Calf Raises

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Standing and seated calf raises are the best exercises that you can do to build big calves fast. But how do you work your calves if you don’t have access to a standing or seated calf raise machine? That’s where Barbell Calf Raises come into play. The Barbell Calf Raise can work your calves similar to a standing calf raise machine, but all you need is a barbell and weights.

To do this exercise simply shoulder a barbell just like you would for a set of squats, but instead of squatting you are going to do calf raises. This standing barbell calve raise variation is A LOT HARDER than normal machine calf raises because when doing machine calf raises you do not need to balance yourself, the machine does that for you. All you need to do is press with your calves.

However, with free weight barbell calf raises you are constantly balancing and supporting yourself during the entire exercise. This will help to develop balance and activate a lot of stabilizing and supporting muscles throughout your core and entire body, in addition to working the calves.

Give the standing barbell calf raise a try in your next calf workout and then leave me a comment to let me know how it works for you.

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Video Transcript

“Are Seated Calf Raises Necessary?”

Hey what’s up guys, Sean Nalewanyj here with a Muscle In Minutes Q&A where I give quick, to the point answers to your fitness questions.

Today’s question is, “are seated calf raises necessary in order to build your calves effectively, or are standing calf raises enough on their own”.

So basically, your calves are made up of two main portions, the first is the gastrocnemius which is the much larger visible portion of the calf that sits on the outside of your lower leg, and the second is the soleus which is a much smaller basically strip of muscle that sits underneath the gastrocnemius, and when you perform a calf raise with your knees bent like in a seated calf raise, it basically de-activates the gastrocnemius and isolates that small soleus muscle.

Now, if your goal is to fully maximize the development of your calves then obviously building up the soleus muscle will help a bit since it basically pushes the gastrocnemius muscle further out, however, it’s important to keep in mind that when you perform any basic calf raise even with your knees straight like in a standing calf raise or a leg press calf raise or a machine calf raise, you’re actually hitting both the gastrocnemius and the soleus at the same time.

So even if you never performed any seated calf raise work at all your soleus would still end up getting plenty of stimulation regardless, and that, combined with the fact that it’s already a very small muscle to begin with, overall I’d say that in most cases seated calf raises probably aren’t going to make much if any real noticeable difference to your bottom line calf gains assuming that you’re doing a sufficient amount of regular straight legged calf raise work.

Now if calves are a particular weak point for you, and you want to squeeze out every possible ounce of growth and you have the extra time and energy to throw in a few sets of seated calf raises here and there then that’s totally fine, it’s not going to hurt you, but the main take away point here is that whether you do seated calf raises or not, number 1 the difference in your overall calf growth will likely be minor if anything, and number 2, standard straight legged calf work is far more important for building up your calf size and it should always be given full priority in your calf training.

http://www.HugoRivera.net – 10 Minute Calves Home Workout Routine. To get notified as soon as I upload a video, sign up to my Newsletter here and as a gift you also get my 21-Day Workout and Top Supplements That Work Ebooks here: http://bit.ly/1lXxeLc

You can do this calf workout with minimum equipment. For this workout we will be using some dumbbells and a technique called dropsets in which you take a weight, go to failure, lower the weight, hit failure again, and repeat the cycle 2 more times. The last part of the drop set will be performed with no weight.

In order to allow for full range of motion I will use a couple of 25-lb plates that I will put next to each other in order to put the ball of my feet on them and have my heels go down (thus giving me a much needed stretch). If you don’t have a way to create a raised surface, then not a problem. Simply use the floor in this case.

The key thing to remember is that calves recover quickly so it is essential to not allow much rest in between sets.

Home Calves Workout with Multiple Dumbbell Pairs

With that said, here is your 10 minute calves home workout routine:

Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises 8-20 reps
Lower weight and immediately do
Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises 8-20 reps
Lower weight and immediately do
Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises 8-20 reps
Put the weights away and immediately do
Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises to failure with just the bodyweight

This is 1 set. Rest 20 seconds and repeat 2 more times.

If you don’t have a collection of dumbbells like I do, then do the following instead:

Home Calves Workout with a Single Pair of Dumbbells

Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises 8-20 reps
Put the weight away and immediately do
Do some Bodyweight Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises to failure with just the bodyweight
Pick up the weight back and do some
Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises 8-20 reps
Put the weights away and immediately do
Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises to failure with just the bodyweight
Pick up the weight back and do some
Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises 8-20 reps
Put the weights away and immediately do
Standing Dumbbell Calf Raises to failure with just the bodyweight

This is 1 set. Rest 20 seconds and repeat 2 more times.

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