I can't grow my calves

Posted by: neuralterego

calves will hypertrophy for all the same reasons any other muscle does. one day a week ain't enough!! up your volume man!! and your frequency. before anyone starts screaming "overtraining", just consider this... put calf training in on EVERY training day. put them at the BEGINNING of your routine on each training day. example: if you train 4 days/week- DAY ONE/THREE- 1. Calf Press (3-4x8-10), 2. Seated Calf Press (3-4x12-15)... for both, try a tempo of 3 seconds eccentric, one second pause at the bottom, and one second concentric. DAY TWO/FOUR- 1. Single Leg Donkey Calf Press (2-3x12-15), 2. Single Leg Seated Calf Press (2-3x15-25) use same tempo as previous.

After you've done those two sessions for 6 times each, change them. different set/rep scheme, different tempo, whatever...

one more thought... a bit out there, but consider it... i don't know what this running injury of yours is, but if it is effecting the innervation of the calf muscles, then they might not hypertrophy the way you hope for them to. in other words, iff you have swelling and/or scar tissue anywhere along the line of the tibial nerve, it might be hindering the muscles from firing. just a thought.

The running injury is more of an overtraining condition, that will not be fixed until this fall. It is Compartment Syndrome in my lower leg, I think Lateral compartment. They already did surgery on my right leg and they did have to cut along the tibial nerve for it. I do feel like my my right calf has gotten stronger than it has ever been since the surgery. I am hoping that once I get the surgery on my left leg that everything will be normal and my calves will actually grow. I am probably not training them right either. Thanks for all the input ya'll.

Biggest secret I've found is to only rest 15 Seconds between sets......Don't wait for the pain or discomfort to subside before you start another set .....wait only 15 Seconds....:-) Perform 4 Sets something like this:

Note: All sets are done Performing a One leg Calve Raise....Standing position....:-)

Set one up to 15 Reps....OR until the burn is to much to handle.....you should have judged the weight correctly as to tire you out to this point by 15 or so reps....:-)

Wait 15 Secs......

Set 2....GO Again ......Same wt doing as many raises as you can before the pain / discomfort becomes to much to handle......Usually fatigue will set in around rep 10th rep.......

Wait 15 Secs.......

Set 3....Go again.......Same as above .....but pain will set in at about rep 6-7....Note....deal with the discomfort as long as possible....:-)

Wait 15 Secs ( Note: take off about 25% of the current wt for last set...:-)).....Now give her hell try to keep a brisk pace and fight to get as many quality reps as possible until the pain / discomfort gets to be to much.to handle......Then......Break....and rest....and stretch each calve for a min. of 15 seconds per side.....

If you give this a try .....expect to have extremely sore calves in the beginning ....but you'll get used to it.....in return your calves will be forced into Hypertrophy.....:-)

Peace Out!

Fat folks calves are great! So, I'm thinking "They train theirs everyday, I can at least do it four times a week." I've had good results, and I usually do them during warm-up. Calf raisies, donkey-raises, toes in-ward, toes out-ward, whatever...the approach can vary day by day. I usually add weights during my leg days. Either way, by working on them 4 times a week, I've noticed a difference.

I like to train them 5 days a week with low-rep and heavy weight and then take a week and only do a set 2 days a week with 50 reps.....that has made mine grow the most. Just do standing calf raises until you really start to notice some size gains, and then throw in the seated type raises.

OK, I've found MY holy grail of calf growing exercises. I was tearing up legs and the strongman guys left a chain that looks like it held the Titanic in place inside the gym. They drag it all over town. SO...... me and my buddy decide to take this big bitch (200-250 lbs or so) outside into the parking lot and drag it around. We started at one end and drug it down, then turned around and drug it back (uphill!). By the time I was back, which my buddy had to run up to me and yell at me and walk with me to get me to not quit, my hammies and calves were burning so bad it was ridiculous. I am definitely gonna incorporate this into my leg day as i hadnt felt a calf pump like that ever! You can do the same thing by getting a plate and welding a chain onto it and loading the plate full of whatever weight you want. I beleive there's a thread somewhere on here about that actually. Good luck!