What's going on nation? A lot of you guys have been asking me what I've done lately for my calves because you've been noticing some
Growth and to be honest
I've actually been excited because I've been noticing to growth in calves for me is one of the hardest body parts to work if
I had to choose two body parts to work on the most it would be my calves and my traps
So what I want to do for you guys is give you some helpful tips to help you grow your calves and help eliminate some of the
Mistakes that you might be doing in your workout, which is halting your growth
I mean you could very well be hitting your calves two to three days a week, but because you're making minor mistakes
It's pretty much time wasted a lot of what I'm gonna have to talk about right now has to do with mind muscle connection
And I'm not going to go into detail on that because I have a video and an article on my website you guys can check
Out I'm gonna post that link down in the info section below make sure you watch the video and read the contents because it goes
Into a lot more detail than just thinking about the muscle you're trying to work
There's actually a lot of things that can happen
If you're not working out properly or using too much weight that can actually make you weaker over time, but like I said
That's for another day now in terms of growing your calves the biggest mistake people make is
range of motion and the second biggest mistake
They make is using too much weight
And now I'm not saying that your calves will only grow if you use lightweight and do a lot of reps
That's not what I'm trying to say what I'm trying to say is there's a difference between doing 10 to 12 reps
With weight you can handle versus ten to twelve reps
With weight that you pretty much bounce up and down and get zero muscle contraction in your calves
And so what I'm gonna
do is I'm gonna demonstrate a couple different exercises, and show you what I mean to help you with these techniques
So you can put them in your next workout
So this is gonna simulate a seated calf raise or standing calf raise
Any calf raise where you're basically putting your feet up on a platform
Now what I always notice people
Do is they put too much weight on the machine
So pretend this you know the bar is going across my knees right here
And I'm stacking all the weight in the front is people put way too much weight
And they just start doing this and they do this they do like 20 reps no like oh, yeah
I'm so jacked boom boom boom boom boom half the time the shit's bouncing off of the rubber the rubber
Stopper on the bottom of the machine, so they're not even lifting the way
This is bouncing it off the thing and they got four or 45s on there, and they think they're jacked as hell
But then you know a month goes by two months goes by a year goes by and your calves aren't growing
Reason being you need to feel the entire
contraction in your calves when doing this exercise
Or any exercise for any body part so for example the whole reason why
This machine has a platform is because you want to get that dip okay?
The dip is such an amazing thing that you can take advantage of when working your calves
And what the dip is is going from here to here
Now if there was no
Importance to having this dip this machine would be off the ground and you would just do this the whole time
You want to use that dip to strain and stretch your calves as much as possible and then fully
Extend on the way up if you don't go all the way down and feel that stretch
And then go all the way up to the top and feel your calves contract real tight
You're not getting a full contraction on the exercise what I notice happens with a lot of people is
They might use weight
That's like moderate, and they're trying to do like say 15 repetitions, and they'll get to like eight
And they'll go all the way up all the way down
All the way up squeeze all the way down then they get to like nine and it's like
Kind of up kind of down then they get to ten and then they get to 11 and it starts turning into this
Instead of this to here now how do you combat that? You might be saying well. I want to do 15 repetitions
Isn't it better to just push through it even if I'm not getting full range of motion, and I say no, it's stupid
Why would you waste your time? It's going to be a lot easier for when you get to that last rep well
You know you can't get a full extension and a full dip
To just get up
Throw off some weights sit back down and then finish your set with full range of motion
Going nice, and slow you have to understand you build muscle by pointing stress you build muscle by putting stress on the area
Okay, muscle damage is very important as mechanical tension. There's all these mechanisms
You can use to build muscle but none of those mechanisms gonna get utilized if you're just doing bounce reps now
Moving on to this exercise a standing calf raise this is actually an exercise
I really like doing from the floor and the same thing here guys
If you use too much weight you're not gonna be able to go all the way up or maintain your balance
So when you get underneath the bar like this you're gonna take a few steps back
I'll turn sideways
so you guys can see
If you don't have good balance first of all you're gonna do this
And you're gonna be all over the place so if you're doing this exercise
Flex your glutes and squeeze your core for stability as you go up and as you go down now you'll notice
There's a big difference between going like this as fast as I can and then going all the way up
Squeezing my calves all the way down all the way up a little too much up all the way up all the way down
Another trick I like to do and this actually helps me
To make sure I'm getting a full contraction is I'll do a toe raise at the bottom of the movement
So I'll go all the way up and as I go down
I'll lift my toes and then go back up now be careful
You don't do like a rocking motion like this you want to do a controlled toe raise all the way up
toe raise
All the way up toe raise and that kind of simulates the dip at the bottom of the movement like we just talked about
lastly
The most basic calf exercise obviously is a bodyweight calf exercise and usually you'll do it off of stairs
You can do it straight from the floor if you want to like I said
I like utilizing the dip so I
Always do the dip and what you want to do is
Depending how strong you are if you can do two feet at a time all the way up all the way down
Use your hands first ability and do full range of motion
Great if you're a bit stronger go with one foot just make sure you're focusing on all the way down all the way up
with every single repetition
Now I know you guys are gonna ask me questions about an actual calf workout what you can do to grow your calves, so
This is what I'm gonna say to you guys if you're gonna go to the gym and have
A calf day where you're doing lots of heavy machines
Maybe you're doing the barbell calf raise maybe doing a seated calf raise 2 or 3 machines
for 3 to 4 sets 10 to 15 repetitions
Really focus on that contraction in your calf ok and you can adjust these numbers obviously and see what works for you
Some people build a bit more muscle doing 6 to 8 reps
People like me who require more volume do a little more reps a little more sets
Now the other days you can do this in the morning even before work or school
Whatever you're doing if you have stairs you can either utilize your stairs and go all the way up and back down
Or if you only have like one stoop, maybe there's no stairs in your house. That's fine
Just find something that you can get on a platform, and do the dip and just do like
10 to 15 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions, and so what I'll usually do is
I'll just go all the way up my stairs and on each step
I'll do 10 to 15 reps all the way down all the way up you might be saying oh well
That's easy doing bodyweight movement, okay?
You do 15 reps go to the next step all the way down all the way up 10 to 15 reps
By the time you get to the fifth step you're gonna be like damn
I still got a ways to go before I get to the top but for me personally when I do something like this on stairs
It's like the stairs to me is the challenge
So it's not like I'm like on if I have just one stoop on doing it on I have to get off get back on get
Off get back on for me mentally
It pushes me more to see the top of the stairs as my goal
To push myself to do it so if you can find stairs that would definitely do that
So I hope this video helped you guys out if you have any
Questions be sure to leave a comment in the comment section below if you guys haven't already
Go to muscularstrength.com and join us in the forum section
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Colossus Fitness anabolic aliens hybrid physiques all these other great YouTube channels are there helping and answering questions
so if you guys need any help
We're gonna be there to help you out and make sure you check out that video on mind muscle connection
I'll even put a link to that after this is over in that little cue card that pops up and as always
More good stuff coming soon. See you guys
What's going on guys a lot of you been asking me what I've been doing lately for my calves because
You've noticed some growth which is a very good thing because calves suck one more