Learn how to grow your calves with the BEST exercises! Plus, learn the 10 biggest mistakes you NEED to avoid!
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Calf Anatomy & Function
The calf primarily consists of the gastrocnemius and soleus. Together, they’re referred to as the “triceps surae.”
The gastrocnemius has medial and lateral heads that attach to the femur, while the larger soleus muscle, which is deep to the gastrocnemius, originates lower down on the tibia and fibula. Both insert on the calcaneus, or heel bone, via the Achilles tendon.
The main action of these muscles is plantar flexion, or pointing the foot downward.
However, since the gastrocnemius crosses the knee joint, it also contributes to knee flexion, especially when the knee is straight and the ankle is dorsiflexed.
Knee Straight vs Knee Bent Calf Raises
Because the gastrocnemius crosses the knee joint, whereas the soleus does not, it is typically believed that both knee-straight and knee-bent calf raises are required to maximize hypertrophy (muscle growth).
The idea is that knee-bent calf raises isolate the soleus because the knee-bent position puts the gastrocnemius on slack and therefore at a disadvantage to produce force. However, research suggests that knee-straight calf raises may be sufficient for maximizing hypertrophy of both muscles.
A recent study by Maeo et al “compared triceps surae muscle hypertrophy after standing/knee-extended versus seated/knee-flexed plantarflexion (calf-raise) training” and found that “The changes in muscle volume were significantly greater for the standing than seated condition leg in the lateral gastrocnemius (12.4% vs. 1.7%), medial gastrocnemius (9.2% vs. 0.6%), and whole triceps surae (5.6% vs. 2.1%) (p ≤ 0.011), but similar between legs in the soleus (2.1% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.410).”
This means that both muscles grew significantly with knee-straight calf raises, but the knee-bent calf raises contributed little to the growth of the gastrocnemius. Additionally, the change in muscle volume of the soleus did not differ significantly between the two types of calf raises.
This makes sense because if you’re doing calf raises with your knee straight, both muscles are working. Even if your gastrocnemius somehow worked harder initially and fatigued first, the soleus would continue working until you reached failure.
If you still want to do knee-bent calf raises because you don’t want to potentially leave any gains on the table, I’ll give an example of how you can best include them in your program later in this blog.
Feet Pointed In & Out
Another common topic of discussion relates to whether or not you should bother including calf raises with your feet pointed in and out.
A study by Nunes et al in 2020 did find that calf raises with the feet pointed out led to greater growth in the medial gastrocnemius head, while calf raises with the feet pointed in led to greater growth in the lateral gastrocnemius head.
Since we’re talking millimeters of difference compared to training with the feet pointed forward in relatively untrained individuals, I’m of the opinion that it probably doesn’t make that much of a difference in the long run. Plus, the position of the feet can be awkward.
However, if you have a noticeable asymmetry or you just want to make sure you’re fully covered, I’ll discuss how you can incorporate these options into your training as well.
Exercise Options
Before diving into how to optimize your calf training, I want to quickly show all of the exercise options available, starting with the knee straight.
If you train at a gym, the 2 pieces of equipment specific to calf training that you might find are the standing calf raise machine and the donkey calf raise machine.
You can also do calf raises on any leg press machine – they’re all interchangeable.
The smith machine is one of the best options for calf training if you can stand on a step or plates to allow for a full range of motion.
Otherwise, bodyweight calf raises on any elevated surface, such as a step, box, plates, etc. work great at home or at the gym. If you’re going to perform them on one leg with weight, I typically prefer holding the weight in the same hand as the leg performing the calf raises.
A lesser known option is performing calf raises in a staggered stance that still involves training one leg at a time.
For knee-bent calf raises, the easiest option is the seated calf raise machine.
If that’s not available to you, you can do seated calf raises with the smith machine, a barbell, or dumbbells with your feet on an elevated surface.
Keep in mind that the barbell can be a hassle to set up and perform, and dumbbells are often not heavy enough considering how strong the calves are.
Now let’s look at the 10 mistakes you NEED to avoid if you want to grow your calves.
Mistake #1: Bouncing Your Reps
If there’s one thing research has demonstrated over the past several years, it’s how important training the stretched position is for calf hypertrophy.
You need to spend time in the bottom position of each repetition. If necessary, choose a specific tempo to use, such as 2 seconds down, a 2 second pause, 1 second up, and a 1 second pause before repeating.
Keep in mind that there’s nothing inherently special about this tempo. Just think about making every repetition slow and controlled, especially the stretched position.
To emphasize the stretched position, your knees should remain fairly straight and shouldn’t bend with each repetition.
Also ensure that the ball of your foot is supported. If too much of your foot is supported, you won’t be able to achieve a full stretch. If too little of your foot is supported, your ability to push off will be limited.
Here’s my key message:
Do not sacrifice your tempo, range of motion, or technique for more weight. If you focus on the process, the results will come.
Mistake #2: Turning Your Calf Raise Into A Balance Exercise
The more effort you put into maintaining your balance, the less force your calves can produce, which will ultimately result in less muscle growth.
It’s the same reason you shouldn’t perform squats on a bosu ball if your goal is to get bigger and stronger legs.
I don’t recommend calf raises with a barbell on your back or free-standing calf raises unless you can use at least 1 hand to support yourself.
