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.