Calves and forearms- want bigger

I had always had smaller calves which I to tried all different forms of training and they grew but never by much. The most they ever grew was when I was power lifting and I didn't touch them once. Looking more into kinesiology and discussing this with my strength coach. The growth was due to knee flexion and extension; especially with the development of my hamstrings.

If you actually look at the calve you have the origin in the hamstring behind the knee, and the insertion at the ankle through the soleus. Flexion at the ankle only attributes some stimulation and is very isolated. (unlike a sprinter, soccer player, power lifter, etc) Knee flexion plays a much larger role due to the origin being in the hamstring and the mass of the actual muscle.

What I now do for calve training?
Leg curls

Drive with your heels on the way up, than point toe on the way down. Your calves will be screaming! I attribute all of my calve growth to this idea
 
We all know (not making light) diet and genetics play a roll. You say you want to train them 3 times a week? Well my first Simple Simon approach to your Q's man was them Train more. Like much more.

I see more than not (myself included) people say they are training calves and forearms but are we training them as we train Bicep, triceps and chest or some other more outstanding muscle. Think are we? Anyway my experience watching some pro's and very successful BB's and I did this myself, I trained a muscle or two there times a week making sure that two days were intensely heavy (overload) and one moderate with more reps. 10-18 but failure at that. I would also stick to primary Mass building exercise.

When I would see good growth I would tweak and go back to normal routine. It's all a part of reaching a state of symmetry with the advanced BB'er. Get a spotter just like we do or did with our major heavy lifts for the failure and beyond, I like to c all it...negatives
You know what it took to get to the point your at with all the rest.

I also have taken the body parts that need extra work and worked the FIRST for my workout of the day so they are not pre fatigued.
 
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I think we kill our calves with volume every day of our lives... Especially in my field of work. Training for extreme volume may help them develop beyond where they are now, but they will surely develop better with a proper balance of Intensity and Volume work.

This of course doesn't mean we ignore the volume work.. it's that we should balance the work we do on our calves with a variety of different ranges, forms, and exercises.

I would say to take all of the recommendations laid out, and incorporate every bit of it 2-3 times a week. Seperate or together. I would look to have a bodyweight day, where you blow out the calves with high reps and no weight, similar to how Schredder mentioned. Then the next time do something with weight across a moderate rep range (tuned to your capabilities of course), and then either the same day or another day seperately train heavy, as heavy as you can even if you need a spot.

Also, what Uso said is pretty dope too and should be considered. There is definitely something going on there with that movement, I have felt what he's talking about. Maybe incorporate that into your leg days :)
 
So it's been several weeks with me having implemented many of the above recommendations in training calves.. I've switched to training them 3 days per week,, I've implemented body weight calf raises as my 'rest' in between weighted working sets,, I've implemented sets of very very slow light weight contracting and squeezing exercises,, as well as heavy weight more explosive ones..

Results thus far,, Calves always feel swole and pumped, I feel like they are "activated" and ready to grow,, Strength has went up , calf raises has went up from 800 lbs x 15 reps to 900 lbs x 20 reps

Will post some progress pics soon.


As for the forearms- Well I never trained them in the past, so I'm just now beginning to add that into my routine .. I've got torn ligaments in my right hand and can't grip well, so I have to use straps on most exercises and I know that doesn't help with my forearms,, But hoping hitting them directly now will make them grow
 
Right on Roush, good to hear. Since this thread ive been blitzing the calves as well. And, like you ive been implementing the bodyweight raises between sets as my 'rest'. I think the key is continuous tension for extended periods of time. I watched the clock the other day and it was a 15min calve workout with no rest, all work. And i find the swell that happens is unreal not to mention they stay swollen.

Ive also been messing around a bit with some different strategies, give this a shot next calve workout (this is actually what ive been doing with all bodyparts and exercises the last number of weeks)

We'll use 12 reps for example

Set 1- 12 reps with a 2 second pause at full contraction.

