I would say function. If an athlete sprints flat-footed I would guess there is a weakness in his calves.
Too funny Charlie!! I forgot about Jim. He was always putting his rear on the line with some dangerous animal. I think we’re showing our age here Charlie. Anybody else out there old enough to remember Marlin and Jim?
I say they are weak because they hurt when I use them for a very small distance. For example. I can’t hold on to some drills because my calves are burning. Thats why I hate speed drills and some hurdle exercises. When try to do a long morning jog from time to time. I start easy and after 2 minutes my calves hurt so badly. My calves look way too small compared to my quads! I used to run 10.80 - 11.00 (FAT) When I used to push with the ball of the foot off the ground. I felt the calves in training and in races. But when I started running falt footed while letting the whole sole of my leg touch the ground and make a strong complete contact, I started running 10.6s and 10.5s (FAT). I don’t think its right running faster using the wrong way. So I wanted to solve the problem and I believe I could because I’m a very hard worker. But I don’t know how?
The idea is not to push with the ball of the foot off the ground when sprinting.The fact that you felt the calves working during races makes me believe you were over-pushig(pushing out the back).The thing is to make contact with the balls of your feet, the rest should be natural.
I’ve never had shin splints or any soreness in my calves from sprinting or jogging any distance. The exercise I used to do in 1995-2002 was the seated calve raise with free weights. Your sitting on a small 30cm bench while sliding your knees under the pads of the machines. You load the weight on the machine at an 60 degree angle.
I started out with just a 45lb plate, and in 2002 I calve raised 450 lbs which is the limit of the machine when adding 45lb plates to it. In the new gym that I train at we do not have that machine and also it is more sport specific to do standing calve raises on a 6 cm height by 45 cm length/width board. I have not done calve raises in over two years and my 1RM of standing calve raises with the bar on your back (like your doing a squat) is 600 lbs. At that weight my body was unstable while I was lifting the weight, probably becuase I have very little core strength.
So instead I’ve decided to do on leg calve raises which my 1RM is 275lbs. I calve raise inside a power rack with the side safety bars raised to almost my shoulders and I calve raise against the vertical bars (where you adjust the side bars in the grooved-out slots). I use one leg for doing the raises and the other leg for support on lifts requiring say 85% of 1RM; however, I try not to put any weight on the supporting leg and it does not move. Sure the supporting leg is supporting some of your bodyweight but the idea is to use one leg only.
According to Michael Colgan from his book “New Protocols For Maximum Strength” the calve muscles hardly work in everday lifting and running routines; therefore, he suggests running on hills which go up and down so that each calve is doing more work.
Whenever I goto the gym, I notice that my calves are bigger than any other bodybuilder or powerlifter. That’s one reason why some of these guys where sweat pants to the gym, so that they people don’t laugh at their chicken legs.
IF your going to strength train any body part you have to apply the methods of progressive overload including your calves.
The way your body is designed may dictate that you don’t need to work your calves as much as the rest of your body.
Charile’s point about the lever is the one that makes me second question me working my calves for hypertrophy; however, animals like cheetas were not given steriods or strength training. The question becomes then, if these animals did would they be faster or slower? I believe it is the cheetas lean muscle mass compared to the rest of his bodyweight is one reason why they run so fast. A bear can run 35 miles per hour and must produce huge rates of force production kinda of like an offensive lineman with a vertical jump of 40 inches.
My theory is that stronger calves lead to more power and can help in the triple extension in cleans, plyo’s, and sprinting. Also I believe, that the more powerful calves will overcome the leg-lever issue so that the former outweighs the latter. When I mean stonger calves, I’m talking about a person calve pressing 1400 lbs and 700 lbs for a single leg, meaning a I still have lot of work to do before proving any of these theories. Afterall, if the strongest person in the world can squat over a 1000 lbs, he must be able to calve raise 1600 lbs easily if put in the same amount of time.
Supervenomsuperman, are you a sprinter, powerlifter, bodybuilder or hybrid of 2 or 3 of those things?
How much are your calves in circumferance if you allready know?
I do see where you’re comming from becuase when my calf strength has been “up” I’ve ran faster and rebounded over the running surface easier and jumped higher in simple vertical jump tests. Never the less, for me, weighted athletic drills, and multi-joint weights exercises which include calves such as jump squats and knee bend jumps (dumbells) are my personal preferance over isolated calf exercises.
