This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.
Everybody wants big calve muscles
Who wants big calves? You know that nice diamond cut calve that tapers down the lower leg? I do. I think that many guys do.
What about gals? They do to an extent as well. I think that calves with women are often synonymous with cankles. They shouldn't be. I think that a nice pair of calves on a woman is beautiful. Maybe that’s just me.
I know this though: Most men want bigger calves. It’s almost like guys just want pecs, abs, biceps, and calves.
They don't want big thighs! That’s way too much work. Speaking of work, calves are easy to work as far as effort goes - but they are not easy to grow. I’ll explain!
You don't need bigger calves to do better at sports or athletics
Calves are overrated in the sports world to be honest. Having big calves will not lead to much increase in athleticism. There aren’t too many sports where having big calves will increase your performance. They can look nice though!
Now in body building they separate the ladies from the girls. I must be careful and not say men from the boys - people are way too sensitive these days!
Arnold's calve implant myth
There is an old myth that I don’t give any credit to. It says that after Arnold lost one of his first pro bodybuilding events in the states, he had calf implants put in.
I think that this rumor of course is very silly, but it does show how much people care about calves in the bodybuilding world if they are going to make such outrageous claims.
The two main calve muscles
Let’s talk about what the calves are.
The calf muscles are two muscles located inferior to the knee (below the knee) on the posterior side (back) of the lower leg.
The soleus is the deeper of the two muscles. The gastrocnemius is the superficial (closer to the surface) of the calf muscles. Both need to be worked to have “big calves”.
Both muscles function in the same way essentially. They plantar flex the ankle. This means to push the toes down towards the floor.
The difference between the two is that the gastrocnemius plantar flexes the ankle while in the standing position and the soleus plantar flexes the ankle while in the seated position.
The calf muscles are responsible for moving the foot bones.
Here is a little kinesiology lesson
Muscles always move the bones below the joint that is bending. For example the quads move the tibia and fibula below the knee.
If you have ankle issues, it is important to have strong posterior calf muscles along with the anterior muscle of the lower leg which is the anterior tibialis (front calve muscles).
It is always important to strengthen muscles below and above a joint to help prevent injury.
As far as other athletic benefits of calve muscles go, there aren't too many. Calves do help a jumper jump higher - but still most of the jumping power will come from the upper thigh muscles.
Calves are made in the womb
If you hung around the gyms a lot - especially when I was coming up and the gyms were primarily bodybuilding places - you'd often hear that “calves are genetic”.
That's true, but calves aren't any different from any other muscle group. All muscles growth is dependent on your genetics.
Primarily what I’m talking about here is muscle belly length. We are born with predetermined muscle belly size. Every muscle and tendon attachment has a particular length.
If you have more long muscle bellies and short tendons, the muscle has the capacity to grow bigger. Think about it. It’s like a longer balloon with more space to fill up. If you have longer tendon attachments and shorter muscle bellies, that muscle will not grow too big in size.
Why are calves harder to grow?
So why do calves get that bad rap? That's because we use them all the time. The same thing would be said of the biceps if we walked on our straight arms all day and stimulated them so often.
In other words, all muscle size is genetic. The difference with the calves is that they get stimulated from us walking around all the time. We are working our calves out all the time! The bigger a person is the more calf work they get.
Is there more to it? Of course there is. I’ll get into that in a bit but I’m making the case as to why you always hear that calves are genetic. They are - as are all muscles.
Having great muscle genetics is the first step to get bigger and cut calves.
I would be shortchanging top physique athletes that get their calves looking perfectly symmetrical by leaving it at that.
Let’s have a look at how we can increase calve size.
How to increase calve size
First, we must make sure we are training both the gastrocnemius and the soleus muscles.
Many people make the mistake of only training calves by doing standing calf raises. If this is you, you are only training the gastrocnemius and not the deep soleus muscles that will give calves more size.
The soleus calve muscles is called the second heart
Here is another fun fact about the soleus muscle: It’s called the second heart.
When the soleus is more developed, it helps with circulation by pumping more blood back to the heart. Remember that it's the calf muscles that do that.
When we have clients with any cardiac risks (or really anybody), we encourage them to do calf exercises to help with blood circulation.
Do various calve exercises for maximum calve growth
Once you know to do both standing and seated calf raises, understand that you should change toe position when you do your lifts.
When you point your toes in and heels out, you are working more of the lateral (outer) calf. When you point your toes out and heels in, you are working the medial (inner) calf muscles more.
Calves workout plan (6 sets, twice a week)
I’ll have my clients do one set for medial, one set for lateral, and one set neutral (toes pointed straight) for both seated and standing calves.
Just like with all muscles, you want to use moderate rep ranges of 8-12 reps to get bigger.
Use a heavy enough load to where you can’t do more than 12 reps with good form per set. Like with every exercise, focus more on form than load.
If you are doing them correctly - which means full range of motion, lower slow, and really pause at the top - you probably don't need to go as heavy as you think.
A mistake that I often see rookies make in the gym is cutting their range of motion very short so that they can use more weight. Hello, ego, check yourself at the door please!
Believe it or not, the calves are a small muscle group. You must guard against overtraining. Don’t do too many sets or overwork them with frequency. They already get worked every day!
I advise my clients that want bigger calves to train them two times per week.
Here's to bigger calves!
I think that bigger, cut calves look good on both men and women. So what if calf muscles are primarily cosmetic? What’s wrong with feeling good about how our muscles look?
I like training my calves. I believe that I have average calves. It’s not due to effort! I train them hard and smart. As I said above, we got what we got!
Genetically I can get very big quads and genetically I can have average calves. I work them both the same. I guess I will have to call Arnold and get the number of the calf implant guy!
Be well!
This article is written by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS and ACSM CPT from www.fittothemax.net. Follow him on Twitter.
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