Make Calves Smaller

Make Calves Smaller

This will be a change of pace.  The whole idea of this blog is to have people with smaller calves try out our program and see what kind of results they can get in getting bigger calves.  If you happened upon this blog in looking for an answer for the opposite effect, let’s discuss it!  

A lot of women who have muscular calves or just plain fat calves are looking for ways to slim down.  I’m assuming that there are probably men more gifted than myself who are looking to adjust their bigger calves to be a bit more proportioned to their body.  You might be lucky enough to have more fast twitch in your calve muscles than most people, but you actually might have too much!  Is there such a thing, haha.  Anyways, here are the best tips I can give you people out there to slim down a bit:

• ·         STOP training your calves!!!!!!!!  Duh!

• ·         Refrain from any jumping or sprinting exercises as these tend to put on a fair amount of muscle in that region.

• ·         Steer more towards using arc trainers or elliptical machines rather than treadmills, bikes or stair climbers.

• ·         On leg exercises, keep the toes pointed up such as on leg curls.  Pointing that toe down will actually engage the calve muscle and that’s what were not after.

• ·         Decrease your body fat % (What most people are trying to do anyways right?)

Now don’t stop training legs altogether, that is a huge mistake.  Training the legs is the fastest way to gain enough muscle mass to lose more body fat along with training the rest of the body.  You would be amazed on what a girl with bigger calves at 28% body fat would look like at 18%.  There will definitely be some definition in the calves, but you would be looking at losing 1-3 inches around.  This is especially important for guys with fat calves and ending up with a much defined look by just losing body fat.   

Hope this helps a few people out and until next time everyone!

Fat Calves vs. Slim Calves

Fat Calves vs. Slim Calves

We’ve talked a little about the different training techniques for certain people in getting bigger calves.  I’d like to show why Blake and I are on a new training program with different goals.  On the pic to the left, you see Blake with a slimmer yet more defined upper portion of the calve.  On the right is myself with a bigger looking leg, but with absolutely no definition.  In the last blog, I went over the training programs for slim calves (Blake on the left) and for fat calves (Brad on the right) and now you can visually see the differences.  See what you are lacking and follow the training regimen to fix the issue you are currently in.  Now in no way am I saying that Blake has the definition of Arnold’s calves, but just needs to have a focus on gaining overall size to the leg.  As you have seen from our monthly results page, I am only a 1/4 “bigger in circumference than Blake’s.  I would like to be several inches more, but I need to start adding some definition into that gastrocnemius muscle while Blake needs size in the soleus.  Both of us will continue to put on size in both departments, but now just slightly different in how we are going about it.  Stay tuned for month 2’s results.

Build Calf Muscles Workout #2

Build Calf Muscles

Workout #2

 

This post is to add some changes for month 2 of our large calves program.  First we need to identify which type of problem we have before moving on.  We’ve briefly discussed the theory of fat calves vs. slim calves with needing a more defined gastrocnemius muscle or just adding girth to the entire calf muscle (soleus).  In the next blog post, we will show a case study with pictures of me and Blake to show you the two different situations we are in.  For now, decide what route you need to take and choose the workout associated with your main concern:

Fat Calves program (Bigger leg, no definition in gastrocnemius):

·         Either stay at the weight you finished in month 1 for the seated leg calves or even decrease slightly.  Remember I had some issues with having pain in the Achilles tendon from doing such large weights in an uncontrolled matter. 

·         Add in a dumbbell in one hand during the single leg standing calve raises.  If you are using the machine, just add as much weight as you can handle.

·         Focus 50 of the 100 reps of the standing calve raises to the side of the gastrocnemius that needs the most help.  For example, I need more growth on the inside of the legs.  To focus on that area, I will move my heel to the inside of my body while performing the exercises.  You will immediately be able to tell the difference in muscle strains on each side.  The same goes for the outside of the gastroc and you will need to move the heel towards the outside.

·         Add in single leg jump ropes each session for 100 jumps on each leg….alternating when needed.

·         Add in Incline treadmill after each session and raise it to the max.  Only a fast walk is needed and will go for 10 min.

Slim Calves program (Nice definition in upper calves, but lacks in size overall)

·         Continue the month 1 program as normal (add little weight to standing leg raises if any definition is needed/wanted)

·         Continue to add more weight in the seated calve raises.  Do not increase the weights for the heavy pedals after month 1, just keep doing them.

·         Also add in single leg jump ropes 100 per side…alternating when needed.

·         Add in Incline treadmill after each session and raise it to the max.  Only a fast walk is needed and will go for 10 min.

Note:  As you can tell, this post is about a month late.  Nobody is perfect and this program is hard to give all your time to.  In a mixture of work and summer vacations, both Blake and I neglected the full 3Xweek workouts for August.  However, we have refocused and are ready to commit to this month and the rest of the year.