It's a widely held belief in bodybuilding that calves don't respond quickly to training, that somehow, unlike your biceps, shoulders and pretty much every other muscle in your body, putting them under stress won't result in growth.
Well, we're here to tell you that theory is nonsense. It's not that you can't strength train your calves, it's more a case of finding the right exercise to target them, then hitting them with enough intensity, and there's no better exercise to begin with than calf raises. Here's how to do calf raises, along with the latest research to include some science based tweaks to your training.
Heavy Weight or High Reps for Calf Raises?
As long as you've got the correct exercise it doesn't really matter what weight you perform your calf raises with. In a study published in the journal Physiological Reports, strength trainer and exercise scientist Brad Schoenfeld got 30 untrained students to do calf raises in different ways on different legs. On one leg, calf raises were performed with a weight that they could comfortably manage for 6 to 10 reps, while they trained their other leg with a load that allowed 20 to 30 reps.
After 8 weeks of strength training, Schoenfeld found that their muscle thickness had increased just as much in the calves trained with light weights and many repetitions as in the calves trained with heavy weights and few repetitions.
So, pick up a heavy, or light, weight and let's get going on those calf raises.
Bent or Straight Leg Calf Raises?
New evidence published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research suggests that by performing bent or straight leg calf raises, we can see a larger increase is muscle swelling in different parts of the muscle. The study compared seated, bent-leg calf raises to standing calf raises. They measured the degree to which both induced muscle swelling after 4 sets to failure at their 20 rep max.
After the study, the soleus experienced greater swelling after the bent-leg than the straight-leg calf raises. The straight leg variation elicited greater swelling of the gastrocnemius medial and gastrocnemius lateral muscles. Meaning, by including various tweaks to our calf raises, we could see improvements in muscle size. The researchers concluded, 'From a practical perspective, the straight leg calf raise should be preferred if the aim is stimulating the three muscles that comprise the triceps surae, whereas the bent leg calf raise should be prioritised if the target muscle is the soleus.'
Muscles Worked by Calf Raises
We'll get onto how to train your calf muscles in a minute, but before we tell you how to train them it's probably not a bad idea to find out what muscles you're going to be training.
Your calves have two primary muscles: the soleus and the gastrocnemius. The soleus is the deeper muscle that plays a role in ankle stability and plantar flexion, while the gastrocnemius is the more superficial two-headed muscle that contributes to plantar flexion and also assists with knee flexion.
How to Do Calf Raises
Okay, so this is a pretty simple move to learn, but we've broken down how to do calf raises with perfect form below. In our example, we're presuming you're going to be doing the move with weights, although this exercises could just as easily be performed with just your bodyweight.
- Stand upright holding two dumbbells by your sides and your shoulders back.
- Place the balls of your feet on an exercise step or a weight plate. Make sure your heels aren't touching the floor.
- With your toes pointing forwards, raise your heels off the floor and contract your calves. The key is in the tempo, slowly return to the starting position.
Calf Raises: Technique Tips
You've got the basic move down, now perform it with a little more finesse using these extra form tips.
Slow Down
Calf raises are not a cardio move. We're looking to build strength and size here, so slow the movement down and consider adopting a 1-2-1 ratio, which accounts for a one-second contraction up, a two-second isometric hold at the top of the movement and then a two-second eccentric movement on lowering.
Stand Tall
Seated calf raises are excellent for targeting the soleus muscle in your calf, but you're going to get more bang for your buck if you perform calf raises while standing tall.
Stretch Deep
Muscles trained through a full range of motion grow far more than ones that only ever see half-rep efforts. To stretch your calves fully ensure that the balls of your feet are raised so that you can lower your heels and feel a deep stretch through the back of your lower legs on each rep.
Calf Raise Variations
Bent Leg Calf Raises
How to:
- Stand upright holding two dumbbells by your sides and your shoulders back.
- Place one foot on an exercise step or a weight plate, with the ball of the foot firmly on the step. Make sure your heel isn't touching the floor.
- With your toes pointing forwards, raise your heel off the floor and contract your calves. Slowly return to the starting position.
Why: As mentioned above, new research shows that the bent leg variation of calf raises could result in more size than the straight leg variation.
Standing Barbell Calf Raise
How to:
- Stand upright with a barbell supported on your upper back.
- With your toes pointing forwards, raise your heels off the floor and contract your calves.
- Slowly return to the starting position.
Why: A barbell on your back is going to allow you to increase the load and therefore increase the difficulty. Expect your core to get a good workout with this too.
Single-Dumbbell Calf Raise
How to:
- Put a weight plate on the floor and rest your toes on it whilst sitting on a bench.
- Place a dumbbell on your knee, your right hand holding the handle while your left hand holds the top.
- Lift up your toes as high as possible. Pause, then lower it back onto the weight and repeat.
Why: By sitting down and performing single raises you're going to isolate the biggest muscle in your calves, the soleus muscle, even more.
Seated Calf Raise
How to:
- Sit down at a leg press and rest your feet so just your toes are resting at the bottom of the platform.
- Push back as far as you can while keeping your feet against the platform.
- Return under control to the start position and repeat.
Why: Similarly to the single-dumbbell calf raise, this move will allow you to isolate your soleus muscle, while removing the need to balance your upper body.
Raised Calf Raise
How to:
- This is performed in exactly the same way as a normal calf raise, but instead of standing on an exercise step or a weight plate, stand on a step that allows your heel to drop lower than the rest of your foot at the bottom of the movement.
Why: The raised calf raise will allow you to achieve a greater range of motion in your calf during the exercise. Considering the calves kick into action during the lowest and highest points of each lift, that's pretty important.
Box Jumps
How to:
- Set yourself a comfortable distance from the box with feet shoulder width apart.
- Drop quickly into a quarter squat, swing your arms and explode upwards to jump onto the box.
- Land as softly as possible. Now step backwards off the box under control.
Why: The alternative to adding more load to calf raises with a barbell is to try a set of box jumps, where you use your calves when jumping and landing. This is also a great way of turning calf raises into a cardio, rather than solely a strength, movement.
Standing Vs Seated Calf Raises: Which Is Best for Building Muscle?
A new study published in Frontiers in Physiology compared standing and seated calf raises to find out which exercise is more effective for muscle growth. The results indicated significantly more muscle size increases for the standing compared to the seated variation. The researchers concluded that standing calf raises were considerably more effective in causing muscle hypertrophy, particularly in the gastrocnemius muscle, compared to seated calf raises.
The research also mentioned that training at longer muscle lengths is advantageous for promoting muscular growth of the calf muscle.
While both exercises have their place, this research suggests that when faced with the choice between seated calf raises and standing calf raises, we should choose standing calf raises to encourage muscle growth.
Daniel is Men’s Health UK’s deputy digital editor. He’s a writer and editor with a decade’s worth of experience covering health, fitness, tech and sports. In his time at Men’s Health, he’s written about everything from Black men's mental health to The Rock's cheat days and has logged training time with NFL footballers, Olympic gymnasts and the British Army. In his spare time he enjoys fitness of all kinds, from deadlifts to long runs, and is always on the lookout for his next challenge.
Kate is a fitness writer for Men’s Health UK where she contributes regular workouts, training tips and nutrition guides. She has a post graduate diploma in Sports Performance Nutrition and before joining Men’s Health she was a nutritionist, fitness writer and personal trainer with over 5k hours coaching on the gym floor. Kate has a keen interest in volunteering for animal shelters and when she isn’t lifting weights in her garden, she can be found walking her rescue dog.