Getbig Bodybuilding, Figure and Fitness Forums
Getbig Main Boards => Gossip & Opinions => Topic started by: Max on July 24, 2014, 11:16:33 AM
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I know Arnold claimed to have done it but has anyone ever seen anyone else manage it. I can't think of a single person.
I was wondering this today while doing calves. Mine suck and no matter how hard I have trained them in the past they always sucked.
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If you do not have the basic genetic muscle belly for calves, no amount of training will give you them.
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If you do not have the basic genetic muscle belly for calves, no amount of training will give you them.
Disagree. You might not get world-class calves, but continually working them will make them look A) trained and B) more than respectable.
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I know Arnold claimed to have done it but has anyone ever seen anyone else manage it. I can't think of a single person.
I was wondering this today while doing calves. Mine suck and no matter how hard I have trained them in the past they always sucked.
(http://i.imgur.com/cJYgmKN.jpg?1)
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Disagree. You might not get world-class calves, but continually working them will make them look A) trained and B) more than respectable.
Depends on the genetic shape of the muscle you are born with...calves vary so much more than any other muscle group. No amount of training has helped mine to look respectable...there is simply nothing there to train. Even pro bbers like Wolf cant do a damn thing if the calves arent there to begin with
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It is not enough to say YES YOU CAN BRING UP YOUR CALVES
there need to be specifics here.
there need to be proof.
there need to be examples.
photos. videos. measurements.
there need to be science behind it.
where is the evidence?
there is none!
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Increasing my running mileage is the only thing that has ever effected mine size-wise. They have gone from shameful to average.
Weight training never made them any bigger.
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The secret to Dennis Wolf's insanely fast calf improvements?
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Thats interesting hulkotron!
do you reckon sprinting uphill might work?
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of course it can be done.
if you're talking about pro bbers, then probably not, since if they don't have it by the time you know what their name is and see them in the mags, they're not gonna do it and they've likely been 'trying' for many years.
now, if you're talking about a guy just starting out.. or even a guy with 5yrs training experience, who's NOT really tried to focus on calves, and starts to focus on them, then yea, it's possible.
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Yes................just like any other muscle..........training = breakdown,eat,rest,= buildup.
Genetic limitations abound,but they can constantly but slowly be improved IMO.
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Remember a few years back i saw an old Guy cycling along with huge calves. years of cycling a bike. concentrating on one leg at a time works great. One legged-raises with a heavy dB. also jumping rope before you work legs. Robert Kennedy suggested pre-exhaust: Standing calf raises(isoltion movemen) with jumping Rope (combination movement).
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ok lots of people saying it can be done. Where is the evidence? Cant think I have ever seen any before and after shots where someone has actually done it.
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ok lots of people saying it can be done. Where is the evidence? Cant think I have ever seen any before and after shots where someone has actually done it.
well seen as you´re asking for advice here, it might be beneficial to tell us your Calf Routine first.
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ok lots of people saying it can be done. Where is the evidence? Cant think I have ever seen any before and after shots where someone has actually done it.
There is a long thread pinned on the training board about this.
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Absolutely.
Pick a large local high school/college stadium.
Run the steps for 15 to 20 min, two steps at a time, land on ball of foot.
Do this 2 two 3 times per week. In ONE month even the puniest calves will pop.
I have SEEN this work repeatedly.
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Whats considered big for calves? 18 ins?
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To my understanding, Phil Heath claimed he brought his calves up alot, because they were a weaker point for him like a lot of African American bodybuilders. He claimed he wanted to make them a strong point. Look at his older BB pics and his current ones and compare.
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Kaatsu training.
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ok lots of people saying it can be done. Where is the evidence? Cant think I have ever seen any before and after shots where someone has actually done it.
Whenever someone posts said pictures, it is obvious from the 'before' picture that they clearly had a decent calf muscle belly to begin with. Arnold is the classic case of this.
Many people, esp blacks, are born with drastically differerent calf muscle bellies; to the point where there is simply no muscle at all where other people have insertions. It just looks like a shin bone with no muscle on the inside portion of the leg...these people can never 'bring up' their calves, because there is simply no muscle there to begin with
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one exercise which is very over looked is reverse calf raises which i did seated on a flat bench toes under a couple of plates. it does not take Long before you feel it.
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It is not enough to say YES YOU CAN BRING UP YOUR CALVES
there need to be specifics here.
there need to be proof.
there need to be examples.
photos. videos. measurements.
there need to be science behind it.
where is the evidence?
there is none!
Not true, took me 15 years between these two pics. I've got shitty ectomorphic chicken leg genetics too :( but at least they arn't that high 8)
Trained them every second day (alternate heavy low rep 4- 6 reps and high rep 15- 20 + rep wkouts, choose 2 diffrent calf excercises and superset 4 to 6 times ) they will improve.
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I don't have any good "before" shots (here is the only decent one I could dig up on Facebook, shown on the inset vs. newer/hairier photo taken just now). Still nothing special but much better than they used to be at least.
All I changed was increasing my running mileage dramatically (I do between 20-50 miles a week year-round) and I also started doing unweighted one-legged calf raises 1-2x a week instead of training them with machines.
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I`ve been blowing my balls out on them for years and they've gone from shameful to average as well. No amount of training will make them world class , and never listen to the guys who were born with 18 inch calves and their advice of `keep hitting them everyday`boatload of bs.
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They may not become larger, but anybody can get defined calves which looks good at any size. I don't think you need to kill them either, just frequent & moderate training.
