3 Techniques to Achieve

Great Calves
 3 techniques to achieve great calves

3 Techniques to Achieve
Great Calves
Why is it so much easier to build your upper body than your lower?

Calves. It is said that you either have them or you don’t. If you ask any
gym rat or bodybuilder what the most difficult body part to develop is on
an individual they will all undoubtedly say it’s the calves. Common myth
says that since you walk around and use the calves more than other
muscle groups they simply don’t respond like other muscles. Another
common myth says that since the calves are largely made up of slow
twitch (endurance) muscle fibers they don’t have the capacity to grow.

There is some truth to the above myths. Yes you DO use your calves a
lot…more so than most of the other muscles in the body. Yes the soleus
(a flat calf muscle that lies underneath the larger and more bulbous
gastrocnemius muscles) has a larger percentage of its fibers being
geared towards endurance. Both of which may make building the calves
more difficult…however I am here to tell you that isn’t exactly the case.
The largest reason men find the calves hard to develop is that they
neglect training them…plain and simple. You will hardly see a man who
trains in the gym skip bicep or chest day but when it comes to calf
training they either treat it as an afterthought or they ignore them all
 3 techniques to achieve great calves

together. Step one is to make your calves a priority. If calf development is important to you then don’t skip
calf workouts EVER. Now that we have that established keep reading…I am going to share some very
effective calf training tips and techniques with you.

Through my two decades of professional training I have identified 3 calf training techniques that work on
EVERY PERSON I have ever tried them on. If nutrition is good and the rest of the exercise programming is
good (for more on exercise programming click here) then applying the following 3 techniques will make a
huge impact on your calf development. Seriously…make calf training a priority today and apply the
following training techniques and the vast majority of you will experience significant calf muscle growth
within months.

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 3 techniques to achieve great calves

technique #1
emphasizing the stretch and the squeeze

Every time I see someone training calves in the gym I wince at the HORRIBLE form I see.
Bouncy, short choppy reps EVERYWHERE. If I had a dollar for every full rep of calf training
I have ever seen in my 20 years as a fitness professional I wouldn’t have enough money for
a matinée movie with my girlfriend. For some strange reason people think short reps are ok
when it comes to calf training…WHY?? Short incomplete reps aren’t ideal for ANY body part
let alone the stubborn calves. Train them with a FULL range of motion.

Now that we are clear lets also EMPHASIZE full range of motion. When you get to the top of
the rep squeeze hard and get your heels as high as you can…push and squeeze until you cant
go any further. When you lower the rep allow your calves to stretch...and HOLD the stretch.
Let those heels drop and feel the muscles BURN…yes it will hurt like a son of a bitch. In fact if
you squeeze and stretch every rep of your calf exercises this way expect some soreness…they
do create more muscle damage. Also expect a pump like never before. Speaking of pumps…
 3 techniques to achieve great calves

technique #2
utilize bfr training

Occlusion training aka blood flow restriction training (BFR) aka repeatedly over the weeks his calves GREW in muscular size.
KAATSU training is easily one of the biggest breakthroughs in Over the years he researched these phenomena and by 1973
muscle growth training I have seen in my entire career. It works he had fully developed the techniques of KAATSU training.
and it’s backed by DECADES of research.
Since then numerous studies have been
My Mind Pump co host IFBB Physique “numerous studies have been done on BFR training and each study shows
Pro Adam Schafer first introduced me to dramatically accelerated muscle growth
BFR training in 2015. He told me that if I
done on BFR training and each and strength with no side effects when
tied my arms off (above bicep & triceps study shows dramatically done properly. It is now used by physical
@ armpit) with knee wraps while training therapists and is quickly becoming one of
that they would grow fast. I thought he
accelerated muscle growth the favorite techniques of bodybuilders for
was crazy until I looked up the history and and strength” developing weak body parts.
science…then I was truly intrigued.
Here is how it works…when you occlude
KAASTSU training: (what BFR training was originally called) or restrict blood OUTFLOW from a muscle you amplify the
was discovered by Dr Yoshiaki Sato in 1966 while attending a “pump” effect. Just like you get with a normal pump, blood
Buddhist ceremony in Japan. While kneeling in the temple he rushes to your muscles except this time the speed of blood
noticed that after an hour or so his calves would get “pumped” outflow and amount of blood outflow is restricted. This
with blood. Once he stood up and massaged his calves the stimulates muscle growth in a few different ways.
pump went away. He also noticed that after doing this
 3 techniques to achieve great calves

One way is through cell signaling. The extreme pump causes cell
swelling which tells the muscle cells to “grow.” This happens to a
smaller effect with a regular pump but with a BFR pump its amplified.

