Working Calves in HST?

K

Key Of David

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Since calves are small endurance muscles (so people say) that most people work at higher reps, I'm wondering do you treat them like the larger muscle groups or just give them some reps and weight and increase the weight every now and then, say like with the abs and crunches?

The reason I ask is I workout at home and have discovered the weight I put on a barbell and hence on my shoulders for calve raises, even for beyond 15 reps, is HEAVY! I don't know that I could physically handle the weight it took to do only 10 or 5 reps of calve raises.

Are there any tricks to putting the weight on the calves at home besides standing calve raises?

Everything works out perfectly for me to work out at home, I'm not about to join a gym just for calve raises. LOL
 
I don't work calves. They grow with squats and deads for me. Also, fwiw, when I do abs, I do them just like the other muscle groups.
 
My calves won't grow unless I work them directly- no big deal, but it does add another lift to my routine. I have a pulley system on my power cage, so I use a belt and connet to the pulley- works like a charm getting up to my 5RM, which is 160.
I built a platform of sorts from 2x4s. Four short pieces (12" long), two on each side nailed together on their faces to form the base. Then two long pieces (24") nailed to their faces to form the top piece. The result looks like an "I" if that helps.
You might try one-leg DB calf raises- they're torture- MUCH tougher than BB (or belt) raises).

HTH!
 
I agree with Totentanz. I also believe olympic lifting will help. Try adding power cleans or clean pulls to your routine.
 
Do you suppose ATG squats would hit the calves a little better than 90 degree squats? The ankle bends a greater range, so the calve would be stretching/flexing more, right?
 
Definitely. Parellel squats give me nothing in my calves, but full squats definitely make my calves feel a deep tightness inside. Deadlifts seem to hit my calves a lot more than squats, though that could be mostly because I move a ton more weight in deads than in squats.
 
Thanks for the info. I'm like Jake, my calves won't respond much to indirect work, and they are very strong. Its probably the strongest muscle group I have.

I'm gonna just keep adding the weights to see what I can handle safely. It would sure be worth it if I could get some work into them. They have responded very well to just trying out the 15 RMs.
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I agree with the single leg work, means the weight can be lighter on your shoulders. Vicious' Pimp my HST book says you actually use heavier weight, not higher reps, to grow muscles with a lot of slow twitch fibres. Don't know where the link is but do a search and have a read.
 
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(Peak_Power @ Oct. 02 2006,17:26)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I agree with the single leg work, means the weight can be lighter on your shoulders. Vicious' Pimp my HST book says you actually use heavier weight, not higher reps, to grow muscles with a lot of slow twitch fibres. Don't know where the link is but do a search and have a read.</div>
Thanks Peak. Very much appreciated!
 
I said this in another thread but thought I would throw it in here too as it is appropriate. So apologies if you've read this already.  
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From what has been discussed here recently it would seem that rep range is not really the issue. Calf muscle is still muscle whatever its composition. You still need progressive tension overload. How can you stay in a high rep range for the entire cycle unless your loads don't progress significantly? You could start at 30 rep sets and work down to 15 but look at the loads. They won't be much more than you would use walking about (and certainly less than running) where each calf carries your bodyweight plus impact force! The ROM would be greater but I still don't think this would be the best recipe for progress.

I used to do hi-rep sets and made next to no gains in my calves. Once I read Jules' stuff it became clear that you have to really hammer them and often start a cycle in the 10s, as it is very difficult to lay off using your calves during SD. The trouble with this is that you end up doing lots of heavy, low-rep sets which can take a long time to complete. Also, trying to keep adding weight forever eventually leads to form dropping off and injuries (as happened in my case). I have now learnt never to compromise form for load. Watch out if you do decide to experiment with stretch point stuff where you trigger the golgi reflex!

In the case of calf isos, I think that one of the reasons folks don't gain doing low-rep sets is because they don't do enough overall work or the weight is too heavy and form is sloppy.

I also feel that one set of 15s is probably not enough to stimulate much calf growth and while 3 sets of 5s would be better due to the increased load and overall work done, it still isn't a massive amount for your calves to handle.

If you did a cycle where you did 30 reps for calves this would double the work done but it would mean doing 6 sets of 5s at the tail end of the cycle. The way to get this done without waiting around too much would be to superset with another exercise or do single-leg calf raises and just keep alternating from one leg to the other - no rest needed. However, 30 reps might be too much work for some folks so it would be wise to experiment with total reps. 20 might be a good place to start (as is used for Max-Stim workouts).

Anyone else got any thoughts?
 
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Calf muscle is still muscle whatever its composition. You still need progressive tension overload.</div>
I agree with Lol. Why not train your calves HST style like any other muscle group? Do keep in mind though that the calves are never deconditioned, so it could take a bit more work to get them growing.
 
Well it is possible to decondition your calves, just sit (or better lie) on your ass all day. This could realistically be done during annual leave from work, if you were really dedicated to building your calve, even fake a sickie for a week or 2. Great if you had a supportive wife to fetch you things :)

Not really realistic I know...
 
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