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Calf RaiseCALF RAISE Taken from Dave Draper's book, Brother Iron, Sister Steel You can stand, sit or have someone sit on your back while you do the calf raise. Standing, toes and forefoot on an appropriate block, simply raise and lower your heels to engage the calf muscles. Resistance is achieved by bearing weight across your back with a bar or via a machine or by holding a dumbbell in the appropriate hand as you stand on a block applying one leg at a time to the task. Alternatively, the donkey calf raises are performed by leaning forward on a supportive object and having a partner sit across your back as you raise and lower off the by-now-popular block. There are machines that allow you to sit while resistance is applied to the calves in a bent leg position, thereby shortening the calf muscles and directing the effort to the soleus. Mix them as you devise your routine, supersetting seated with standing, for example. The predominantly slow twitch fibers enjoy high reps and frequent training. Donkeys are the best. Speaking of Donkey Calf Raises... Doing the Donkey Calf Raise requires several things: a bench, stool or chair that is about waist high, a calf block and one or two willing partners or a hip belt or dipping belt from which to hang weights. The most common way of doing them is with the assistance of willing human resistance. Bend over at the waist and rest your forearms on the bench, stool or what have you. Benches are best, since the padding adds to your comfort. You should be forming a human bridge between your forearms resting on the bench (elbows bent a a ninety degree angle with the forearms laying flat on the bench, with the hands pointing forward. Have your willing partner mount your back, as if they were riding a horse. The tendency here is to sit in the middle of the back...DO NOT do this! Have your partner sit as close to your hips as they can without falling off. This places the resistance where it needs to be...directly over the calves. Now step onto the calf block with a little more than the ball of your foot on the block. Keep the knees straight but not rigidly locked out...let comfort be your guide, while understanding that the closer you are to absolutely straight legs the more it will aid properly contacting the calves. Allow the heels to stretch down as far as comfort allows. Now, without leaning excessively forward, cheating with bent legs or moving with a bouncing movement...rise up on the toes. Toes should be pointing either straight forward or just slightly flared to the sides. When you rise on the toes, you should feel the weight rolling to your big toe...this is the best to activate the calves and also work the muscles in the arch of the foot. When you reach the top of the movement, try to rise just a bit higher and hold for a two count. Then lower to a full stretch and repeat. Arnold usually used two people and sometimes three in this movement. However, done properly with a full stretch and contraction, most will find one individual adequate. (Forget about different foot positions affecting different parts of the calf...tain't so and MRI imagery proves that.) The minor differences in activation isn't worth the potential joint stress from assuming odd positions. Ideally, calf raises of all types should be done with bare feet but most gyms won't allow this. It requires a calf block with a rounded front edge...ideally padded with gum rubber. If you can't secure such a block, wear shoes. You should mix up high and low reps...low reps meaning 8-10 and high reps meaning 20-30. (The illustrations show one way of doing a donkey calf raise using a dipping belt.)   Last edited by Laree. |