week 2:

All Sets are the same,  but we are increasing the frequency to 2 days (hopefully Monday and Thursday)

Week 3:

All Sets are the same, but we are increasing the frequency to 3 days (hopefully Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Also, start increasing your weights accordingly.

Week 4:

All sets are the same.  Increase your weights once again.

Note:  You will have tight calves and extremely sore calves after the first week.  This is due to the stress put on the insertion points of the calf muscles.  A combination of the muscles, tendons and ligaments will be very apparant to you as you get out of bed the next morning.  I promise this pain will be a vague memory by the end of the second week.  Good luck and stay tuned for month 2!



Build Calf Muscles Video#1

Build Calf Muscles

Video Blog #1

Note:  I made one mistake in referencing the gastrocnemius muscle for the seated calve raise when in actuality it’s the Soleus (problem with doing one take for every video).  Knowing this, please make that switch in your mind and enjoy the video.

Large Calves

Large Calves Blog

Welcome to the Large Calves Blog, where if you are like us, you’ve been walking on stilts for most of your life.  This blog is dedicated to all of you who hide behind jeans year round and super long dickies shorts with high socks.  You are asking “How to get bigger calves”?  Genetics are a bitch, and there absolutely cannot be a God who has a sense of humor as sick as this.  I exaggerate of course. 

This blog will be a documentary of myself (Brad) and my buddy Blake who are sick of not getting any results from training our legs every week and maybe training our calves once a month.  This is basically the problem for everyone in our same boat…no commitment.  This is our final stand and will prove it is possible or die trying.  In later blog posts, we’ll go over how to build calf muscles, the difference between fat calves and bigger calves.

Everyone who is in our predicament and are, of course, as self-absorbed as we are, have obviously done their research on the anatomy and training techniques needed for obtaining large calves.  The one thing that everyone knows, yet is unwilling to accept is committing multiple times a week to large calves training.  Thus our journey begins with photos, measurements and a dream.  Hopefully you’re viewing this blog four months into the future and can just scroll down to the latest pics to view our credibility.  If not, please humor us and see if there is something new you learn from our mistakes.

Let the endless calve-cramping training begin!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blake:  14 3/4" Starting                                                   Brad: 15 1/8" Starting

 

*Evolve Gym is a private personal training gym located in Huntington Beach servicing the Orange and Los Angeles county areas. We focus in innovative training techniques to achieve weight loss and lean muscle gain.