When thinking of ways to build up and give some shape to our calves, we must think of how they are typically “built” from a genetic standpoint on most of us. You see, the majority of us have a lot of slow twitch muscle fibers down there as they must endure a lot of walking around all day and those slow twitch muscles do not respond to growth very well (size).
Most people take a traditional approach to training calves and utilize a standard 90 second rest in between sets and when doing this you continue to allow those aerobic energy pathways and slow twitch muscles to keep taking over to lift those heels off the ground. The trick here is to figure out or think of, how we can tap into those fast twitch muscles in there. A good way to go about this is using a Tabata approach which is basically 20 seconds of “work” followed by 10 seconds of rest and repeat 6-8 times. The very, almost non-existent rest periods don’t allow slow twitch or aerobic pathways to take over but instead quickly becomes an anaerobic and fast twitch muscle fiber workout.
These fast twitch muscles are what respond to strength training well and grow bigger in size. Just think of a Mr. Olympia bodybuilder guy (lots of fast twitch muscles) and then think of a long distance runner or cyclist like Lance Armstrong (lots of slow twitch muscles). Most of us were not intended to have huge diamond shaped calves that are super shapely, but we can maximize what we have to work with if we go about it in a smart way.
If you have not tried this approach to training calves before I guarantee you will be sore as hell the following day after. This is a great way to bring out some size and shape in those calf muscles over time.
Be sure to have a full range of motion when performing the movement and have a weight that is really challenging but not to the point where you are moving like a turtle for the 20 seconds of work. If necessary on the last couple rounds, you can shave a little weight to make sure you stay moving as this is important along with a full ROM.
So go ahead and give it a shot and when you are hurting a little tomorrow, you can thank me or curse me :)
-Roger Bowman, CPT
If you were to put bad gas, kerosene, diesel or water in your car that required quality unleaded gasoline, what do you think would happen? Kind of a silly question, I know. Of course it wouldn’t run right or it straight up wouldn’t run at all. How many of us stop and think about all the bad or wrong “gas” we put into our bodies?
Most of us are “kind of” aware that we are putting bad things down our throats, but many of us are fooled and mislead into believing that some things that are really not that great for us are. I can’t tell you how many people I talk to on a daily basis that are shoveling TONS of sugar down their gullet and think they are eating healthy and then are extremely frustrated that they cannot lose weight, feel better and have more energy. I once again ran into this exact same scenario today as I do every single week.
There is a reason that we as a nation are fat, unhealthy, and sick and tired of being sick and tired. We feed ourselves “bad gas” on a daily basis, feel horrible and therefore don’t have the energy to be active and because we aren’t active, we lose muscle and because we lose muscle, our metabolic rates decline which means we keep adding more fat onto our bodies which is linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, inflammatory diseases and not to mention that fat “steals” testosterone to convert into estrogen which makes us fatter and the vicious cycle goes round and round…
What even adds more fuel to this nasty fire is when we go to the Doc after we develop a disease and are put on a cocktail of different chemicals (aka prescription drugs). When these foreign chemicals are introduced into the body, there is always a side effect from them and often over time we have to take yet another drug to counteract the health problem or side effect of the original one and its damage done. Of course, all of this is only making us feel worse as we age and deteriorate faster. Under these conditions of not only feeding ourselves “bad gas”, but now putting sand and water in the tank and pulling a spark plug out from under the hood, we feel even worse than we had before. When we feel bad, we don’t have the energy to be active and because we aren’t active, we lose muscle and because we lose muscle, our metabolic rates decline which means we keep adding more fat onto our bodies which is linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, inflammatory diseases and not to mention that fat “steals” testosterone to convert into estrogen which makes us fatter and the vicious cycle goes round and round… I am sure you’re getting my point by now.
Some of you may be reading this and seeing yourself in this painted picture either currently or in the future as you may feel yourself walking (or running) down that pathway already. If you are watching what you are eating (as most say) and believe that you are consuming healthy food choices but still feeling run down and not losing fat or looking any better, there is a reason. What that reason is could be a few different things.
The reason for most, is a misunderstanding of the food choices that individual is making (most likely over in high glycemic foods daily). Other culprits could be lack of physical activity or the wrong approach to it. It could also be a hormonal imbalance that is holding you back from progressing forward. Hormones are like messengers that “tell” things what to do and unfortunately as we age, our glands slow down or stop all together. This is where we can come in and replace or “fill up” what is low to healthy and normal levels to help your body function to its best ability. For example, there is a reason a man no longer has morning erections-its typically because his testicles are not making enough testosterone like they used to and he has Low T (low testosterone). Simply supplementing with this naturally occurring hormone can help alleviate this problem and balance things out.
The human body, like a fine tuned muscle car, is a miraculous machine that can do amazing things IF you put the right things into it and treat it good. If you simply put the right kind of gas in and replaced those broken spark plugs under the hood and gave your car a tune up, it would run much better right? You can do the same with your body if you simply stop eating garbage and start feeding it the right nutrients and incorporating appropriate physical activity to get stronger. Our body has the ability to heal itself under the right circumstances and the correct environment we provide it. This is simply a choice we can make to do or not to.
There is no better time than now to learn and get educated on how to make a few changes to look and feel your absolute best. Tomorrow will be the same excuse as it was yesterday. Come in for a complimentary tune up at the Body Shopp and let me help you achieve your health and fitness goals. The only thing you have to lose is some fat, health concerns and some negative energy. But, you have TONS to gain to help you win and progress forward into a new you!
Roger Bowman, CPT
