Small Calves

[klokke23]

Calves are made to endure thousands and thousands of "reps" with your body weight; it makes no sense to hit them with super-high reps, which they are already used to. People will do super-high reps and feel a burn, but that burn isn't muscle growth—its lactic acid. Do you grow any other body part with 50-100 reps?

And since calves are made to endure thousands of "reps" walking around all day, it is safe to assume they are mostly composed of slow twitch fibers. Moreover, slower twitch fibers are the smallest, whereas fast twitch fibers are much bigger; the fast twitch fibers are not being hit at ANY point during your day, unless you hit them in the gym. So if you want bigger calves, load up the weight and hit those fast twitch fibers.

So when I mean by "raping" calves: warm up to a heavy load...do that load to total failure, then do some drop sets to get the high-rep metabolic action, AFTER you have stimulated your type 2 fibers.

I think that logic is quite sound.

You completely contradict yourself lol. They're meant to endure high frequency, I agree. And then you erroneously argue therefore they should NOT be trained with high frequency.
But sure. Go ahead with your 12x3 on everything and join the small calves teenage social group .

 

[Hightower]

Since January. First time in my life I can see progress. I was at some older lifting vids and went damn my calves were small. Which is something I have never noticed under any circumstance

Then it's great, you should also try, maybe I will make progress

 

[Hightower]

Dorian Yates made a good point: Train your calves just like you'd train the rest of you muscles; you don't train other muscles with super-high reps, so why would you train your calves that way? He also said our calves are used to the super-high reps since we walk on them all day. Mind you Dorian had so much beef on his calves, they'd go no matter what lol, but he is right about his logic.

My calves are only 16 inches (no pump); they are the high-insert type, so I have no chance of them getting huge, but they were once smaller, and what I did to grow them was simply rape them every time I trained them, doing them twice week. They can take a lot of abuse, so load them up, and do some drop sets on the final heavy set, that way you cover both approaches, while not missing out on the necessary heavy loading.

However, for many, calves begin to grow from high-rep exercises.

 

[TrenTrenTren]

...talk about having a monkey on your back.

For 10 grand, would you sit on my back like that as I do calf raises?

 

[Deleted member 123722]

You completely contradict yourself lol. They're meant to endure high frequency, I agree. And then you erroneously argue therefore they should NOT be trained with high frequency.
But sure. Go ahead with your 12x3 on everything and join the small calves teenage social group .

No I don't.

Your first mistake is, you conflate "frequency" with high volume; they are not the same: e.g. someone can train high volume per each body part once a week (Jay Culter), and that would not be considered "high frequency." There is always a maximum recoverability to any muscle, depending how much intensity you put into each session.

Your second mistake, is assuming I'm talking about 12x3 reps, when I'm actually talking about 6-8 reps, working from a lighter load to the heaviest load you can do for those reps, then followed by a DROP SET, which ensures you hit BOTH fibers in one set.

So you can't possibly think that doing a final set of 6-8, followed by a drop to another 12, isn't "high reps."

Now which will grow more: A set that hits BOTH slow and fast twitch, or one that hits only slow twitch, which are smaller?

This kind of training covers TUT, and hits fast and slow twitch fibers. This is why I think many pros are turning to the Top set and back off set approach, which really is similar to Yate's training. Thing is, they do less working sets for that muscle group, so they can hit it with more frequency, rather than once going to the gym 4x a week, destroying it like Yates did.

 

[klokke23]

No I don't.

Your first mistake is, you conflate "frequency" with high volume; they are not the same: e.g. someone can train high volume per each body part once a week (Jay Culter), and that would not be considered "high frequency." There is always a maximum recoverability to any muscle, depending how much intensity you put into each session.

Your second mistake, is assuming I'm talking about 12x3 reps, when I'm actually talking about 6-8 reps, working from a lighter load to the heaviest load you can do for those reps, then followed by a DROP SET, which ensures you hit BOTH fibers in one set.

So you can't possibly think that doing a final set of 6-8, followed by a drop to another 12, isn't "high reps."

Now which will grow more: A set that hits BOTH slow and fast twitch, or one that hits only slow twitch, which are smaller?

This kind of training covers TUT, and hits fast and slow twitch fibers. This is why I think many pros are turning to the Top set and back off set approach, which really is similar to Yate's training. Thing is, they do less working sets for that muscle group, so they can hit it with more frequency, rather than once going to the gym 4x a week, destroying it like Yates did.

