One of the hardest muscle groups I have noticed through my training to bring up has been the calf muscles. Comprised of the soleus muscle and the gastrocnemius muscle it is important that we are making sure that we focus on both of these muscles individually. Due to the way they cross and attach with their origins around the knee joints. The soleus just below the knee joint and the gastrocnemius just above. With this in mind a lot of standing exercises primarily focus on the gastrocnemius muscle where when the knee is flexed the soleus takes over somewhat meaning we can focus on these muscles individually to a certain extent.
Gastrocnemius e.g Standing Calf Raises and Donkey Calf raises
Soleus e.g Seated calf raises.
I have found a very good way of really overloading these muscles in a way that they have no choice but to respond and it can be performed with both standing and seated raises either on a machine or smith machine and even barbell or dumbbell raises.
First off do the chosen exercise with a weight that allows you to complete 12-15 good reps with full stretch and full contraction off a step or machine edge. As soon as you complete these you raise the weight off your shoulders or drop the dumbbell if that is the weight you have chosen and continue with 15-20 bodyweight reps (I go until complete failure here) with a full stretch and contract nice and controlled. Then I come off the step and find something just to keep my balance by putting my hands on and allow as many full contractions as possible until I physically cannot get any more reps out. I then jump on the step and have a very harsh stretch of the muscles each leg individually for about 20-30 seconds each and repeat the sets 3-4 times in total.
So to recap:
Standing or Seated full stretch and contractions with Weight – 12-15 reps
Standing or seated full stretch and contractions with bodyweight – 15-20 or failure
Standing contractions with bodyweight on flat surface – complete failure
Stretch 20-30 Seconds
Repeat 3 to 4 times.
I have found the response to this training very good compared to anything else that I have tried in the past and now I include this in my calf training once per week hitting calves every over training session usually the other calf training is straight sets nice and heavy and controlled reps ranging between 8-20 rep sets.
By Ollie Matthews
