1. Knowing Which Calf to Raise
The lower leg muscles, commonly called the calf muscles, are actually two separate, relatively large muscles, the gastrocnemius and the soleus muscles. Both are critical to balance, motion and athletic performance. However, it's the gastrocnemius that people see. So, when it comes to focusing on calf exercises, it's best to choose knee flexion exercises like hamstring curls to define the calf muscles.
2. It Depends on Your Definition
Of course, you can't define your calf muscles if you don't really have them, so hamstring curls are important to start. But if you want real definition, fat burning exercises that also give you a bit of a calf workout are the next important step. Running is one of the best ways to define your calf muscles, since it targets the area and burns fat, which is the real impediment to calf muscle definition. However, fast walking is also an excellent option.
3. A Whole Grain, Whole Body Approach
For serious definition, the kind you see on the sleek legs of triathletes, you need to make a total change in your approach to eating and exercise. The first step is to rid your diet of non-complex carbs such as white bread, white rice and all other foods that contain heavy doses of starch. Then, since you'll be short on time, you need to integrate full body exercises that hit your calf muscles as you work the rest of your body. Turn to the "Big Two," squats and deadlifts, to do this effectively.
4. Taking Out the Garbage
There's a lot of garbage advice when it comes to working certain parts of the body. Some of this useless (or even harmful) advice comes from some unlikely people, such as bodybuilders. In the case of the calf muscles, people have a built-in belief that high reps of low weight will develop amazing calfs, as if the lower leg muscles were different from the rest of the body's muscle. In truth, lots of weight at low repetitions will give you big muscle gains.
5. Drive Daily Towards Definition
The difference between a person with good calf muscles and great calf muscles, like the difference between someone with a good body and someone with a great body, lies in the margins. This is true about whether you go for that midnight snack or the extra helping at dinner, but it's also true about how you engage with the world. Walking or biking instead of driving, bounding up stairs instead of dragging yourself up them, and generally paying attention to what your body and your calf muscles are doing will result in driving you to that next level of definition.
Member Comments