Posted on February 25, 2014 by Jenny Cromack

For the majority of people that train in the gym there seems to be a shortage of lower body training. Not to mention training the calves! How to build bigger calves is becoming a common question I am asked as a personal trainer. However the internet, media, and guy down the road provide such a spectrum of information it can be hard to work out what you should actually be doing. Building bigger calves is hard work! But is well worth the effort. After all what’s the point in having 17 inch arms if you have calves the size of a newborn baby sparrow, it just looks strange! Follow the following tips and program on how to build bigger calves……. Motive8 North PT style!!

Here are Motive8 North’s Top Tips on how to build bigger calves

• Intensity, Intensity, Intensity– Guess what more intensity! The calf muscles are used so frequently that their tolerance to exercise is very high, think about it for the most part most people use their calves day in day out for walking around (lets assume you don’t sit down for 12 hours a day), so if you want them to increase in size or definition its going to take some serious training. 3 sets of 12 reps wont cut it!

• Volume– Unfortunately normal guidelines are out of the window when it comes to the calf muscles. Ideally you need to work these 3 times per week, hitting them once a week is definitely not enough and twice a week is just getting enough done! Push for 3 sessions to really get those calves growing!

• Weight Selection– Rather than saying use heavy weights low repetitions or light weight high repetitions I have found that drop set protocols seem to work extremely well. That is to radically decrease weight upon fatigue each set with very reduced rest periods (I’m talking about your rest is decreasing the weight, then straight back to business).

• Foot Placement– Believe it or not there is not one optimal way to position the feet, therefore varying the level of inversion and eversion is the better approach. This ensures that you work all the musculature of the lower leg and keep it all in balance.

In conclusion its no easy feet building calves but the effort is well worth the results, after all if your goal is aesthetics you’re going to look pretty silly being super top heavy! So get following these tips for how to build bigger calves!