Set 2- 12 reps with a two second pause at full stretch. The key here is to let that muscle stretch then flex and engauge it before the concentric portion of the movement.

Set 3 12 reps again, 3 normal paced reps followed by one rep with a paused at stretch, engauge, and then and slow (5 second) concentric portion of the rep. Do that three times over for a total of 12 reps.

This has worked fucking fantasitc for stimulating growth and improving mind muscle connection.

And as this is a calve thread make sure like your already doing is do you body weight raises in between sets on various different objects to hit them from unusual angles theyre not used to.
 
old thread necromancer here --
my forearms have gone to shit. Had reconstructive hand surgery after an injury and was without use of my right arm for awhile, and now I've lost 50% use of my right hand. forearm has atrophied.
I'm gonna give those zottman curls a try to get forearms back, but I can't grip very well. ANY hints at all on how to work the forearms without having to use a lot of grip strength is much appreciated.
As for the calves, still working on those.
 
old thread necromancer here --
my forearms have gone to shit. Had reconstructive hand surgery after an injury and was without use of my right arm for awhile, and now I've lost 50% use of my right hand. forearm has atrophied.
I'm gonna give those zottman curls a try to get forearms back, but I can't grip very well. ANY hints at all on how to work the forearms without having to use a lot of grip strength is much appreciated.
As for the calves, still working on those.
 
As the brachialis is mostly responsible for pulling your hands closed (grip), I can't really think of any exercise that allows you to train them without the use of your hand.

Honestly, I would just focus on rehabbing your hand, it will hopefully return to its former glory, and you'll be able to focus on hypertrophy once again.

When I had shoulder surgery, the docs kept saying how I was going to lose significant strength and size as it healed. I wasn't able to lift nearly the same amount of weight for several months, but I kept doing exercises that built up the tendon strength, and did light sets of shoulder exercises. It sucks to go backwards, but unless they changed something structurally, you should be able to get back to business soon enough.

My .02c :)
 
halfwit said:
As the brachialis is mostly responsible for pulling your hands closed (grip), I can't really think of any exercise that allows you to train them without the use of your hand.

Honestly, I would just focus on rehabbing your hand, it will hopefully return to its former glory, and you'll be able to focus on hypertrophy once again.

When I had shoulder surgery, the docs kept saying how I was going to lose significant strength and size as it healed. I wasn't able to lift nearly the same amount of weight for several months, but I kept doing exercises that built up the tendon strength, and did light sets of shoulder exercises. It sucks to go backwards, but unless they changed something structurally, you should be able to get back to business soon enough.

My .02c :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm an impatient fella. its been 8 months and the forearm just keeps shrinking. Unfortunately I've lost 50% of my right hands use and grip permanately (I won't ever be able to make a fist with my right hand again,, but hey, at least I can still use my trigger finger). so the difficulty, like you say above is going to be figuring out how to stimulate the forearm when the grip is really not there.
 
That does suck. I don't remember if I've posted it, but simply grabbing a 45lb plate, and "fanning" yourself with it in a seated position does a really good job building up the forearms. I do a static hold at the end of each set of 35 reps, but that won't be necessary. You could give that a try (elbows on knees), and see if that is doable. :)
 
update TIP concerning training calves.

ok so my original plan was to hit calves high volume with a lot of the advice given here , which I did start (but a surgery knocked me out of the game for awhile) . for the last 6 months I've just been working out at my home gym (I don't have a lot of equipment to work out calves) and instead of hitting calves 3 times a week, I barely hit them once a week if that.

however in that time I've added just over a half inch to my calves.

What I attribute this to is my cardio sessions. What i've been doing for cardio (nearly daily) is walking uphill on the treadmill with a high incline for 45-60 mins. This must be enough direct stimulation and volume to get my calves to respond.

so, if you have lagging calves, and your doing cardio, you may want to try doing the treadmill at a high incline for your cardio and see if your calves respond to that like mine did.
 
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