I spend a lot of time in the gym and I notice many recreational and competitive bodybuilders with sub-par calf development. Calf muscles should be about the same size as the arms to be in proportion. However, for many, this is not the case. It's common to see bodybuilders with 18" arms and 14"-16" calves.
Please understand that I'm not trying to be overly critical about bodybuilders with small calves. Small calves are quite common. Why? Because the calves are the "forgotten muscle group". Why? Well, there are several reasons.
First, if you pick up any muscle magazine, you'll find plenty of articles on how to build big arms, chest, shoulders, back, and thighs. However, you don't find many good articles on how to build your calves. There is little credible information in the media about how to train for big calves.
Second, calves are hard to develop and many bodybuilders give up on training them by thinking that they were not gifted genetically to have big calves. Therefore, they don't spend their time on calf training and concentrate on the more easily developed muscle groups.
Third, calf training is not given the same priority as arm, back, chest or thigh training. Often, the calf training is scheduled at the end of the workout, when you're too tired to really "hit it hard". In fact, if you've had a particularly "brutal workout", you may just skip the calf workout that day.
Fourth, calves are not considered a "showcase" muscle. Most of the time, your calves are covered by jeans or slacks. People don't notice your calves. On the other hand, your arms are much more visible and there's more "social pressure" to have big arms. Therefore, you focus on the "showcase" muscles more in your workouts.
Any one or all of these reasons can explain why calves are the "forgotten muscle". It's all quite understandable why this happens. However, don't use these reasons as excuses for not training your calves. Good calves can be developed with the right program. A good calf training program must have the following basics:
1. High Frequency - Calves must be trained every other day.
2. High Intensity - Straight sets of 8-15 reps won't cut it. Calves must be trained with high-intensity training techniques such as rest-pause, add-sets or drop-sets to respond and grow.
3. More Variety - Calf exercises must be changed up often to "keep the muscle guessing". This means using different intensity techniques, rep ranges and calf exercises each workout.
4. High Priority - Calf training must be higher in your priorities by placing it early in your workout and spending ample time to thoroughly work the calf muscles to failure.
Calf training cannot be a casual or occasional event. To build bigger, more impressive calves, you must spend the quality time on training your calves by using a totally comprehensive calf training program. If you want bigger calves, then there is no other way.
Jeffry Robinson is a NSCA Certified Personal Trainer specializing
in muscle building, fat loss and fitness consulting. With over 40 years
of bodybuilding experience and his in-depth knowledge of physiology,
anatomy and muscle building principles, he has developed new and
revolutionary information products for bodybuilders.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeffry_Robinson
0 comments:
Post a Comment