Calves need help.

[escholar05]

A little back story, I don't have your average calf problems:

About 6 months ago I had what is called tendon transfer done on both of my ankles. What this did was move the posterior tibial tendon (one of the three calf tendons) from wherever the hell it was attached to the midline of the top of my foot. So instead of making my foot rotate to the inside, it makes my foot pull up so I can walk.

As a result of this I am not able to fully press my foot down, and my calf strength is limited, it took me 4 months to be able to do a standing calf raise with my own bodyweight. So when I do any kind of calf excercise, I can get a full stretch at the bottom, but I can only raise my heel to a little past parallel (inch or two) of my toes.

I was wondering if anyone else that has had trouble growing their calves or if anyone has any crazy calf workouts that they could share, I realize they may or may not work for me, but I'll try everything once. I realize these things take time, but looking in a mirror and seeing big upper legs on top of toothpicks is getting old, haha. Thanks guys.

[escholar05]

anyone?

[airborneIRON]

there's a really wicked calf thread going on this site somewhere. but i'll give you the advice i posted on there instead of making you search it out.
since i started lifting i had been doing the same calf routine, and never realized just how little growth i was getting. i was doing high reps (25-30) with a deep, deep stretch at the bottom. well i researched and researched and put a lot of things i found out together. first, i read that taking too deep of a stretch at the bottom transfers the energy to your achilles and takes stress away from the actual calf muscle, so i reduced my stretch. then i read about the need to go absolutely heavy because your calf is used to moving your own bodyweight all day already, so i upped the weight which lead to my dropping the reps. also with the heavier weight, i felt uncomfortable with it sitting on a bar on my back, so i dropped standing calf raises unless its on a machine. now i do hammer strength leverage calf presses (pretty much the same as you'd get by doing calf presses on a leg press) and seated calf raises. i super set the two 4 times a week. i do a mid rep range of 12-15 with heavy weight and i make sure i stretch really good after each set. i understand that your ability to get a high contraction is limited, no worries. just push it to where you can and hold it. i've been doing this for a couple months now and i'm certainly noticing progress. i'm a skinny guy with a distance running background and i always thought i was doomed to have tiny calves forever. they're still skinny compared to most, but they are improving...rapidly. try it out man.

[escholar05]

Thanks, I will give it a shot. Before I had surgery I had some really decent sized calves, so hopefully they come back quickly, I just have been spinning my wheels as of late trying to properly stimulate them. Thanks again man.