Latest news with #calfraises
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
BRYONY GORDON: I kept my thrilling and shameful gym secret to myself, hiding it even from my husband. Then I discovered the truth
The first time it happened, I was doing one of the most boring exercises known to humankind: the calf raise. So dull is this movement that I had resisted it for years, reasoning that the backs of my legs could become strong enough through other, more interesting types of exercise: reformer pilates, perhaps, or something actually useful, like cycling. Anything other than the monotonous act of standing with the balls of my feet on a step, lifting onto my toes, then slowly dropping back down, over and over again, as if I had nothing better to do with my time. But then I hit middle-age, and it turned out that if I wanted to keep up my favourite hobby – running – and prevent my knees from collapsing in on themselves, then calf raises were exactly what I had to do.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trainer Shares 4 Common Calf Raise Mistakes Affecting Strength and Size
Newsflash: Two sets of lazy calf raises after leg day won't build anything but disappointment. Small calves might feel like a genetic curse, but the real problem is how most guys train them. On the Coach Em Up podcast, sports rehab specialist and trainer David Grey shared four common mistakes that directly impact your calf gains—or the lack thereof. "Calf raises are neglected," he said. "Consistently, I have seen athletes that have had Achilles problems for years, and they're not strong there at all." We train our quads and hamstrings—albeit begrudgingly—so why not give calves the same attention? Fix your form and finally watch them grow by addressing these common calf raise mistakes. "The load that you could lift is so much lower than what you could do going from a deficit to just above neutral," he said. Grey's not saying to ditch full range of motion entirely—but when it comes to building pure calf strength, the bottom half of the movement is where the real money is. Training through a full range often creates active insufficiency, limiting how much force your calves can actually produce. Most guys go way too light on calf raises—often because they're focused on using a deep range of motion. But as David Grey points out, that comes at the cost of real load. "A good athlete should be able to pack a lot of weight on a Smith machine," he said. "A seated calf is good to have in every now, and then but a standing calf is definitely your best option," Grey shared. "Because they're going too light, they do them all the time," Grey said about calf raise frequency. If the load isn't challenging enough, you're not stimulating growth, just going through the motions. Instead of chasing frequency, focus on progressive overload with serious intent.
