knee flexion, a forgotten action of calf muscles
people talk about standing calf, donkey calf, and seated calf, but rarely discuss about knee flexion, one of their primary function. I've always noticed great pump on calves while doing lying leg curls, and when i follow that with standing calves and/or donkeys, my claves would just blow up like football. granted I have good calf genetic but when i see people complaining about their calves and how it never grows, I hardly see their calves contracting while doing heel raises. perhaps they're missing something in their calf routine?
enter POF(positions of flexion by steve hoffman, not plenty of fish
this book has all their bodyparts trained through
1. mid range, or compound exercises, (think press for chest)
2. stretch (db flyes which overloads stretch portion of exercises)
3. peak contraction (end of pec deck or cable flyes)
so midrange for calves(gastronemius) would be leg curl, with hamstrings being the synergist,
and stretch would be donkey calf where the muscles are being stretched from 2 joints(knee and ankle),
and contraction would be standing calf where muscles would get maximum shortening.
follow that with some kind of bent knee raises like seated calf to finish off the soleus.
disagree? perhaps you should try them before bashing it.
people talk about standing calf, donkey calf, and seated calf, but rarely discuss about knee flexion, one of their primary function. I've always noticed great pump on calves while doing lying leg curls, and when i follow that with standing calves and/or donkeys, my claves would just blow up like football. granted I have good calf genetic but when i see people complaining about their calves and how it never grows, I hardly see their calves contracting while doing heel raises. perhaps they're missing something in their calf routine?
enter POF(positions of flexion by steve hoffman, not plenty of fish
this book has all their bodyparts trained through
1. mid range, or compound exercises, (think press for chest)
2. stretch (db flyes which overloads stretch portion of exercises)
3. peak contraction (end of pec deck or cable flyes)
so midrange for calves(gastronemius) would be leg curl, with hamstrings being the synergist,
and stretch would be donkey calf where the muscles are being stretched from 2 joints(knee and ankle),
and contraction would be standing calf where muscles would get maximum shortening.
follow that with some kind of bent knee raises like seated calf to finish off the soleus.
disagree? perhaps you should try them before bashing it.
