Find out why, despite your best efforts, you can't build your calf muscles. The muscles of the legs and especially the calves are quite difficult to train, as they are reluctant to hypertrophy. Of course, there are other muscle groups that are also quite difficult to pump. Often, it is the lack of progress in their training that causes despair in athletes, and they stop paying enough attention to these muscles.
However, builders often simply make mistakes in the training process, which leads to a lack of progress. At the same time, you can eliminate them, and for this you need to find out why caviar is not growing. It is about training the calf muscles that we will talk about today.
The main mistakes when pumping calves
We will not delay for a long time and will immediately tell you why caviar does not grow. This can be attributed to several mistakes that athletes often make.
Calf exercises are performed at the final stage of the training
The situation with the calves is very similar to the rear deltas - athletes pay little attention to these groups. Most builders pump these muscles towards the end of the session, when there is practically no strength left. You should know that it is not possible to gain mass with mistakes in the millet training program. If you are interested in knowing why calves do not grow, and you want to pump them up with high quality, then you have to work in the same way as you do when training your chest or other muscles.
Start your workout with a calf exercise, working at the same intensity as when pumping the quadriceps. When you actively train your upper leg, you simply don't have the energy to work on your calf muscles. If you want to develop your body harmoniously, then you need to pay sufficient attention to all muscles.
The classic range of repetitions is used - from 10 to 15
When training these muscles, you should not be in this frame. Try to do more than 20 reps in each set. It should also be said that you do not need to use large weights. The multi-repetitive workout regimen perfectly stimulates the growth of calves, and also creates a powerful pumping effect.
Calves and soleus muscles are not equally stressed
Most athletes do not change their calf exercises. If you constantly work only in a sitting or standing position, then the calves cannot be loaded evenly. You should remember that this group includes several muscles.
While working in a standing position, the entire load falls on the calf muscles. However, under them there are soleus, which in this case practically do not work. To pump the soleus muscles, it is necessary to perform toe raises with bent legs. It is necessary to work on the muscles of the whole group, and not partially involve them in the work. Only then will you be able to see progress.
Using large weights
Answering the question above why caviar does not grow, we have already briefly recalled the large working weights. However, this is a rather important point and it makes sense to pay more attention to it. When we talk about weights, we mean using heavy but not excessive weight.
Large weights lead to a violation of the technique, and you also subconsciously begin to use cheating. As a result, it is not possible to work with the full range of motion. Let's say that the use of excessive working weights forces the quads to take some of the load for themselves. Here are some symptoms that you have chosen the wrong weight:
- When performing the movement, the ankles are not flush with the hamstrings and quads.
- You can't do sock raises in a standing position without twisting your legs, and while sitting, you help yourself with your hands.
- You have pain in the Achilles tendon area.
Isolated movements are not performed with maximum amplitude
When training any muscles to activate the processes of hypertrophy, the slow negative part of the movement, the maximum amplitude, as well as the complete stretching of the muscles are of paramount importance. As we said, when using excessive weights, you do not have the opportunity to work at full amplitude. This, in turn, does not allow achieving complete stretching of the muscle fibers in the upper extreme position.
Many professional athletes believe that hypertrophy can only be activated when the muscles are fully contracted. Thus, you need to rise as high as possible when performing raises on your socks. Until this happens, the question of why caviar does not grow will remain relevant to you. It is very important to work at a slow pace, and even with relatively small weights, you will be able to stretch your muscles well.
Incorrect leg position
You may have heard that when you put your toes inward, straight and to the sides, it becomes possible to work your calves at different angles. One can agree with this statement, but not completely. In practice, everything happens as follows:
- The legs are straight - the load is evenly distributed over all the calf bundles.
- The legs are placed with the toes inward - the load is emphasized on the outer section.
- Toes turned outward - the load is shifted to the inner calf.
However, you should not bring your fingers together or away by more than 2.5 centimeters. Using different angles in this case may not be as effective a step as you would like. The thing is that the muscles in such a situation cannot be loaded as much as possible, since most of the load is shifted to the ligaments and connective tissues.
How to properly pump caviar?
We have sorted out the main mistakes, and you should have understood why caviar does not grow. Let's talk about how to properly work on your calf muscles. As we have already said, calves can only grow if you pay no less attention to them in comparison with the same biceps.
You've probably noticed that on specialized web resources, attention is not often paid to pumping calves. The point here is not that athletes do not care much about this muscle group, it's just that the list of exercises is extremely limited. The same can be said about simulators, because, in fact, to work out the calf muscles, only toe raises are performed in standing or sitting positions.
It is precisely with the small number of exercises that the main misconception of novice athletes is connected, who believe that these are just two versions of one movement. As a result, only one of these exercises is present in their training paragram. It is quite obvious that they are beginning to worry about the question of why caviar does not grow.
Think for yourself which joints are involved in doing calf raises while standing and sitting. In the second case, you use not only the ankle joint, but also the knee joint. As a result, we can say that lifting in a standing position is a one-part movement, and in a sitting position - a multi-joint one. From this we can conclude that they do not affect the calf muscles in the same way.
The main difference between these movements is the number of muscles working. When you perform a movement in a standing position, but all the load falls on the calves, and if you are sitting, then the soleus muscle comes into play. While working while standing, the calves are perfectly loaded, since their upper section is attached to the knee joint.
When it is straightened, then the calf muscle is well stretched. If you sit down, then the calves work weakly and most of the load is shifted to the soleus muscle. Thus, in order not to painfully search for an answer to the question of why calves do not grow, it is necessary to perform both movements.
Let's go back to the range of motion again. We have already said that on one side, the calves are attached to the knee joint, while the lower section is attached to the heel bone. As a result, the lower you lower the heel, the more the calf muscle is stretched.
The situation is similar with the upper extreme position - the higher you climb, the more calf fibers will be stretched. As an analogy, you can take lifting weights with your fingers. Agree that you can lift more weight with two fingers than with one. As a result, the maximum load on the calf muscles is possible only if you lower your heel as much as possible, and at the same time stand as high as possible on your tiptoes.
Equally important is the question of the number of sets with repetitions. This is due to the fact that there are many slow-type fibers in the calves. As you know, their development requires a different tactic than fast fibers. The best option here is to train two types of fibers. To do this, we recommend doing a couple of heavy sets for fast fibers, followed by an equal number of light sets for slow fibers.
Since the eggs are a small group, they recover quickly enough. From this it follows that it is worth working on them more often than on large groups. However, days of rest will still be small, and we advise you to load the calf muscles as much as possible, and then monitor when the pain sensations pass. Most often this happens after a day or two. Keep in mind, however, that while your calf muscles are sore, you cannot re-train them.
First, you should perform calf raises in a standing position, and then sitting. However, the order in which these movements are performed can not only be changed, but also necessary. Do this once or twice a month. That's all the information that we wanted to share with you when answering the question why caviar does not grow?
How to make your calf muscles grow, says Alexey Shredder:
