The Best Exercises for the
Calves
by
Tom McCullough MEd.
While most people in the gyms don’t bother training legs and instead
look like the rode in on a chicken, training calves seems to be
limited even further. So what did our researchers say is the best
exercise for those of us who do train our calves?
Figure 8: Relative EMG activity of
the calf muscles during selected exercises in comparison to the
standing calf raises data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens &
Buskies. 2000
As noted, the donkey cal raise with a 90 degree bend in the knee
seem to be the most effective. Researchers noted that all of these
calf exercises can be made more effective by incorporating peak
contractions and forced contractions in the stretched position.
Moreover, it is imperative that you do not actively bend the knees
during the seated calf raise (no bouncing!), if you do not want to
reduce the muscle activity by -11%. In a similar vein, you also do
not want to mess with foot position, because the parallel foot
position is the one that activates the inner, as well as the outer
part of the m. gastrocnemius maximally. What a shock, huh?
Figure 9: Relative EMG activity of the m. gastrocnemius
with different foot positions data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens
& Buskies. 2000
That being said, the researchers thought it is worth mentioning that
the overall activation of the calves is maximized during standing
and bent-over (donkey) calf raises, while the m. soleus activity is
highest when you do seated calf raises. A rule of thumb with regards
to the activation of m. gastrocnemius vs. m. soleus is "maximize
knee angle (as in standing calf raises or donkey calf raises) to
maximize gastrocnemius, minimize knee angle (as in seated calf
raises) to maximize soleus activity"
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dave Draper
"Real men" ain't ashamed of doing donkey
