Calves by Charles Poliquin

Do you have small calves? Try this cycle and see!

Day 1: High Intensity

Exercise A: Calf Superset*

A1) Calves on the seated machine 3 x 10-5-5 (one set of 10 reps, followed by two sets of 5 reps) at a tempo of 101 (1 second down, no pause, 1 second up)

A2) Donkey lunges 3 x 30-50 at 101 tempo

*After completing exercise A1), move immediately to exercise A2). And only after performing this exercise (completing the superset) is followed by a 2 minute rest.

Exercise B: Standing calf raises (machine, large dumbbell, Hacken squat)

B1) Standing calf raises 10 x 10-30 at a tempo of 111, pause 10 seconds**

**This is one very long series. You do the first 10-30 reps, now only pause for 10 seconds and move on. You are allowed to decrease the load. In other words, it's one set of 10 with 10 second pauses.

After this first day, you may need to call the fire department to have someone cool your burning calves! And you might feel like you're walking like Homer Simpson's 80 year old father from my favorite show!!!

Day 2: Low Intensity (to be practiced 48 hours after Day 1)

Exercise A: Standing lunges (3 times reduced weight)

A1) Standing lunges (3x reduced weight) 3 x 10-10-10 (= 3 sets of lunges) at 121.*** with a 90 second break between sets

***Keep your leg extended during the pause, calves should be under constant tension.

After 48 hours the cycle can be repeated. In other words, exercise the calves progressively every 3 days.

After a month of this routine your calves should receive some change, I have known cases where the improvement was greater in this one month than in the whole season.