That's a lot of words from someone who haven't even googled calves muscle fiber composition yet. Although you are right it's got a lot of slow twitch. But the rest of your rambling is just your ego trying to apply shit logic without enough info. B-but Dorian Yates... is a holocaust denier and complete bonkers. Whatever worked for him, worked for him. Only a fool would listen to the conclusions he's drawing from his training.
Look up slow twitch fibers and see what kind of training they respond better too.
High volume.
Now stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Everyone has tried low reps, it does nothing for most people.
"Hitting both "fibers" in one set." Lmao gimme a break.

 

[Deleted member 123722]

That's a lot of words from someone who haven't even googled calves muscle fiber composition yet. Although you are right it's got a lot of slow twitch. But the rest of your rambling is just your ego trying to apply shit logic without enough info. B-but Dorian Yates... is a holocaust denier and complete bonkers. Whatever worked for him, worked for him. Only a fool would listen to the conclusions he's drawing from his training.
Look up slow twitch fibers and see what kind of training they respond better too.
High volume.
Now stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Everyone has tried low reps, it does nothing for most people.
"Hitting both "fibers" in one set." Lmao gimme a break.

Anyone can see who has an ego here, and it's you. The second you responded with your arrogance says it all. Your condescending tone and the lack of any substance to your logic, "Muh holocaust denier, therefore he is incorrect" is both a nonsequitar and an ad hominem—two logical fallacies in one sentence...good job lol.

Let's also not mention Arnold, who grew his calves replicating Reg Park who was doing 1000lb calve raises, after they had been a weak point for him; lets also forget Tom Platz, who mentioned how heavy he'd go to really slam his calves.

People like you are a cancer to forums, and no amount of civil discourse matters with you ego-driven types; that's why the second I see your ilk start disrespecting others, you deserve nothing but to be shit on, but I rather spend my time doing something productive and talking to people like you.

Good luck big guy lol.

 

[klokke23]

Anyone can see who has an ego here, and it's you. The second you responded with your arrogance says it all. Your condescending tone and the lack of any substance to your logic, "Muh holocaust denier, therefore he is incorrect" is both a nonsequitar and an ad hominem—two logical fallacies in one sentence...good job lol.

Let's also not mention Arnold, who grew his calves replicating Reg Park who was doing 1000lb calve raises, after they had been a weak point for him; lets also forget Tom Platz, who mentioned how heavy he'd go to really slam his calves.

People like you are a cancer to forums, and no amount of civil discourse matters with you ego-driven types; that's why the second I see your ilk start disrespecting others, you deserve nothing but to be shit on, but I rather spend my time doing something productive and talking to people like you.

Good luck big guy lol.

Idk why you say I had so substance in my logic. My whole point was about slow twitch fibers?? Oh wait, now I see why. You just wanted to say ad hominen non sequitur lol. Damn what a forum tryhard you are.

 

[Deleted member 123722]

Idk why you say I had so substance in my logic. My whole point was about slow twitch fibers?? Oh wait, now I see why. You just wanted to say ad hominen non sequitur lol. Damn what a forum tryhard you are.

Idk, I think it's try hard that some immature kid comes on a forum unable to have a civil conversation, with an arrogant attitude, not even knowing what "frequency" actually means, while trying to seem intelligent and tough.

Imagine thinking using proper terms to call out someone's ignorance and terrible debate skills is try hard. Perhaps I should have just resorted to calling you a retard so I could stoop to your level, kiddo? You're clearly unintelligent if you think saying "ad hominem" and "non sequitur" is some kind of flex lol.

And in your response, you again foolishly misuse a term (high volume) to try to make your point. You can do lower-rep high-volume training; if I did 20 sets of back, doing 4x6 reps, that's high volume, while also being low reps. No where did I say do ONE set of calves to failure once a week lol.

We already know that slow twitch fibers respond to HIGHER REPS, but are MUCH smaller than the fast twitch fibers, which are larger and respond to HEAVIER LOADS; thus is it much wiser to do BOTH, so you grow both fiber types and get maximal development from your calves.

So in the end, we not only know you're arrogant and immature, but completely clueless or inept at communication. In other words, I think you are stupid.

 

[Hightower]

For 10 grand, would you sit on my back like that as I do calf raises?

Lover of the exercise donkey ea, but the money ?

 

[TheRingloVale]

I know genetics play a large role, but there still must be something to grow these little guys lol

Iaian Valliere would disagree. You know that this guy has to have tried EVERYTHING. He's just a monster everywhere else.