The second way is through the waste build up that occurs. When
you exercise waste by products build up and get flushed out with
each rep. As you do more reps waste build up tends to overcome
the flushing out and you feel a burn. Well multiply that by 10 with
BFR. The burn is intense but the waste buildup sends a strong
muscle building signal.

Lastly the low oxygen levels in an occluded muscle recruit more fast
twitch muscle fibers and since fast twitch muscle fibers are the ones
that GROW the most you see faster improvements. There is also
evidence that BFR training may “train” some of your slow twitch
fibers to act like fast twitch fibers resulting in MORE growth potential.

BFR is a simple but effective technique HOWEVER it must be done

properly. Use the wrong apparatus or tie off a muscle too tight and
you could cause problems. Use BFR training once or twice a week
for best results.

FOR A FULL EXPLANATION OF MAPS - CLICK HERE

 3 techniques to achieve great calves

technique #3
training frequency

When you train a muscle with sufficient intensity in the gym you are in essence sending a
signal to the body. Training is a stress on the body and the body aims to ADAPT to this stress by
becoming more resilient and STRONGER. The stress of intense exercise causes some muscle
damage which is why you get sore and this is likely why you adapt from it. That being said it’s
important to note that recovery and adaptation can be TWO SEPARATE THINGS. Sound crazy?
Read on…

We all like to think of muscle recovery as the process by which our muscles build but this is false.
Recovery is HEALING while ADAPTATION is building. Although they can and often do happen
simultaneously they aren’t interchangeable. Damaging muscle sends two singles to the body…
one is to recover while the other is to adapt…and this is a problem. It’s a problem because often
times they may have different time lines…

Think of how many times you have hammered a body part in the gym and gotten really sore.
You rest and wait a week to hit it again and when you do you’re EXACTLY where you were
before. Why?? It’s because you waited too long!!!

We can actually measure something that happens in the body that is a good measure of whether
or not muscles are building…its called muscle protein synthesis and it rises quickly after a
workout and peaks at about 48-72 hours…and then it DROPS FAST. That’s right…the muscle
building signal drops until its back to baseline EVEN IF YOU’RE STILL SORE AND RECOVERING.
 3 techniques to achieve great calves

The way around this is to train more often and hit the muscles more
FREQUENTLY before that muscle-building signal flattens out again. I
know what you are thinking,…”I don’t have that much time or energy!!”
Well I’m here to tell you that you DON’T need more time or energy.

I’m not asking you to add more volume at all. I’m asking you to add
FREQUENCY. Take the total amount of sets that you do with your calf
training and simply split it between three workouts. In other words, if
you train your calves once a week for 12 sets a week on Monday; then
split it between Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In other words do 4
sets each of those days.

Now you will spike that muscle building adaptation signal on Monday
and right before it starts to drop you spike it again on Wednesday and
so on. This means you are ADAPTING all week long…aka BUILDING.
This simple technique doesn’t just work on calves by the way…it works
with all muscle groups! Use it for lagging body parts or if you want to
maximize full body muscle growth do it for everything. For more
information on this technique watch the following video.

There you go…be consistent with your calf training and apply the
above techniques and you will be surprised…your calves are probably
not stubborn at all... They just needed the right stimulus.
 about the author

sal di stefano
Sal was 14 years old when he touched his first weight
and from that moment he was hooked. Growing up
asthmatic, frequently sick and painfully skinny, Sal
saw weightlifting as a way to change his body and his
self-image. In the beginning, Sal’s body responded
quickly to his training but then his gains slowed and
then stopped altogether. Not one to give up easily, he
began reading every muscle building publication he
could get his hands on to find ways to bust through his
plateau. He read Arnold’s Encyclopedia of
Bodybuilding, Mentzer’s Heavy Duty, Kubrick’s Dinosaur
Training, and every muscle magazine he could find;
Weider’s Muscle and Fitness, Flex, Iron Man and even
Muscle Media 2000. Each time he read about a new
technique or methodology he would test it out in the
gym. At age 18 his passion for the art and science of
resistance training was so consuming that he decided to
make it his profession and become a personal
trainer. By 19 he was managing health clubs and by 22
he owned his own gym. After 17 years as a personal
trainer he has dedicated himself to bringing science and
TRUTH to the fitness industry.