Mistake #3: Overcomplicating Your Exercise Selection
If your goal is calf hypertrophy, do not combine lower body exercises. Don’t combine squats, split squats, wall sits, bridges, or any other movement with calf raises.
The added complexity, balance, fatigue, etc. are not helpful to your goal of calf growth.
I’ve already provided all of the exercise options available. You should be doing those exercises or exercises that look very similar.
Mistake #4: Thinking You NEED To Do High Reps
A paper by Schoenfeld et al in 2020 compared low-load training (20-30 repetitions) to high-load training (6-10 repetitions) and found that “…changes in muscle thickness were similar for the soleus and the gastrocnemius regardless of the magnitude of load used in training.”
This means that you can grow the calves with heavier weights for lower repetitions, lighter weights for higher repetitions, or both, so you don’t need to worry about muscle fiber types.
This ties directly into…
Mistake #5: Not Training To Failure (or close to it)
Training your calves hard sucks. It burns. Badly.
You can do a set of rows for your back to failure and the weight just stops moving.
But many people who try to do calf raises to failure quit because of the burn, not because the weight stops moving.
If you want to grow your calves, you need to push yourself past that mental barrier. When your calves start to burn is when the repetitions start to count and you need to dig a little deeper.
This is why it’s helpful knowing that you can do calf raises with higher loads for less repetitions. You’re more likely to reach true failure when using higher loads for less repetitions compared to lighter loads for ultra-high repetitions that might cause you to stop because the burning in your calves becomes unbearable.
Two caveats here:
- You don’t always need to train to failure, but it’s good to test it out every once in a while to know you’re pushing yourself sufficiently hard.
- If you’ve never trained your calves before, you probably don’t need to go all out right away because you don’t want the extreme soreness to discourage you from ever training your calves again. You’re going to get sore regardless, but you might feel more encouraged if that soreness is manageable initially.
Mistake #6: Not Training Your Calves First
If you’re like most people, you put calf training at the end of your workouts. This leads to 1 of 3 problems:
- You skip calf training completely because you convince yourself you already did enough. You don’t really need to do calf raises. You’re tired. You can go home.
- You are exhausted from the rest of your workout. This can have physical and psychological effects that lead to half-a**ed calf raises.
- Your calves are already somewhat fatigued from the other exercises you did, like hamstring curls, because they are involved in knee flexion.
You don’t have to put calf training first for the rest of your life, but if one of your main goals is to grow your calves, you need to prioritize them.
Mistake #7: Overcomplicating Your Exercise Selection
Let’s tie all of the information up to this point together.
Good programming is getting the most out of the least effort. People often do the opposite by trying to do as much as possible as quickly as possible, but change takes time. Start with fewer exercises and less sets per week and gradually do more, only as needed.
For example, if you’re new to the gym and you’re training your legs twice per week, you might start by only doing 6 total sets of calf raises per week. On Monday, you might do 3 sets of 6-10 repetitions on the leg press, standing calf raise machine, or smith machine. On Thursday, you might do 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions of single leg calf raises on a step with a dumbbell in your hand.
When you eventually start to plateau, you might add 1 set to each of those training days, so you’re doing 8 total sets per week.
The next step might be adding 1 more set, but now splitting those 9 sets over the course of three days.
You might work up to 12 sets over 3 different days or 16 sets over 4 different days.
Hopefully you see the trend. You’re gradually doing more over time as needed, but this might be over the course of several years. Understand that you may need more or less sets than your favorite influencer, and where you start is going to depend on your current level of training.
How about the seated heel raises and feet forward, out, or in variations?
If you’re training 3 days per week, you can do machine-based, knee straight calf raises with alternating foot positions on Mondays, seated calf raises on Wednesdays, and single leg calf raises on Fridays.
This is an arbitrary example, but it demonstrates how you can incorporate the methods I discussed earlier. However, keep in mind that greater complexity doesn’t necessarily equate to greater gains.
Mistake #8: Not Resistance Training
I get it – you run or play sports, but that’s not the same as training your calves for hypertrophy.
Can you get great looking and functioning calves from jump roping? Sure.
But the title of this blog is “How To Grow Your Calves” and the best way to do that is through resistance training.
Mistake #9: Blaming Your Genetics
Do your genetics influence the shape and size of your calves? Of course, but that’s true for every single muscle. Blaming your genetics is an excuse to not train or to give up before putting in the appropriate work needed to see growth.
My biceps will never look like Arnold’s, but that doesn’t discourage me from training my biceps. And I don’t compare myself to Arnold.
The best thing you can do is be content with your own progress instead of comparing yourself to others. You’ll be happier this way and like I said earlier, you’ll end up focusing on the process which will ultimately lead to the outcomes you want.
Mistake #10: Being Impatient & Inconsistent
Muscle growth takes time.
Have you been training for a month? Great, give it another 6 months.
Have you been training for a year? Awesome, keep going.
Did you take a break because you had children, a job change, or a move across the country? That’s okay. Pick up where you left off or just do what you can.
There is no end to resistance training. You just keep showing up and putting in the work using the principles and programming that I’ve outlined in this blog.
Looking for rehab or performance programs? Check out our store here!
Want to learn more? Check out some of our other similar blogs:
How To Grow Your Glutes, Foot & Ankle Strength, How To Improve Ankle Dorsiflexion Range of Motion
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