ARE YOU A CALF OR A CALF-NOT?
When it comes to the calves, a lot of people would have you believe that you were either destined to be a CALF OR A CALF-NOT. I can tell you that is partially true.
Genetics play a large role in the ultimate size of your calves. I am Jeff Caveliere, no doubt, but I’ve never been confused with Jeff CALF-aliere! My struggles in building better calves have provided me with motivation to find more ways to get the calves to respond, and there is definitely something you can do to fix that situation.
If you want to know how to get bigger calves, then you should start with an understanding of what actually works for calf development in the first place.
WHY DO ATHLETES HAVE SUCH WELL DEVELOPED CALVES?
Having worked with professional athletes, one thing that you will notice about their training is there’s not a lot of direct calf work in it.
That’s because the essence of their activities – running, jumping, cutting in multiple directions – creates great calf development because those activities have one thing that our typical calf specific exercises do not. That is high tension, spontaneous contraction. What am I talking about? It’s when you get a high level of tension generated in a single contraction over a quick period of time. Almost every professional athlete incorporates this into their sport naturally, which leaves them with tremendous calf development without having to spend much time at all on direct calf training.
Usually athletes have great calves because their athletic training for sports has something our direct calf training does not, and that is high tension spontaneous contraction.
That high tension spontaneous contraction is the key to building bigger calves, because that is how they respond the best. That is how you create true overload.
#1 BEST WAY TO DEVELOP YOUR CALVES AT HOME
Here I’m going to show you a home calf exercise for bigger calves that can be done without any equipment at all. First, position yourself as I am in this photo, on a mat or on the floor with your feet anchored under a bench or under a piece of furniture.
With your feet secured under the bench or couch, flex your feet in order to keep your body upright. You will feel the calf contraction as soon as you set up if you do this properly. Begin with your butt sitting on your heels. Then, when you are ready to light a fire in your calves, launch your body out and forward as I show you in the exercise.
Launching Action to Get Calves To Fire
The only thing holding me up from falling flat on my face is an incredibly strong contraction of the calves. If you do this, I guarantee you’ll feel a stronger contraction on this exercise than any other calf exercise you’ve ever done. For example, doing 300 lb barbell calf raises if you are a 150 lb person will do nothing to overload your calves. You are already carrying the entire weight of your body during single leg stance in the swing phase of gait. This is not a new challenge. What I am showing you here WILL be an incredible overload for your calves.
EXAMINING WHICH CALF MUSCLES ARE INVOLVED
This movement demands a sudden and extremely high level of contraction from both the soleus and the gastroc muscles in your calves.
The more your knee is flexed (as it is in the beginning of the exercise) the more you will be working your soleus. The soleus is a really important component of your calves. It’s the muscle that lies beneath the more visible gastroc. As you develop this you can start to build that soleus and push out the gastroc adding more size and definition to your calves. As you get stronger and can extend your body even further out against gravity, the more you will be working the gastrocnemius as well.
Gastroc and Soleus Muscles Firing
The cool part about this move is that I move from a flexed knee position to an extended knee position. So I’m actually activating more gastroc as I get myself further out. As I get even stronger in the exercise I can actually get more and more gastroc because I can extend even further out. If you want, you can start that right away by putting a physioball out in front of you to get more activation, because you can actually lean on it as an assist to get you there.
Physioball Assist To Help Get More Gastroc Activation
Aim to complete as many reps as you can until failure for each set of this exercise. Perform a few sets at a time and do this 2-3 times per week to bring up the size of those stubborn calf muscles.
Don’t try to rely on the same calf exercises over and over again despite the fact that they are not giving you the calf growth and size that you are looking for. In order to get your calves to grow bigger you have to start incorporating an element of spontaneous instant contraction with a high degree of tension. This exercise is the perfect way to start.
HOW TO BUILD BIGGER CALVES AT HOME
- Direct calf training doesn’t work as well for calf development as high tension spontaneous contraction which is a high level of tension generated in a single contraction over a quick period of time.
- Athletes naturally have great calf development because the running, jumping and cutting in multiple directions during sports creates that high tension spontaneous contraction.
- To replicate this at home, first anchor your feet under a piece of furniture and then perform a quick launching action to get your calves to fire and create the high tension spontaneous contraction.
- You can use a physioball assist to help you get even more gastroc activation.
Remember, if you want to build bigger calves it’s not about how many exercises or reps you do. It’s about doing quality reps in the way the calves prefer to work, with a high tension overload in a spontaneous manner. It is possible to replicate this at home with no equipment using the simple exercise I showed you above. Incorporate this into your weekly training routine for optimal results.
If you’d like to develop stronger more functional muscles at home with no equipment at all check out the ATHLEAN XERO program to get a complete 6 weeks of no equipment workouts. XERO also includes a 6-week meal plan with a revolutionary approach to eating to help you fire up your fat-burning metabolism, while giving you the energy you need to complete the workouts.
