How to Develop Calves (add 2 inches in less than 6 months)

Subj: How to add 2 inches to your calves in under 6 months.

How to Develop Calves Quickly

If you’re part of the ‘No Calves Club’, listen up.

I’m going to show you how to build your calves regardless of your genetic disposition. Calf muscles are a stubborn body part to grow. 

If you have small calves, this is just the ticket increase your calf size.

it’s because you don’t train them.

Don’t believe the lies that calves are strictly genetic. If you can build your arms, you can build your calves. It just takes some dedicated effort to grow your lower legs.

If you train your calves as much as you train chest and arms, you will have calve muscles.

Most people don’t know how to train calves because they never train calves! And I get it, it’s not all that fun. And for that reason calfs get overlooked.

Or, they start training calves but see no results due to incorrect training and stop training them due to discouragement.

Strong calves show honest strength and serious dedication. If your calves don’t show up, it means you don’t fully show up to training.

Calves are one of the most visible muscles, and indicate strength and power, much like the forearms. Calfs are ‘show muscles’.

Models and actors make it a point to train calves because they know this. It makes them look jacked and strong.

The Secret to Calf Growth

Calf training is straight forward. Lots of repetitions and lots of weight. Calfs respond best to high volume training and heavy weights.

Calves are a unique muscle group. They are dense muscle fibers that can take a beating. Calf workouts should be taken seriously is you want your calfs to grow. Complete calf development means you must retain both fast twitch muscle fibers and slow twitch muscle fibers.

Best Calf Exercises

Standing calf raises

Standing calf raises are a staple calf training exercise. Stand on a sturdy block or ledge that allows your heel to drop as low as it can go while your toes are on the block. Just use your body weight at first and make sure you maintain balance and whatever you’re standing on is solid. Take your time and warm up. make sure your ankle is loose and your achilles tendon is warmed up.

Standing calf raise machine is rare these days but if you find one you’re in luck. This calf machine is great for building stubborn calves.

Donkey calf raises

Donkey calf raises are performed with straight legs while bending over and resting your arms on something sturdy. Have a pretty girl or two hop on your back and perform calf raises by going up high onto your tippy toes.

Seated calf raises

Calf muscles res[pond well you different angles and exercises. The seated calf raise isolates your calf muscles in a special way and is worth doing.

How to Build the Calf Muscles

Calves are a tough, dense muscle that need a lot of stimulation.

Calves are also VERY strong and require heavy weight to grow.

I’ve added over two inches to my calves in 6 months using the training method below.

Train Calves 2-3 times per week

Calves can stand a lot of volume. Even if they are a little sore you can still train them. I do calve raises as a warm up on non- leg days, because I want to get my 2-3 calve training days in.

Train the Back and ‘Front’ of Your Calves!

Understanding this will take your calve training to the next level.  This is what most guys don’t understand and it’s too bad because when you get this, your calves will BLOW UP.

When I’m on the leg press machine, I push the weight up with my tippy toes. My big toe and ball of my foot are supporting the weight.

Then, I let the weight desend SLOWLY until my toes come back as far as possible.

I concentrate on pulling my toes back toward my body.

This builds the outer part of your calve and makes you calves look WIDE when seen from the front.  You will feel this working on the outside of your shin bones.

Train on Your Toes

All the weight should be supported with you big toe and ball of your foot.

Push the weight as far as you can, image trying to move up on your tippy toe like a ballerina.

This is how you get full muscle engagement, total muscle contraction, and make your calves big and sharp!

Always Get a Full Stretch

You need full calve contraction and full calf stretch each and every rep. Full range of motion.

When lowering the weight, imagine pulling your toes back to your shins. Hold this stretch for 2-3 seconds and really feel the calves working.

Keep Your Knees Bent Slightly

Always, Always ALWAYS, leave your knees slightly bent when training calves. This engages more calves muscles and is a safety precaution.

If you straighten your legs while training calves, you could seriously injury your knees. (Like fold your knee backwards, like an Ostrich. Don’t mess this up.)

Stretch your Calfs

Streching helps the calf muscle grow. Hold deep stretches for 30-60 seconds each.

How to Get Bigger Calves (and added 2 inches to each leg)

I really only use two exercises for calves: Calves Raises on the leg press machine and Seated calve raises on the designated calves machine.

Here’s an example of a one of my calve blasting workouts:

To start, I put 2 45-pound plates on the leg press machine. I will do 25-30 reps of calve press using both legs. My goal is to warm up my calves, feel a little burn, establish mind-muscle connection, and stretch them out.

Then I at 2 more 45-pound plates and do the same thing.

After that, I add 2 more 45-pound plates and do 20 reps. this is my first working set.

• 6, 45-pound plates for 20 reps
• 8, 45-pound plates for 20 reps
• 10, 45-pound plates for 18 reps
• 12, 45-pound plates for 15 reps
• Keep going until you can only do 6 reps.

Now do the whole thing in reverse with no rest in between. Just take enough time to shed the weight on plate at a time.

Go all the way back down until you are calf pressing with one or 2 plates on each side. Then you can do single leg calf raises for even more muscle growth.

I will sometimes do 2 sets of single leg calf presses with low weight. This is important to ensure your calves grow at the same rate. it also thoroughly torches your muscles 

Calve workout Method number 2:

Using the leg press machine, find a weight that you can do 20 reps MAX. You should struggle to get 16-18 reps and force yourself to complete the last few reps.

Then, do 4 sets of seated calve raises. 20 reps, nice and slow using the same guidelines you did for leg press.

After this, your calves should be toast. Test this by standing up on one foot and going on your tippy toes. If you find this hard to do, your workout is complete!

Calves Take Intense Training to Grow

Don’t buy into the lie that calves are genetic.

Your calves have the same genetic makeup as the rest of your body. You can grow those other muscle groups, you can grow your calfs using the same formula.

Everyone can have nice large calves, it just takes work. Train hard with high reps. Get a good pump. Use progressively higher reps and more weight over time.

Look at historic photos of men and women. All of them have strong calves and legs – not one chicken leg in sight.

They built them by walking hiking, climbing and marching many miles a day. Often while carrying things.

Calves are used to a lot of work over a sustained period of time. Over and over again each day. That’s one way to build your calves -Or, you can train them intensely 2-3 times a week using my method.

Don’t use genetics as an excuse like most people do. It’s easy to believe it because it’s easy to opt out due to common believe calves are genetic.

You can outwork your genetics – I know skinny dudes that have big calves. These skinny guys with big calves are avid outdoorsmen. They, hike, camp and adventure for days on end. No chairs or cars in the wild. You have to walk with your own two feet to get anywhere.

You build calves with direct train like anything else. Don’t let anyone else tell you any different.

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The Skinny Guy’s Guide to Gaining Weight, Size, and Building Muscle Only Suckers Skip Leg Day (plus a REALLY GOOD leg workout) The Ultimate ‘Skinny-Fat’ Workout and Diet Guide (2024 Edition) The Workout Routines of the World’s Greatest Bodybuilders