#AskKenneth 156: Calves

How often do you train your calves?

Some of you may think I don't need to train calves.

You may say:

"Maybe this is my last thing to do."

"I care my chest and biceps more than my calves."

"I don't really care."

In the Bodybuilding competition, the judges will look at your physique from the bottom to the top.

They look at your calves, then your hamstrings, then lower back, then upper back.

If you cannot show your calves, you lose points.

If you don't care about bodybuilding and with chicken legs, this article is not for you.

I am training a lot of long-distance runners, they run half-marathon, full marathon to 100km. I put a lot of posterior chain exercises for them including calves. You may not understand that calves muscles can prevent knees injury as well.

Training your calves properly also can improve your ankle mobility - dorsi-flexion & plantar-flexion.

If you have a poor doors-flexion, you cannot perform a squat with full range of motion.

Variation 1: Natural Stance (Hip width)

Variation 2: Narrow Stance

Variation 3: External Rotation

Variation 4: Internal Rotation

Training Method with low-reps

Rep range: 12-15 reps

Tempo 1311

1s lower down

3s pause at the bottom of ROM, stretch your calves!

1s up

1s pointing toes at the top ROM.

Training Method with high-reps

Rep range: 20-25 reps

Tempo 1111 (constant tension)

Make sure you cannot do one more rep after 25 reps.

You may struggle last 10 reps.