I don’t know about you, but I often forget to train my calves. Until now, I’ve never been overly worried when crouching, rushing, or deadlifting. That said, in recent conversations with running coaches, I had to stop thinking about calf strength. The calf muscles absorb the impact and move forward as you run or walk. It’s an essential element to reduce your physical strength, but why did you ignore it?
I never hesitate to challenge, so I decided to add a raise of 100 calves a day to my weekly routine to see what happened. My schedule as a marathon runner includes about 5 runs a week, 2 strength training sessions, and a fair amount of weird Pilates and yoga classes.
Before getting into the calf raise, it’s important to note that what works for me may not work for you and your body. If you are a complete beginner or are returning to exercise after an injury, it is advisable to check with a personal trainer to ensure that you have the correct form. ..
Read on to find out what happened when I raised 100 calves a day a week. Inspired?Check out what happened when I did 100 dead bugs a day a week, Abdominal exercises 30 times a day for 30 daysAnd when Added fluttering to the morning routine..
How to raise a calf
Let’s start with how to get the technique right. To raise your calves, start by separating your legs by the width of your shoulders.Keep your back straight and your core engages through movement (here is How to Engage Core Muscle). Rise slowly on your toes, keeping your feet straight, without locking your knee joints. Pause at the top, then return to the ground and back to the starting position.
The advantage of calf raises is that they hit both calf muscles. The calf has two main muscles. The soleus muscle, the deeper calf muscle, and the gastrocnemius muscle, the outer muscle that forms the heel, starting just below the knee and running down the leg that connects to the Achilles tendon above the heel. Of your calf. Calf muscle tension is a common injury among athletes, so it is important to strengthen the calf muscle when it comes to injury prevention. For example, if the soleus muscle is weak the study (Opens in a new tab)It shows that the calf muscles can be more easily tense and torn.
I raised 100 calves a day a week — what happened
On the first day of this challenge, I started with a regular weight calf raise. I chose 4 sets of 25 raises and took a 30 second break between each set. I raised after running without shoes and focused on my form fairly slowly. My challenge was to think about my attitude. For this exercise, it is essential to keep your back straight and your abdominal muscles firmly in place.
On the second day, we added a calf raise to our strength training routine. After all, it was a leg day. This time, I added weight to the mix to raise the ante a little. I grabbed a set of 6kg dumbbells and again raised 4 sets of 25 calves. This definitely increased the challenge, and after the first 25 raises, I could feel the calf muscles functioning. Again, I had to focus on slowing down — doing the exercise fast might be attractive, but it doesn’t make it much more effective.
On the third day, I decided to increase the range of motion of the calf by raising the calf in steps. Once again, I finished running and stood at the bottom of the stairs and raised my calves. This further lowers the heel and increases its strength. Since the stairs have only the base of the toes, I definitely felt the calf stretched significantly when moving the person in charge.
On the fourth day, as you can imagine, we added weights to the calf raises under the stairs. This certainly felt a bit rough because I don’t live in a huge house with wide open stairs, and in the future I’ll do a weighted elevated Calf Raise on Jim’s steps. Still, I lived to accomplish them and tell the story, and I didn’t fall down the stairs or hit the walls with dumbbells. result.
By the fifth day, the calf felt it, so I returned to a normal weight calf raise. We definitely don’t recommend doing the same exercise a lot every day (this is why experts tell you) You shouldn’t do a squat challengeBut because of journalism, I continued.
On the sixth day, I decided to mix things up again. This time I chose to raise my calf with a gym leg press machine. To do this, I placed my toes on the platform with my legs extended and pushed my toes as if I were raising my standing calf. Raising the calf with a leg press is a good way to increase the load without worrying about the balance.
Finally the 7th day. Now I’m tired of raising the calf, but I wanted to try another one, the calf raise on one leg. I haven’t added these to my workout since I injured my soleus muscle many years ago. I hated them now, just as I did back then. As the name implies, to raise the calf on one leg, stand on one leg and lift it onto the ball on one leg. I chose to do 100 on each leg, but found that it was more balanced on the right leg and needed to be done near the wall (I’m right-handed).
So what did I learn after 800 calves were raised? I need to raise more calves. Of course, there is no significant improvement in a week. The human body doesn’t work that way, but there’s no doubt that adding calf exercises to your workout can help you run faster and (hopefully) lower. Foot problems that may keep me away from the starting line.