However, you are getting good results from isolated versions aswell, and the stronger you get, the less choice of brute strength developement exrcises you have. In the end, your quest for greater calf strength may just come down to standing and seated raises if it hasn’t allready. (Side note; louise Simmons recomended seated calf raises in his re-training of Butch Reynolds-400 m). It will be interesting for you and others to find out the results of your improving levals of calf strength and contribution to sprint speed/athletic ability.
To state my calve circumferance right now would be unfair since I just started working them again, but anyways right now both calves are just over 17 inches; however, I remember a couple of years ago they were the same size as my biceps which at the time were 18 and 18.5 inches. My biceps have shrunk to 15 inches since I hardly work them anymore. Anyways, after this next hypertrophy then strength phase, I’ll get a better idea.
I was a sprinter, powerlifter, and inadvertenly a bodybuilder when I first started lifting weights. I have been a powerlifter mostly over that past couple of years when I was in and out of track for reasons beyond my control. This year will be my first year back in track as well as my first year continuing to learn the olympic lifts.
I will start doing calf work while I train this year. The relative volume will be low, but I think this is a serious weakness that needs to be addressed. I used to be part of the “no direct calf-work” crowd after reading Training for Speed. But I am a heavier than average athlete with a not-so-solid background in running. My hip extensors are making huge gains lifting, and the muscles around my ankle are not up to par for transmitting that kind of force to the ground. So I’m with Charlie on this one. Unless a specific deficit is present do not make them a focus. But if a specific deficit is present be sure to take care of it.
You have to remember one thing. When a pendulum swings (like in a doctor’s office for children who bored) the weight is at the end and this weight is what slows the motion down; however, in sprinting your not kicking your legs out like a WWII German soldier or sprinting with straight legs. You are bringing the leg up while closing off the angle between your calve and buttocks and then letting your leg fall to the ground.
Now pay close attention. It’s true that it requires more speed-strength to lift the heavier calve muscle; however, it’s also true that the calve muscle will fall down at the same rate. Also if that sprinter was able to generate more power because of his stronger and more powerful calve muscle, then he would jump further in the air and assuming that when he is raising his leg up, it would be at the same velocity or greater as a less weighted calve because his more powerful calve would allow him to lift his leg up faster than a lighter calve.
Side note: He could also have develop more speed-strength in his hipflexors as well to compensate for the heavier calve.
So therefore, an elite athlete can become faster sprinter with heavier and more powerful calves then logically he could push-off the ground with greater force and let gravity pull the leg down at the same rate.
This is not true. Acceleration due to gravity is a constant regardless of mass. Review your physics.
Agree. Also, ground response will be determined by the proportionate input from all the involved muscles, not one out of balance with the others.
Charlie do you find harder surfaces cause tighter calves?
Usually, but not always. If you get ‘out of synch’ with the surface, you’ll fail to use all the energy that the surface can return to you. You must stay relaxed in order to ride the frequency of any given surface. If not, you’ll get tight everywhere.
hahaha and if we took it a bit further…the lighter calves would fall faster b/c it’s has less wind resistance!!!
no they’d fall at the same rate! an apple and a bowling ball will hit the ground at the same time if dropped from the same height at the same time.
9.8m/s^2
if i remember my physics correctly!
They wouldn’t hit the ground at the exact same time unless their density and effective surface area were equal due to air resistance.
Perhaps we’re missing an opportunity here. Now, if we were to bind the sprinter’s head into a more aerodynamic shape (like a Collie) for a few years…
yes thats true. Wind resistance IS a factor that can change the rule a little bit. I mean through a peice of paper and a match stick!
But then why are we talking about this after all. !!
i believe he meant air resistance…but minus air resistance yes all things fall at the same rate…
Now talking about progressive overload and working the calves. I do believe that we have to progressively improve our muscle strength and moniter how they are improving from one session to the next and how the weights are going up. But then for me, that is so easy with exercise that have an " easy to determine " range of motion. I mean I can full squat and improve from one day to the next, because I know the range is always constant and know. I can Bench press and use progressive overload to improve a strict constant range of montion of the bar. But when it comes to Calves its so variable. I can handle a higher weight but the range falls just a little. I put more weight and the range falls a bit more. And so one. What is the best range to look at. And then even through my counts, the range is varying. When to stop. How do I do burns for example. How do I emphasis streangth of the calves on the other side. I don’t like to work one bit when I don’t know how to track its progress. Any help on this??