 

[Hightower]

Iaian Valliere would disagree. You know that this guy has to have tried EVERYTHING. He's just a monster everywhere else.

Excellent shape and proportions, I want him to progress further. I really like this athlete.

 

[Gigantic]

I got a 140lb weighted vest. I walk around with it often. Even jog. My calves are bigger than Dolly Parton’s titties. But they were like this before training and steroids too…

Come to think of it, my kids all have tree trunks for legs too. Might be genetics?

 

[Hightower]

I got a 140lb weighted vest. I walk around with it often. Even jog. My calves are bigger than Dolly Parton’s titties. But they were like this before training and steroids too…

Come to think of it, my kids all have tree trunks for legs too. Might be genetics?

Often, caviar is the result of genetics or natural data. And someone has to work very hard so that they start to progress.

 

[EazyE]

Best results for calves for me happened when I quit worrying about what others were doing and found what worked for me through lots of trial and error. I remember reading an article about leg press training by John Meadows and one of the takeaways I found was about calf training. Load up the leg press appropriately and perform calf presses as a timed exercise - so complete as many reps as possible in say 45-60 seconds as one set. Get a good stretch and complete range of motion for as long as you can and once you are nearing failure start doing rapid fire quick partial reps to keep the calves under tension. Then at the end hold the contracted position for about 10 seconds if you can.

Three sets of 60 seconds each will have you hobbling around for a few days. The pump is incredible. It’s definitely about time under tension. Do this two times per week and see if your calves respond.

 

[Deleted member 123722]

Best results for calves for me happened when I quit worrying about what others were doing and found what worked for me through lots of trial and error. I remember reading an article about leg press training by John Meadows and one of the takeaways I found was about calf training. Load up the leg press appropriately and perform calf presses as a timed exercise - so complete as many reps as possible in say 45-60 seconds as one set. Get a good stretch and complete range of motion for as long as you can and once you are nearing failure start doing rapid fire quick partial reps to keep the calves under tension. Then at the end hold the contracted position for about 10 seconds if you can.

Three sets of 60 seconds each will have you hobbling around for a few days. The pump is incredible. It’s definitely about time under tension. Do this two times per week and see if your calves respond.

I was watching Lee Haney video the other day, he said they used to hit calves 5x a week to make them grow, because they are stubborn. I've never done more than two days a week, perhaps I'll try the five days, but I'm currently in a cut, so I doubt I'll grow any new tissue.

 

[EazyE]

I was watching Lee Haney video the other day, he said they used to hit calves 5x a week to make them grow, because they are stubborn. I've never done more than two days a week, perhaps I'll try the five days, but I'm currently in a cut, so I doubt I'll grow any new tissue.

I have done calves 4x weekly with good results overall.

 

[Hightower]

Best results for calves for me happened when I quit worrying about what others were doing and found what worked for me through lots of trial and error. I remember reading an article about leg press training by John Meadows and one of the takeaways I found was about calf training. Load up the leg press appropriately and perform calf presses as a timed exercise - so complete as many reps as possible in say 45-60 seconds as one set. Get a good stretch and complete range of motion for as long as you can and once you are nearing failure start doing rapid fire quick partial reps to keep the calves under tension. Then at the end hold the contracted position for about 10 seconds if you can.

Three sets of 60 seconds each will have you hobbling around for a few days. The pump is incredible. It’s definitely about time under tension. Do this two times per week and see if your calves respond.

You are absolutely right in saying that you need to choose exercises for yourself. I know my calves love it, big time under load, usually doing 50-100 reps.

 

[Deezznutzz]

Buy a rigid frame mountain bike. Put fat 2.0 street tires on it. Ride 3x a week for 45 minutes. Stand up a lot in the hardest gear going up hills.The heavy slow non suspension mtb bike will allow you to get in a good workout doing less miles. If you get something light and fast like a road bike you're going to have to ride more miles to get the same kind of leg workout.

 

[Hightower]

Buy a rigid frame mountain bike. Put fat 2.0 street tires on it. Ride 3x a week for 45 minutes. Stand up a lot in the hardest gear going up hills.The heavy slow non suspension mtb bike will allow you to get in a good workout doing less miles. If you get something light and fast like a road bike you're going to have to ride more miles to get the same kind of leg workout.

It seems to me that the load on a bicycle and the load in a trezal in a large hall are different. Muscle fibers work differently.