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how did wolf improve his?
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Of course calves grow if you're patient and train them properly. I'm lazy with mine but a month of proper training and they probably add an inch and don't look too stork like -
(http://i.imgur.com/rd8lWON.jpg)
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Of course calves grow if you're patient and train them properly. I'm lazy with mine but a month of proper training and they probably add an inch and don't look too stork like -
(http://i.imgur.com/rd8lWON.jpg)
::)
This is exactly the kind of advice from someone like you i'm talking about.
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I think fat people have the answer.
Many fatties end up with huge calves.
Not going to go full bro science and speculate why though...
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I think fat people have the answer.
Many fatties end up with huge calves.
Not going to go full bro science and speculate why though...
bro science is simple.. expose them to regular stress and they grow. thats why fat people have decent calves.
most people dont focus on them enough. if you make them a priority, and hit them regularly and hard, they will grow..period..
they arent like other bodyparts.
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How important is bringing your calves up? So important that you will become fat? Only you can decide
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::)
This is exactly the kind of advice from someone like you i'm talking about.
because I can get my calves to grow a little bit my advice is invalid? I'm a 6ft 3inch etiolated bean sprout who has to work for any muscle that he has.
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I personally don't think calves are a muscle group that are suited to bodybuilding type exercises and need to be stressed in an entirely different way than most bodybuilders train them.
The typical orthodox bodybuilding exercises like donkey calf raise, calf raises for 10-12 reps etc I don't feel works very well in my opinion because it doesn't repeatedly stress calves in a way required for long enough.
Think about it you stand on your feet all day, the calves are used to stress and your body weight already as it is making it harder to stimulate them further even with heavy weight training so much can be achieved in terms of volume and blood flow and time under tension of the muscle in that area.
What I always found is that my calves muscles seem to respond entirely differently and will come out more through exercises such as uphill interval sprints, skipping on your toes for extended periods, toe jumps and stuff like that basically.
Key is in my opinion repeated and long blow flow to that area.
3-4 sets of donkey calf raises only makes the muscle become under tension for what whole of like 3 for minutes.
Go running uphill for an hour and that's literally one hour of stimulation in that area etc.
Not about the weight but about the constant blood flow and tension in that area etc
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I think fat people have the answer.
Many fatties end up with huge calves.
Not going to go full bro science and speculate why though...
That's because they are carrying all that extra weight around all day. Maybe the answer is to wear a fifty lb weight vest 24/7
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I personally don't think calves are a muscle group that are suited to bodybuilding type exercises and need to be stressed in an entirely different way than most bodybuilders train them.
The typical orthodox bodybuilding exercises like donkey calf raise, calf raises for 10-12 reps etc I don't feel works very well in my opinion because it doesn't repeatedly stress calves in a way required for long enough.
Think about it you stand on your feet all day, the calves are used to stress and your body weight already as it is making it harder to stimulate them further even with heavy weight training so much can be achieved in terms of volume and blood flow and time under tension of the muscle in that area.
What I always found is that my calves muscles seem to respond entirely differently and will come out more through exercises such as uphill interval sprints, skipping on your toes for extended periods, toe jumps and stuff like that basically.
Key is in my opinion repeated and long blow flow to that area.
3-4 sets of donkey calf raises only makes the muscle become under tension for what whole of like 3 for minutes.
Go running uphill for an hour and that's literally one hour of stimulation in that area etc.
Not about the weight but about the constant blood flow and tension in that area etc
Great post
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I think fat people have the answer.
Many fatties end up with huge calves.
Not going to go full bro science and speculate why though...
So your buddy Uncle Junior should have big Calves too?
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http://www.getbig.com/boards/index.php?topic=156877.msg2140331#msg2140331
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That's because they are carrying all that extra weight around all day. Maybe the answer is to wear a fifty lb weight vest 24/7
Agreed to a point.
Trouble is why does it work for fatties & not for huge BBers weighing in at 300lbs
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i thought the whole body carried onces weight not the calves alone.
if the calves did all the work, as you keep saying they would need to become bigger/stronger to adept for example weight gain but they stay the same even if you put on 20 or 30 pounds
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I personally don't think calves are a muscle group that are suited to bodybuilding type exercises and need to be stressed in an entirely different way than most bodybuilders train them.
The typical orthodox bodybuilding exercises like donkey calf raise, calf raises for 10-12 reps etc I don't feel works very well in my opinion because it doesn't repeatedly stress calves in a way required for long enough.
Think about it you stand on your feet all day, the calves are used to stress and your body weight already as it is making it harder to stimulate them further even with heavy weight training so much can be achieved in terms of volume and blood flow and time under tension of the muscle in that area.
What I always found is that my calves muscles seem to respond entirely differently and will come out more through exercises such as uphill interval sprints, skipping on your toes for extended periods, toe jumps and stuff like that basically.
Key is in my opinion repeated and long blow flow to that area.
3-4 sets of donkey calf raises only makes the muscle become under tension for what whole of like 3 for minutes.
Go running uphill for an hour and that's literally one hour of stimulation in that area etc.
Not about the weight but about the constant blood flow and tension in that area etc
Fawk , good post.
Great insight on calve training.
However it still depends on genetics. Reg Park doing 1000lb+ calve raises with Arnold i'm sure helped them get their calves well over 20 inches , but did their bull genetics play a part in that? Yup!
You have to try every possible training method and variation before you can just completely throw your hands up.