Most guys believe calves are something you’re either born with or not. If your old man was a bow-legged guy with skinny legs, the thinking goes, there’s not much you can do about those popsicle-stick legs holding you up.
Admittedly, it’s tougher to build calves than, say, biceps, quads, or chest muscles. But rather than think of the calves solely in terms of diamond-shaped aesthetics and subjecting yourselves to thousands of calf raises that may or may not produce significant results, think instead of how the calves function and how you can best strengthen them for those activities.
Whether you want to run faster, jump higher, or explode off a swimming pool wall during a flip turn, the calves play a major role in athletic performance. The two muscles that make up the calves—the gastrocnemius and the soleus—are responsible for extending the ankle. The gastrocnemius, the bulge of the calf, consists of more fast-twitch muscle fibers, which boost your jumping and sprinting ability. The soleus, located behind the gastrocnemius, is more slow-twitch fiber, great for endurance sports.
By performing exercises that build the function of your calves, you’ll inevitably create size as a byproduct. Maybe you’ll never turn those bird legs into calves than can produce a 38-inch vertical, but you might find some diamonds in the rough.
Directions
This workout is a circuit with six exercises. Do the prescribed number of reps for each exercise, and then move to the next exercise without stopping—do not rest between exercises.
Do three circuits total. You may rest one minute between circuits.