please help...tiny calves!

P

Proteinboy

2
:costumed5:iv been consistantly weight lifting for about a year now, iv been on and off for 3-4 years due to injuries.

anyway, i have always had very small calves.
i squat, deadlift, and do olympic lifts and i have been told that if i make my lower body grow, the calves will follow.
i have seen little to NO growth...
i have tried calve raises but i got discouraged after a few weeks because i dont see any growth.
its really annoying me now.
can someone give me advice about how to get my calves bigger AND of course stronger?
specifically for a person with genetics that left me with small calves
 
Have you tried high freequency calf training? like 5 days a week or so?
 
nope; that sounds good.
what do you propose i do?
different kinds of calf work each day? mon-fri? o.o
weights?
i will love you even more if u can help me get out of small calf world xD
 
sure, just try different things to see what works. Try each thing for a month and take measurements before and after
 
I personally wouldn't think its a question of doing tonnes of calf work. The size of the calves is proportional to the size of your quads/hamstrings. That is also true for someone who wants a 16 inch bicep with a girl sized forearm. If you are doing a good routine that hits all body parts and also eating enough you would grow. Diet and a good routine are key.
 
well a lot of people have probems with calfs, arnold, for example. If you do a google search you'll find tons of people having problems with their calves staying the same size while everything else is growing.
 
That is funny, I never even thought of the calves like that.. Like forearms.. Makes sense I suppose. I do calf raises though along with all the other leg work. Works for me. Dumbbell single leg calf raises I suppose to be more specific.
 
calf size is highly genetical :)

Of course there are ways to help them improve though. Look up arnold and google as some people suggested.
 
At the end of the day its WORKOUT, WORKOUT, WORKOUT, then EAT, EAT, EAT. Arnie is hero-worshipped by too many people to realise that he was probably doing the "typical" bodybuilder split routine. This is why you get people with monstrous quads and small calves because they are isolating one part too much.

Let us take Proteinboy for instance (without picking on him but being subjective). Is he doing gymnastics or Oly Lifting or Crosfit style workouts (20 rep deads)? I would bet that until I see evidence to the contrary, his quads, hams and glutes, calves are all proportional and reflect the workouts he has been doing.

Oly lifting is not exactly hypertrophy-esq (spelling) if you get my drift.
 
that's true, but do you have any evidence that the calfs won't grow to be bigger in proportion to the quads and hams? Mine certainly are bigger in proportion.. There is nothing wrong with throwing in some extra calf training, you just got to experiment to see what they respond to. For some people it's a **** load of volume 1-2 times per week, for some people it's low volume 5 times per week, for some people it's a lot of volume 5 times per week.. for some people, they just need to do some oly pulls and they grow. Everyone is different. And squats and deads won't stimulate your calfs that much, not everyone's calfs will grow to be in proportion with their upper legs just because they do squats.
 
Like some people have said, experimentation.

If it were me i'd experiment with different reps/sets/frequency of calf isolation work.

Also, this maybe a no no. But uphill sprinting with some heavy weight on you would be an absolute killer for the calves. ;)
 
Go HIKING man. Have you seem mountain folks? They have crazy large calves.

I'd try to go calves every other day, unless it's sore, if i was focused on trying to make it grow.
 
BigTomW said:
Like some people have said, experimentation.

If it were me i'd experiment with different reps/sets/frequency of calf isolation work.

Also, this maybe a no no. But uphill sprinting with some heavy weight on you would be an absolute killer for the calves. ;)
Click to expand...

that is very true! then just jog controlled downhill for some eccentric tibialis anterior work. Rinse and repeat!
 
I'm with Karky, high frequency training. I've always struggled with small calves and always hit them as hard as everything else. Until you think about it, they SHOULDN'T grow like everything else. It's the only class two lever in your body, making it much more efficient at moving weight so it should require more attention. Sprints and high freq(or)vol helped me catch them up.
 
PB - i would also add- incorporae the calve in everything...

ie: when you do dead lifts, squats, etc... lift up onto toes at the end,, that calve may be lil, but they are strong man!

I rarely do any isolated calve work. But I have run alot, and jump rope alot, and I always give that last lil bit on power cleans, and squats and such. Toe press at the end.

If you do, or when you do Isolate (cuz I know yer gunna) be careful man! The last half of that lift is risky for that lil bastahd to sieze up.

and gain some weight already!
 
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