Chevrolet Corvette Stingray C7 Forum - View Single Post - When Was The Last Time You Worked Out At The Gym

CFD · 02-08-2013, 10:32 AM

The calves, as mentioned, are used continuously during every day activities and are also used in lifts usually associated with heavy weight loads such as squats and deads and are also used in most exercises, even in bench exercises, this is one of the reasons they can be exceptionally strong without necessarilly being "big". To gain size in the calves isolation exercises such as calf raises are very useful. When doing other exercises, squats for example you are working your calves but not beyond their everyday useage and range of motion in relationship to the weight load because your calves are not directly supporting weight. If you are somehow targeting your calves during these lifts you are not doing them right, your feet should be flat on the floor and driving through your heals.When doing calf raises you should be doing them with your toes above your heels, this way you are incorporating muscle fibers which are not generally used to lift weight, when raising the weight from the ball of your foot, you are forcing these muscle fibers to engage both on the negative and possitive and frorcing them to directly lift the weight. Again, where they are always used, doing calf raises at the end of the workout when they have already been used to what would be their normal threashold,you are are pushing them beyond, and this is when muscle size can be increased but because of this you must push them hard using as much weight as will allow a significant rep count, easily 20-50. This is why when you see guys trying to increase calve size they seem to do endless calf raises. Is it useful? yes if you want size, you will make them stronger but doing compound exercises will do that as well so if you want size do calf raises.

02-08-2013, 10:32 AM	#570
CFD Drives: 2SS/RS L99 BLACK Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Franklin , MA Posts: 6,696	The calves, as mentioned, are used continuously during every day activities and are also used in lifts usually associated with heavy weight loads such as squats and deads and are also used in most exercises, even in bench exercises, this is one of the reasons they can be exceptionally strong without necessarilly being "big". To gain size in the calves isolation exercises such as calf raises are very useful. When doing other exercises, squats for example you are working your calves but not beyond their everyday useage and range of motion in relationship to the weight load because your calves are not directly supporting weight. If you are somehow targeting your calves during these lifts you are not doing them right, your feet should be flat on the floor and driving through your heals.When doing calf raises you should be doing them with your toes above your heels, this way you are incorporating muscle fibers which are not generally used to lift weight, when raising the weight from the ball of your foot, you are forcing these muscle fibers to engage both on the negative and possitive and frorcing them to directly lift the weight. Again, where they are always used, doing calf raises at the end of the workout when they have already been used to what would be their normal threashold,you are are pushing them beyond, and this is when muscle size can be increased but because of this you must push them hard using as much weight as will allow a significant rep count, easily 20-50. This is why when you see guys trying to increase calve size they seem to do endless calf raises. Is it useful? yes if you want size, you will make them stronger but doing compound exercises will do that as well so if you want size do calf raises.