Calves can truly be one of the more stubborn muscle groups to develop. But if you think about how your calves operate, their stubbornness makes sense. Calves are difficult to develop because they are already so accustomed to high stress and intensity.
For example, every time you take a step when you walk, your calves extend to press your toes downward and propel your body forward. Your calves are essentially pressing the weight of your entire body each time you take a step! On top of that, they handle high intensity activities like running and sports. With all of these factors combined, it becomes much more difficult to really give your calves an extra shock when you get into the gym.
Since the calves can take longer to develop, it’s easy to give up on the calves when we don’t see immediate development. But the key to developing your calves is going to be persistence.
The calves have many small muscles that help to contract and point the toes downward, but they are really composed of three major muscles. They are: the tibialis anticus, the soleus, and the gastrocnemius.
The tibialis anticus is the long band of muscle on the front of your lower leg, next to your shin bone. This muscle contracts to pull your toe muscles upward. You should be able to feel the muscle easily by placing your hand on your shin and raising your toes.
In reality, this muscle isn’t really trained by body builders, and most gyms don’t have any equipment to work it either. You may want to work this muscle if you are a runner or do other high-impact activity and have been getting shin splints.
The next muscle is the Soleus. This muscle is a short and flat band that can only be flexed when your gastrocnemius muscles are relaxed. This means that the soleus is worked when your legs are bent at a 90 degree angle.
The only exercise you really have to effectively hit the soleus is the seated calf raises. You’ll definitely want to include these into your calf routine. This will help to add thickness to your calves when they are viewed from the side, and will also help to cut up the sides of your calves.
The largest muscle in your calves is the gastrocnemius muscle. This muscle is long and thick, and connects the lower part of your upper leg with your heel. It essentially has two functions. The first is to extend your toes as your calves flex, and the second is to help curl your leg in exercises such as leg curls.
Working your gastrocnemius will help to improve the way your calves look when viewed from the rear. You’ll want to do plenty of exercises like standing calf raises, donkey calf raises, one-legged calf raises, and calf presses. Standing calf raises will be your best way to building overall mass in your calves, but each of these exercises can help to build up your large, diamond shaped calves.
Continue Reading: 1 > 2 > 3