Weight Training Tips and Articles

Weight Training For Bigger Calves

  One of the toughest muscle groups to build through weight training are the calves. How big your calves are depends a lot on genetics as you’ve no doubt seen people who never exercise with huge calves and people who exercise constantly with small ones. Take an elite athlete like Evander Holyfield whose calves weren’t more than 13 or 14 inches around when he was in his prime and that should tell you how much of a role genetics plays in how big your calves are. Despite this you can certainly increase the size of your lower leg muscles with intense calf workouts.

  The calves are a very fast recovering muscle group (you use them constantly while walking or running) so you can train them more often than other muscles. This means that while you may do your calf training routine on your leg day, you may also want to train them during another workout as well. Depending how your weight training routine is split up you can do some calf exercises every other day or once every 3 days.

  Another key to building bigger calf muscles is to do high reps on your calf exercises while using as much weight as possible. Since you are always using your calves you need to train them with as much intensity as possible to get an effect. When you start a calf exercise do 15-20 reps with good, full reps where you stretch them at the bottom of a rep and get as high on your toes as possible to finish a rep. Once you get to a point where you can no longer do any more full reps do as many “bouncing” reps as you can stand before finishing your set.

  To gain calf muscle size you need to do both standing and seated calf raises. The standing calf raises will build the gastrocnemius muscle, while seated calf raises will build the soleus muscle. If you want you can throw in some sets of calf raises on the leg press machine. If you focus on training both of major muscles of the lower legs during your calf workouts you’ll get more of muscle size you’ll be on your way to building bigger calves.

Do High Reps On Calf Exercises

  The calves are one of the hardest body parts to add muscle mass to if you’re on a weight training routine. Genetics play a big part in how big your calves are. You’ve no doubt seen muscular guys at the gym who have no calves and people who haven’t weight trained a day in their life with huge calves. If you weren’t born with muscular calves you needn’t worry because you can still build them up by doing calf workouts.

  The calves tend to recover quicker than other muscle groups. Every time you walk you use them so it’ll take some high intensity weight training to get them to grow. Since the calf muscles recover so fast you should possibly do your calf workouts more often - maybe every other day. You could run for your cardio workouts to help build the calves as well.

  Another thing about the calves is that you should use high reps on your calf exercise to build muscle size in them. You won’t get much work from 8 rep sets when you do calves. You should do at least 15-20 reps for calf exercises even when you do a heavy leg workout. You should also use as much weight as possible for this amount of reps and go to failure on every set. To get the most out of your calf training you should do full reps on your exercises and, when you can no longer do another full rep, do some bouncing half reps. This will fry your calves and hopefully set you on your way to adding muscle size to them

Leg Weight Training Workouts

  There are many weight trainers out there who focus primarily on training their upper bodies and neglect leg weight training. However, for overall muscular development you must train your legs if you follow a weight training routine. If you do weight training workouts for your legs you should even gain more muscle strength and size in your upper body. For overall leg development you need to focus on training all of the major muscle groups of the legs - the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves.

  The quadriceps are the muscles that make up the front of the upper legs from the groin area to the knees. The best quadriceps weight training exercise is the squat. In fact, the squat may be the best overall weight training exercise you can do. As long as you don’t have knee or lower back problems you should always start your leg workout with squats. If you have problems squatting you should do hack squats on a hack squat machine. Leg presses are also good for the quadriceps but won’t build your leg muscles as fast as squats. After you do your major quadricep exercises you should do a few sets of lunges. You can do lunges with either a barbell or dumbbells. They’re great for building the muscles just above the knees. Finsh your quadriceps weight training workout with some sets of leg extensions.

  The hamstrings are the muscles on the back of the thighs. They will get some work from your quadricep exercises but you still need to do some direct training for them to keep a balance between the muscles in front and behind the legs. Stiff-legged deadlifts are a great weight training exercise for the hamstrings. Good mornings are an exercise you don’t see performed often, but they are also great for building the hamstring muscles. Finish your hamstring workout with leg curls.

  The calves are the muscles of the lower legs below the knees. Calf training can be done on a standing calf machine, a seated calf machine, or a leg press machine. Keep your reps high when you train your calf muscles and try to get a nice stretch and contraction on every rep possible before finishing a set with some bouncing reps. If you run or jog you’ll help build your calves as well.

  If you follow a weight training split routine you should give your leg training its own workout. This way you’ll be less likely to not train them and you’ll be able to hit them with a lot of intensity.