We've all read Arnold's stories about going to train with Reg Park who was using huge weights for his calves - 1000 lbs plus! This sounds like BS to me.
First of all Reg Park's calves were really not that amazing so obviously those heavy weights were not working. Steve Reeves had better calves (genetics) compared to Reg Park.
In my own experience I found using huge weights in calves training just meant that my form suffered and I could not do enough reps to get them to burn intensely. I have had better results with very high reps (25 - 50 lbs) and light weight or even body weight. When you look at ballet dancers they have amazing calves and are doing mostly body weight exercises.
Arnold was a bullshit artist. Remember the bad advices he gave the guy who yelled out onstage all oiled up and had to be carried off because of all the noise he was making - lol?
How many people have fucked up their feet / back trying to handle weights on the calves machines they shouldn't have because they heard about what Arnold said?
I also read that Arnold used esiclene in his calves to add that extra inch or more for photo shoots / competitions. Who knows. Just always been suspicious about him equating huge weights with calves growth when I found in my own case it just means sloppy form.
Well, if you are an idiot, you just follow what your idols do an try to copy that. If you have a brains, you do what ever make your muscles grow. It is common knowledge that calves are hard to train, so why wouldn't you follow thse simple thumb rules:
1. Full fucking range of motion
2. As much weight you can lift with ful fucking range of motion at least 15 reps.
3. repeate until you have bigger calves.
I see full range of motion used for the calves only when I train them myself. I wonder why it is like that? Because you can lift metric tons with 1-1½" range of motion, and it make your ego feel good. It doesn't do much for your calves, but your ego grows so you can add even more weight
