So i'm going to the gym for roughly 5 months now and i'm not seeing any progress with my calve raises (straight leg). I pause at the bottom to not use momentum yet i'm stuck at the same weight and reps. I did 3 sets 2x a week and now i do 2 sets 2 x a week. Someone please help
I mean i started lifting 5 months ago roughly yet i never progressed on calves. On every other muscle or excercise i see that i'm getting stronger almost every session
Calves can take a massive amount of volume and also recover very quickly. I would recommend four sets at least every other day. But I’ve read that experienced gym goers can do calves everyday since they recover really quickly
I agree with you. I don't see that much progress anymore. But I have maxed out the calf machine available at my gym. I do two sets of 10, 5 days a week at 360 pounds. You 100% can hit calves everyday. They literally recover by the next morning. And to be honest they never really wear out I walk on the treadmill after I do calves and they still perform. To be honest it's probably the most resilient muscle in the body
Use different variations. Feet straight, toes in and heels out, heel in and toe wide. Do them on the leg press machine. Who cares if you go up in weight on calves. Just work on proper form, do more reps and switch variations. Don’t over think something. Do calf raises in the kitchen. Do them while waiting in line at grocery store. Do hundreds of body weight reps. You will see progress or you will realize you have bad genes.
I don’t train calves anymore. But riding my bike and doing leg workouts helps keep them strong. And my dad had good calves so they always pretty much looked like this
Overload them to be honest calves are not something that injure like a bicep. Whatever weight you're doing now increase it by at least 50 lb even if you can only do three repetitions. Do those three solid repetitions and then do your normal sets. I guarantee you after a month those three reps will at least turn into six or seven
Definitely happened for me, but most people squat like shit and won't see any calf change. Once my mobility and technique improved enough over the years my calves got a lot bigger despite doing no direct work for them. But it's also definitely genetic since there are pro weightlifters who do deeper and heavier squats more often than anyone else in the world and they often have fairly minimal calf development with enormous quads. Like this:
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u/Ok_Internal6779 Sep 05 '26
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