The calf muscles are responsible for all movements of the ankle and toes. For bodybuilding purposes, the most important action of this muscle group is what is called plantar flexion. Plantar flexion involves extending your ankle so that the front of your foot moves down and away from the shin, as in heel raises and toe presses.

The main plantar flexors are the gastrocnemius and the soleus. Total calf development involves the dorsiflexors (tibialis anterior), pronators and supinators. But since the gastrocnemius and soleus compose most calf mass and working them intensely has spill over effects on the other muscles of the lower leg, this article will focus on plantar flexion and the technique to develop calf muscles

Exercise Sequence to Develop Calf Muscles

The primary exercises deployed to develop calf muscles are various types of heel raises - standing, seated and donkey - and toes presses, all generally performed on machines nowadays. Theoretically, these movements have a preferred sequence. It's based on the interdependency of muscles that work together to perform a given function. In this case, because of the anatomy of the lower leg and the attachments of these muscles, you can't exercise the gastrocnemius without involving the soleus. But you can isolate the soleus to some extent. The more the knees are bent, because the gastrocnemius attaches above the knee, the greater the stress on the soleus and the less contribution the gastrocnemius can make.

What this means is that if you work the soleus first in an exercise such as seated calf raises (in which the knees are bent and the gastrocnemius action is limited), it will be the weak link in the chain when you later try to work the gastrocnemius. Therefore, most of the time you'll want to burn out the gastrocnemius first and then take the soleus to its limits with exercise that focus on it.

Accordingly, you should do standing calf raises before seated calf raises and also your first sets of standing and donkey calf raises should be performed with knees locked to maximize gastrocnemius strength and involvement. (To enhance this effect, on standing calf raises, try to lean forward just slightly to provide the best possible stretch and range of motion.) Furthermore, donkey calf raises should be performed before standing calf raises because donkeys, by placing the back of the thigh on a stretch, maximize the muscle building tension and stretch in the gastrocnemius. If your gym doesn't have a donkey calf machine, you can still perform the exercise with the aid of a partner or using one leg at a time.

Calf muscles respond well to variety, so don't feel locked into any specific exercises. Likewise, experiment with the reps and weights. Most top bodybuilders feel that the calf muscles respond best to higher reps than other muscles, anywhere from 15 to 50. But the champs also occasionally do heavy sets of 8 to 10.

Technique Tips

Calf muscles are incredibly strong. But no matter how much weight you use, just going through the motions won't cut the mustard. Calf development, perhaps more than other muscles, begins with a positive attitude. I can never stress enough how important the quality of effort is in building your body. That means paying very close attention to making the muscles move the weight, then on lowering the weights slowly and then allowing it to stretch the muscles, exploding up from the bottom position without bouncing, rising up as high as possible on your toes and squeezing out a peak contraction on each rep. Don't forget to thoroughly warm up the area with stretching and light weight movements before you ever get going on the exercises.

One technique will enhance mass, feel and particularly shape in both the gastrocnemius and soleus. It will widen your calf muscles, giving them the classic diamond shape, maximizing the effectiveness of all your calf work.

The Technique: As you rise on your toes, slowly shift your weight from one side of the foot to the other. I'm talking about just a slight change in the degree of pronation/supination. The balls of your feet remain flat on the block at all times. Despite the minute change in the weighting of the foot, the change in mechanical stress of the calf muscles is enormous.

You should be able to feel the stress shift from the lateral portion of the soleus and gastrocnemius to the inner portion and back again. You should also make an effort to perform some reps pushing with your weight on the outer edge of your foot and some pushing with the inner edge (again, the balls of the feet remain flat on the block at all times). It's probably easiest to learn these shifts when doing toe presses as opposed to heel raises.

The more common method of shifting the emphasis from outer to inner calf - changing the direction in which the toes are pointed from in to out - is both less effective and more stressful to the ankles and knee joints. They key is to get your head into the muscles and see what you feel the most and what gives you the best pump front to back and top to bottom.

Don't Cheat

You'll see many people, including advanced bodybuilders, using two thrusts to get the weight up, the first taking them about 75% of the way and then a final peak contraction taking them as far as they can go. That's fine. You should experiment with slow continuous movement and more explosive ones, ultimately using both. Just be sure that the second part of the movement occurs as a result of contraction of the calf muscles, and not by letting your knees bend. In other words, don't cheat.

Calf muscles will respond to partial reps and you should take one set of each exercise you do to the point where you can no longer move the weight at all. At that point, hold an isometric contraction until the weight pushes you down into a full stretch, and then gradually and completely relax the muscles, allowing the weight to create a maximum active stretch. A typical set will end not at some specified number of reps, but when you can no longer move the weight through more than the lower half of the range of motion.

Always try to get as comfortable as possible so that your maximum energy can be directed at calf work. Always place the balls of the feet to allow the greatest possible range of motion. Position the pad on the seated calf machine so that it does not cause pain in the knee or thigh, although ideally it should be centered directly over the tibia. Wear a belt for standing calf raises to help support the lower back and stabilize the torso.