The Best Calf Exercises For Mass

The Best Calf Exercises For Mass

Training the calves can become a borderline obsession for some experienced trainers, and they can be an extremely frustrating area to try to add muscle to. Various factors contribute to the calves being a difficult area to add mass to – genetics will play a large part in how much they’ll grow, they’re not the easiest body part to train and, to be perfectly honest, most people don’t spend enough time working on them.

How many of you joined the gym with the intention of building bigger calf muscles? Few, if any, I’d guess! People generally start lifting weights with the intention of building a bigger chest, back, biceps, shoulders, triceps, quads and glutes… but the calf muscles are rarely a priority.

It’s time to change that. Rather than tacking on 2 sets of calf raises at the end of leg day, send some time actually working the calves properly and you’ll see substantial improvements. They can be the most stubborn of areas to improve, and you’ll need to be a bit of a mad scientist when it comes to determining how much it will take to generate the growth you’re looking for.

To get a sense of how tricky it can be to add mass to your calf muscles, we need look no further than the man widely accepted as the most influential bodybuilder of all time – Arnold Schwarzenegger. When he began competing, his calves were pretty much non-existent. Having lost a big competition, he began to focus on turning his biggest weakness into one of the finest sets of calves of his generation.

He did this by hitting them with heavy calf raises and donkey raises 6 days a week, and started to see remarkable improvements. While you may not be quite as focused and dedicated to calf growth as this, it goes to show that where there’s a will there’s a way when it comes to making improvements to a stubborn muscle group!

So for those looking for a little inspiration for their training we’ve compiled a list of the best calf training exercises for mass to help you add some variety to your workout.

Start by selecting a few movements to try and aim for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps initially. If you’re not seeing much improvement after a while, consider adding more volume and training them a little more regularly.

Make sure you’re eating enough calories and protein, and get plenty of sleep or you won’t see much progress anywhere. Just try to be patient and remain focused – the results will come with time.

Original article and pictures take www.takefitness.net site