Calves: Instructions For Use
Before we talk about the sitting calf and the standing calf, I want to mention something about the calves.
Well yes, for many bodybuilders they are a real obsession, one of those muscles that are very difficult to grow but that really makes the difference between who trains seriously and who doesn't.
A muscle that hardly grows because used to working hard all day, optimized by nature to support us for hours, so if we really want to make it rise, we must seriously put in the effort and hit hard in the gym.
The structure of the calves is in itself as simple as it is ingenious, a natural piston created not to push but to lift (if you wonder, sometimes these 2 actions coincide, but not always) through 2 main muscles: the gastrocnemius (the pivotal muscle is the most visible one, able to give that ball, diamond or inverted heart effect - based on the figure you see you will know how poetic you can be in Rorschach style-) and the Soleo (which is located under the gastrocnemius and which goes along the entire calf until it wedges into the Achilles tendon) which, due to the anatomical position in which it is located, by thickening, reflexively gives greater visual volume to the gastrocnemius itself, pushing it out.
Calf: Calf Exercises
Putting aside for a moment naive exercises that also leave the time they find, the calves are scrambled today as 30 years ago by the infamous "Calf standing" and his similar (but in many ways absolutely different) "Calf sitting". To get the calves you dream of you have to work on both the muscles by taking them to the maximum.
The 2 exercises are not interchangeable but absolutely complementary, and finding them together in the same session should absolutely not surprise you or make you turn up your nose thinking about the mistake. Both exercises, as I said, are complementary by making both the calf work in a different way the 2 muscles mentioned above, the gastrocnemius and the soleus, in fact both of these muscles are stressed in both exercises, with a difference that we see immediately.
Standing Calf
Il standing calf, is the best known and most performed exercise for the calves, the ideal would be through a Calf machine, but it can also be performed by adapting with a simple platform or step. It is an exercise of great utility and on which one must not be afraid to load, making sure to perform it correctly, therefore with a straight back and knees in joint block.
Being performed with a straight leg, it will target the gastrocnemius (compared to the soleus) more the tension will be mainly exerted on the lateral head and medial of the muscle for a result that will be the obtaining of greater thickness and definition in the upper part of the calf.
Calf Sitting
La seated version instead, contrary to the standing one, it will not act on the gastrocnemius. In fact, bending the knee physiologically causes the gastrocnemius to relax, causing the soleus muscle to work predominantly.
For those looking for mass development this may be counterintuitive, but in reality since the soleus is positioned as indicated below the gastrocnemius, strengthening and thus thickening the soleus this will push the gastrocnemius outwards visually resulting in a noticeable increase in the head of the calf.
Performing the exercise is slightly more complicated than the standing calf, which can be done almost anywhere.
In gyms where there is a seated calf machine there will be no problems, just sit down, place your knees under the pad, position the foot so as to leave the heels off the platform, and by pivoting with the sole of the foot, raise the knees and therefore the loaded weight.
If this tool is not present, do not be discouraged, just have a bench available and possibly a low platform (to increase the angular extension of the exercise).
Sitting on the flat bench with your feet stable on the floor, using a towel or any pad, place a barbell on your thighs. From this starting position we start by lifting the heels and therefore the weight.
Which Intensity?
Let's start with a concept already expressed earlier: The calves are designed to work.
We often forget about how strong your calves are and we tend to underestimate them, not to use an adequate weight, with "the result of not seeing results", but remember that the calves carry most of your weight every day, lifting and moving it thousands of times in the same day, for this do not hesitate to use adequate loads to get those results you crave.
Standing or Sitting?
In conclusion, remember that you need both exercises to have the right calf stress, do not neglect the seated calf, thinking that only the standing calf can produce mass, but always perform both exercises in synergy, to a truly explosive effect.
