How to build giant, strong calves of Zeus
Some people are naturally gifted when it comes to having built calves. They hardly have to do anything other than stand up and they can build muscle. There is one guy in my gym and his calves are not only HUGE, but they are cut and I hardly ever see him doing legs! Other people do not get so lucky and they have to work like a madman to build muscle down there, otherwise their legs look like a couple of toothpicks. They might have to do calf workouts several times a week to see any results. I am somewhere in the middle, I do not naturally have big calves, but I can pack on muscle down there relatively fast and get cut doing three particular exercises that I am going to explain to you.
The three main muscles I work out on my calves whenever I focus on them in the gym are the tibialis anterior, soleus and gastrocnemius. Tibialis anterior is on the front of the lower leg, while the soleus and gastrocnemius is on the back.
How to workout Tibialis Anterior
The tibialis anterior is a muscle on the front of your leg that helps to flex your foot upwards. I see hardly ANYONE working out this muscle in the gym, but it is definitely worth it as it adds nice shape to your legs and this is an especially vital muscle to keep strong as you get older as you need it fully functional to walk properly.
What I like to do to work it out is lay on the floor next to a cable machine. I bring the cable down close to the floor so I can easily put my foot into the cable that I normally would grab with my hand and do upper body exercises. Be sure when you put your foot into the cable that there is proper tension on your foot, if the cable is still slacked, the exercise will be ineffective. I usually grab the cable with my hands first to bring it towards me, then put my foot into it. I start with 20lbs and do 4 sets of 12. I flex my ankle towards me, then slowly bring it back away from me so I feel a nice stretch, then slowly flex again towards me.
How to workout Soleus
The soleus and gastrocnemius both work to flex your foot away from you, or point it away. To workout this muscle, I LOVE to do the seated calf raise machine. For this exercise, you sit on the machine and put your knees beneath 2 pads. You then lift up with your calves and move the bar to the side holding the weight up. When your knees are bent 90 degrees like this, your gastrocnemius muscles mostly turn off and your soleus takes over. The soleus is resistant to fatigue so I typically go for 100, that’s right, 100 repetitions on this exercise. If you can only do 20 repetitions of a particular weight before needing rest, that is fine. Rest and then continue the exercise until you go up to 10o repetitions.
How to workout Gastrocnemius
Since the gastrocnemius muscle was for the most part turned off for the last exercise, now we are going to activate it by straightening our legs. So now we are going to do standing calf raises. I like the one where I stand beneath 2 shoulder pads and lift up with my calves. I have seen angled calf raise machines at the gym too though where your body is angled so that is another option. I like bend my ankles up towards me for a nice stretch in my gastrocs, then flex my ankles down away for the muscle contraction. For this exercise, I do 4 sets with 12 repetitions each.
In Conclusion: The calves are an often neglected muscle I see in too many people I see in the gym. They have a solid upper body, but their calves are sorely lacking in development. Don’t be one of those people! Do these 3 exercises that I have done and have gotten awesome results from and you will be well on your way to having calves that are the envy of all around you!
