4 Effective Tips for Training Your Calves

Calves can be one of the most difficult parts to train and develop properly. Many fitness enthusiasts from amateurs to professionals have life-long difficulty getting their calves to grow more than just a couple of inches. Fortunately, there are many ways in which even the worst calves can be improved. Following are 4 effective tips for training your calves:

Don’t Make Them an Afterthought

Most individuals treat their calf training as an ‘additional workout’ at the end of an intense legs workout. This may only work for those who are gifted in the calf department. Most individuals who really want to work on this particular muscle group should train them heavy and hard with the same focus as any other muscle group. It is recommended that you place calves at the beginning of your workouts rather than the end. Some individuals like to work their calves even before they train the rest of their legs, but it could hamper your strength on squats by fatiguing your legs. To make sure that there is no interference between muscle groups, you should train your calves when you are starting an upper body workout.

Train Your Calves with Heavy Weight

Most individuals want to hit calves with very high reps and lightweight, thinking that the calves are somehow different from other muscle groups in a way that they need to grow. Calves just like any other muscle in your body, require adequately heavyweights to be stimulated into new muscle growth. In fact, they often respond well to relatively heavier weights as compared to most other muscle groups because they are used to a very light, very frequent stimulation of your body weight walking around on them all day. They require something new in order to grow bigger.

Use a Variety of Exercises

Many fitness enthusiasts find one calf exercise with which they are comfortable with and then they stick with it for a very long time. This makes no sense. Would you do only dumbbell rows for the upper back? Would you rely entirely on bench press for chest? Of course not! You need to use a variety of exercises for maximum results. Perform the calf exercise on a seated, plate-loaded machine. Then try the standing machine. After that, use the smith machine for standing calf raises. All in all, find as many calf exercises in your gym as possible and perform them all.

Perform Elliptical Workouts

Ellipticals mimic the human body’s natural movements when walking or running. This feature makes it easy for many individuals to use them. Elliptical workouts are highly effective for training your calves. They work your upper and lower body at the same time. The lower body workouts on an elliptical will train your calves along with glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings. If you want a more intense workout for your calves, then pedal in reverse motion. Pedaling in reverse motion will cause your calves and hamstrings to work harder than pedaling forward. There are many other benefits of elliptical workouts. Click here to learn more about elliptical workouts and their benefits.