Settle this once and for all....

[flettotenko]

@Charlie_Francis

That’s rehab on the calves and is not the same thing as specifically overloading them beforehand. The idea is not to have achilles problems in the first place by:
1: Not overloading the calf with exercises that are already covered by other activities. You can read an extensive arguement about all this in the forum reviews about general vs specific work.
2: Working on a softer surface whenever possible- like grass for tempo and early phase sprinting.
Some of this stuff drives me crazy (can you tell??). i went to Australia and met the Rugby Golden Boot winner from a few years back. He bought a copy of Speed Trap many years ago and simply built a training program around it. He came to the attention of the NFL and was brought to the US. The team in question thought it would be a good idea to have him worked out by one of these “calf proponants”. After a single day of hopping up and down the track for 100m repeats on the track on one foot and then the other, rep after rep, he ruptured his achillles tendon.
He had never had a single injury over the years but just one day and he was never the same.
If you see the same program generating not one but many achilles and lower leg injuries and you still insist this is the way to fly- good luck to you- you’ll need it.

I agree. I don’t classify this eccentric/concentric rehab/prehab as specific work but rather supplementary seeing as it is fuck all as far as intensity goes. But for myself it is vital as far as maintaining range of motion, as when i lose the range of motion(sometimes lazy to do eccentric calves) and sprint, too much trauma is induced to the tendons.

the swedish study said to increase the eccentric calves reps and when that becomes easy then add a backpack with weight but i’m hesitant about this, since it might shift it from general supplementary to specific unnecessity. I’ve been getting along alright past 2 years using the following eccentric/concentric lower/raise scheme:
22 reps both legs w/very slight knee bend
22 reps both legs w/deeper knee bend (activate more soleus stretch)
11 reps singles each leg w/very slight knee bend
11 reps singles each leg w/deeper knee bend