Calf Raises

RoyBeck

I'm looking for a couple of answers here please. Firstly I've seen videos where the instructor holds the raise for a second or two then returns their feet flat to the ground. Another video shows the instructor lifting into the raise then on the decline not putting their soles flat to the floor but slightly raised still but at a much faster pace. What is the difference here? Also, as I'm getting pretty defined in my calves is there anything wrong with sets of 100 calf raises if I'm looking for stronger legs?

JonDrees

Raised calf raises just increase the range of motion. Doing 100 reps of calf raises will do very little for the size of the muscle. Stick with squats and deadlifts.

Cherimoose

RoyBeck wrote: »

Firstly I've seen videos where the instructor holds the raise for a second or two then returns their feet flat to the ground. Another video shows the instructor lifting into the raise then on the decline not putting their soles flat to the floor but slightly raised still but at a much faster pace.

Sounds like a "workout" video, where instructors feel compelled to add variations like those to make their workouts interesting. That's not to say those variations don't have some benefits, but most serious training programs omit those.
Calf raises are great to add, but as you may have read, strength is best developed below around 12-15 reps.

AnvilHead

A good read which discusses the anatomy of calves, how to train them, and common training mistakes:

https://bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/training-the-calves.html/

Basically, the guys bouncing up and down real fast are putting all the load on their Achilles tendons and not doing much at all for the calves.