Calves

[bthegreat]

What is the best workout for your calves and legs?

 

[B_theOtherJJ]

Putting them in the air. )

 

[D_Sir Fitzwilly Wankheimer III]

What is the best workout for your calves and legs?

deep squats, and deadlifts. the hard stuff nobody does at the gym.

do calf raises on a leg press don't worry about weight as much as reps. do them till they burn. gaurantee you won't be able to walk the next day.

big calves are mostly genetics. if you don't halve calves you probably never wil.

 

[bthegreat]

deep squats, and deadlifts. the hard stuff nobody does at the gym.

do calf raises on a leg press don't worry about weight as much as reps. do them till they burn. gaurantee you won't be able to walk the next day.

big calves are mostly genetics. if you don't halve calves you probably never wil.

I really want some nice legs, so I'll work on them but I'll try to give up on my dream of having nice calves.

 

[D_Jared Padalicki]

Riding bike does the trick for me...

 

[sdbg]

Riding bike does the trick for me...

+ 1

I agree. My legs are the hardest part of my body. (Well, maybe the second hardest!) The best hours of my day are spent on my bike. I ran for decades, and it made my legs sculpted. 3 1/2 years ago I bought a road bike and found that cycling is way more fun than running. Cycling is easier on the bones and joints as we get older, too. Both sports will make your legs hard, but the resulting muscle tone will be different depending on whether you just run, just bike, or cross train and do both.

 

[B_theOtherJJ]

Anyone notice that asian men have the best calves, and naturally too. they always look pumped and well defined. Guess it IS genetics ????

 

[nudeyorker]

Calves are the most difficult for me too...one thing that I do that helps is put a phone book on the floor and put you toes on the book and your heels on the floor and lift your self up on your toes about 30 times in three sets. It helps and it's easy. then add leg weights in a week or so and keep adding weight so you get a burn with the workout!

 

[bthegreat]

+ 1

I agree. My legs are the hardest part of my body. (Well, maybe the second hardest!) The best hours of my day are spent on my bike. I ran for decades, and it made my legs sculpted. 3 1/2 years ago I bought a road bike and found that cycling is way more fun than running. Cycling is easier on the bones and joints as we get older, too. Both sports will make your legs hard, but the resulting muscle tone will be different depending on whether you just run, just bike, or cross train and do both.

I'm going to cross train. I'm going to run a mile and a half and then bike for another mile and a half and see what happens

 

[hud01]

Calves are the most difficult for me too...one thing that I do that helps is put a phone book on the floor and put you toes on the book and your heels on the floor and lift your self up on your toes about 30 times in three sets. It helps and it's easy. then add leg weights in a week or so and keep adding weight so you get a burn with the workout!

You can use stairs for the same effect. Also to make it more difficult, put the top of one foot behind the ankle of the other and do the exercises that way with only one leg lifting up at a time.

I agree about the bike. Great workout.

On a much lower level, walk everywhere. When you walk, do it fast, and if you have a backpack that you can load up to 25 or 35 pounds, with books or something similar it will give you a much better workout than you would think from something so low impact.

 

[Torque8]

deep squats, and deadlifts. the hard stuff nobody does at the gym.

do calf raises on a leg press don't worry about weight as much as reps. do them till they burn. gaurantee you won't be able to walk the next day.

big calves are mostly genetics. if you don't halve calves you probably never wil.

Big_E is right on target with deadlifts, squats and a variety of calf raises. With regard to the latter, pick one and set a goal of reaching 75 reps, choosing a weight that you'd normally pic for a 20 rep set. Complete the 20 and continue until you fail. Then rest just enough for the burn to subside and continue with as many reps as possible. Before too long (couple of weeks) you should be able to reach your target goal of 75.

 

[Viking_UK]

I've always had good calves, but then I did Highland dancing for years. You're up on your toes, hopping, leaping etc the whole time. Do anything like that for any length of time and that will soon build them up.

Failing that, calf raises are about the best exercise to build them up, but as some of the other posters have said, a lot of it's down to genetics and if you're destined to have sparrow legs, there ain't much you can do about that.

 

[bthegreat]

Thanks

 

[Meniscus]

This is somewhat off topic, but yesterday I saw a guy with huge calves. They were nice, but they looked a bit strange on an otherwise normal body and the way they suddenly tapered down to skinny ankles and normal sized feet. They looked toned, so I'm guessing he did exercise them, but I also suspect that they were at least partially genetic--that even if he didn't exercise them, they still would have been pretty big.

 

[bthegreat]

I've began running 5 miles a day and I see an improvement

 

[B_ScottWilliamsonOC]

What is the best workout for your calves and legs?

Calves... one of the hardest muscle groups to train. What works for me, standing calf raises with the following:

25 reps at 50lbs
20 reps at 65lbs
15 reps at 80lbs
10 reps at 95lbs
5 reps at 110lbs
10 reps at 95lbs
15 reps at 80lbs
20 reps at 65lbs
25 reps at 50lbs

No rest in between other than switching the weights. Do this set 3 to 4 times a week.

 

[D_T_Frothingill_Bellows]

Idk if you're interested in something that is less strenuous,
but as a dancer I can say if you just do some plies and releves you will work your calves quite a bit.

Plies are just a bend in the knees. but you're going to want to make sure you go straight down, not sticking your butt out, and that your heels stay on the floor.
YouTube - plie
Releves are kinda of like standing on your toes, but it's a little more placed and controlled.

http://blog.thebodyseries.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/releve1.jpg

Glossary of ballet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

just get yourself a chair and use one hand for balance (don't grip the chair, just place your hand on it so you don't fall over) and just go into a plie as low as you can without picking up your heels (if you want to do that later it's a grande plie it's just a little harder to explain properly) then come to a standing position, and then go into a releve and lower yourself (SLOWLY, don't just drop to your feet, add some resistance) back to standing, and repeat

 

[bthegreat]

Thanks man

 

[MysticNight]

Calves... one of the hardest muscle groups to train. What works for me, standing calf raises with the following:

25 reps at 50lbs
20 reps at 65lbs
15 reps at 80lbs
10 reps at 95lbs
5 reps at 110lbs
10 reps at 95lbs
15 reps at 80lbs
20 reps at 65lbs
25 reps at 50lbs

No rest in between other than switching the weights. Do this set 3 to 4 times a week.

Hm, this leads me to a question I've had. I've been tryin to work out more too, and have been doing a heavier weight for 3 sets of 15-20 reps only 1-2 times a week. Just wondering if what I'm doing is okay as well or if I should change it up.

 

[Captain Elephant]

Strangely, my calves are probably the best developed part of my body, and I don't do anything really. I hit the gym three or four times a week, but don't pay attention to them. I am on my feet about five hours a night when performing, but I don't think that does anything special.

My wife was the first to comment on my developed legs. She said it matches my butt. Maybe it's good genes.