# Frequency of calf training



## Phineas (May 27, 2009)

I'm currently reading some bodybuilding.com articles on developing large calves, and am confused. They're saying to train them up to three times per week. However, I train each muscle only once per week, so as to provide enough rest. I suppose if you're training light weight for endurance three times would be fine, but isn't this overkill if you're presumably doing heavy lifting?


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## plums_jp (May 27, 2009)

I'd personally feel fine training calves up to 4 times a week Hard.. but thats my body, everybody will vary for recovery time needed... Overtraing and Under-eating often go hand in hand too..


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## Merkaba (May 28, 2009)

When I start back bulking I'm gonna be doing them hard twice a week at least.  Its hard for mine to respond.


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## P-funk (May 28, 2009)

You walk everyday and plantar flex against gravity in order to propel yourself forward, don't you?

patrick


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## ZECH (May 28, 2009)

Calves are a very tough muscle that takes heavy weight and high reps to build. 2-3 times per week is good IMO.


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## Dale Mabry (May 28, 2009)

I train my calves for 0 times a week, 52 weeks a year.  In fact, I have probably directly trained calves less than 10x in my entire life.


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## P-funk (May 28, 2009)

Dale Mabry said:


> I train my calves for 0 times a week, 52 weeks a year.  In fact, I have probably directly trained calves less than 10x in my entire life.



dude, how do they get HUGE though???

Don;t you have to hit them from a variety of angles 10x's a week?

patrick


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## Dale Mabry (May 28, 2009)

P-funk said:


> dude, how do they get HUGE though???
> 
> Don;t you have to hit them from a variety of angles 10x's a week?
> 
> patrick



No, you just have to be born with big ones.  After that they just grow more.


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## Doublebase (May 28, 2009)

Dale Mabry said:


> No, you just have to be born with big ones.  After that they just grow more.



But what about us genetically challenged folks with puny calves?  Are you saying we could never obtain decent looking muscular calves?


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## DIVINITUS (May 28, 2009)

Dale Mabry said:


> I train my calves for 0 times a week, 52 weeks a year.  In fact, I have probably directly trained calves less than 10x in my entire life.



Same here!


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## P-funk (May 28, 2009)

Doublebase said:


> But what about us genetically challenged folks with puny calves?  Are you saying we could never obtain decent looking muscular calves?



I don't know that I am saying that.  But I am saying, I have never seen it happen.


Great quote in the signature.  One of my favorites. 

patrick


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## Doublebase (May 28, 2009)

P-funk said:


> I don't know that I am saying that.  But I am saying, I have never seen it happen.
> 
> 
> Great quote in the signature.  One of my favorites.
> ...



From my experience calves grow like forearms.  The bigger you get from eating and training the larger they will get.  Whether you train them or not.  I find that you do not need to train them and they will grow at the same rate as if you did train them.  That is from my personal experience.  Doing heavy calf raises makes my calves sore but not bigger.  I'm open for suggestions though.


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## Built (May 28, 2009)

Isn't that just a great quote?

Re calves: I still think calves respond best to overwork and overfeeding.

Jog and hill-climb while bulking.

Oh, and try a 3-second pause at the bottom of each rep when you work calves. Kills the stretch-bounce that gets stored in the Achilles' tendon. 

Try working sets of calves between sets of upper body work, not on leg days.


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## P-funk (May 28, 2009)

Doublebase said:


> From my experience calves grow like forearms.  The bigger you get from eating and training the larger they will get.  Whether you train them or not.  I find that you do not need to train them and they will grow at the same rate as if you did train them.  That is from my personal experience.  Doing heavy calf raises makes my calves sore but not bigger.  I'm open for suggestions though.



You could be right.  I mean, things tend to get bigger when we eat more and grow!  Calves and forearms should follow suit.  I don't really train those muscles directly, but, I do find when I eat more and put on size, the calves get bigger as the squat numbers and the olympic lifts increase and the forearms grown in size as my rows and deadlifts go up too.

size + strength = big ass calves and forearms

patrick


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## Perdido (May 28, 2009)

I train the shit out of my calves just to make meager gains. I rarely train traps but they respond to very little training.

I see guys that I work with that don't do much else than walk around all day never even setting foot in a gym that have killer calves.

Genetics, it's 90% of the battle IMO


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## Hench (May 28, 2009)

Built said:


> Oh, and try a 3-second pause at the bottom of each rep when you work calves. Kills the stretch-bounce that gets stored in the Achilles' tendon.
> 
> .



My calves are genetically shit, period. I do heavy ass deads and squats and they don't grow. About 8 weeks ago when I started bulking I decided I was going to train them directly (as you mentioned above, with the three second pause) twice a week just to see what would happen. They have got significantly bigger and for the first time I actually have calve muscles instead of shitty chicken legs. 

I don't know if it will work for everyone, all I know is I only started getting results when I actually started doing some direct work.


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## Kevsworld (May 28, 2009)

I've heard everything in the book about growing calves.  Based on my experience, they recover more quickly than about any other muscle.  So try training them at least three times a week and see what happens.

By the way, you should be able to train your other muscles about once every five days.


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## Dale Mabry (May 29, 2009)

Doublebase said:


> From my experience calves grow like forearms.  The bigger you get from eating and training the larger they will get.  Whether you train them or not.  I find that you do not need to train them and they will grow at the same rate as if you did train them.  That is from my personal experience.  Doing heavy calf raises makes my calves sore but not bigger.  I'm open for suggestions though.



I agreed 100%.  IMO, in a majority of the population, they are primarily slow twitch so they don't really respond well.  It's the same reason you don't build a big core, functionally they are composed of slow twitch so as not to fatigue easily.  Mine burn just from walking, so I imagine I got lucky and have predominantly fast-twitch, which would make sense because my mom and dad both have muscular calves as do my brother and sister.  This isn't to say they don't respond to training, just that they don't respond well.


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## Yanick (May 29, 2009)

My mom was a former short and middle distance runner in the former USSR (if not for her family situation, she would've accepted her trainer's invite to train at the Olympic training facility). Her calves are big and muscular. I'd say more muscular than mine by a long shot and she hasn't done any training for 25+ years. I have crappy calves, I train them or not they pretty much always look the same so I just stopped training them. I think I got my dad's calves, but he's a bilateral AK amputee so I wouldn't know.


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## gtbmed (May 29, 2009)

Of course a runner is going to have muscular calves - every footstrike engages those muscles.

I think training calves is OK, but I never really saw much progress when I used to train my calves.  They'd get sore, sure.  I'd get DOMS in those muscles, sure.  But I didn't really see much growth.


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## Yanick (May 29, 2009)

gtbmed said:


> Of course a runner is going to have muscular calves - every footstrike engages those muscles.



Horse before the carriage my friend.

Who's to say she developed big calves from running? 

What if she became a runner because she had big/strong calves?

Plus she hasn't done any form of training in 25+ years, probably closer to 30 by now. Yet she has some big, muscular calves.


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## Whatsaroid? (May 29, 2009)

Simple enough I train calves lifting the the full stack 2x a week and try and jog up hills as much as possible. But they grow from bulking or a high protein diet well for me anyway that's how mine work.


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