when to train calves

[reggin]

who thinks its better to train your calves at the beginning of your workout?

[psyko1]

I wouldn't want to, I think my leg workout might suffer a bit.

[ski]

I train mine right after quads!

[TheRussian]

I just had a leg workout yesterday, and I must've done like 8 sets of calves. Pyramid up then few sets at max, then pyramid down.

I really have a difficult time walking today. heh. Too bad calves recover fairly quickly, and more difficult to grow than, say, quads.

But, yeah I do them right after squats (my first exercise), then move on to deadlifts.

[New_Mass]

I do calves 1st every training day, (except leg day) if you want to keep the blood flowing through them good. (quads/hams all energy go into them),

[Stonecold54]

it should depends on your priorities. If calves are lagging behind the rest of your legs, put them first to focus on them. If they are on par with the rest of your training or there is another part of the legs you want to focus on then put calves last. My calves are one of my best built and strongest bodyparts. I usually only do a few sets a month and they still grow like weeds.

[skoowat]

/agree stonecold. except i'm sickeningly jealous of your ease of development. i think i will have to take massive amount of test and work my calves into the ground to gain an inch. by that time i'll be covered in hair and look like andre the giant.

[Stonecold54]

Originally posted by skoowat
/agree stonecold. except i'm sickeningly jealous of your ease of development. i think i will have to take massive amount of test and work my calves into the ground to gain an inch. by that time i'll be covered in hair and look like andre the giant.

I used to do massive amounts of calf work and then I discovered through reading and thinking about it that it doesn't make sense to work the calf muscle a lot. muscle is stimulated by homeostatic disruption-letting your body know that it needs to grow more muscle to adapt-calves and forearms do a lot of work all day. they are a very dense tissue. so why throw gasoline on a fire? something totally different for them would be one set to momentary muscular and volitional failure. that is what I started doing and they grew and grew. now granted I have the genetics for bigger calf growth. some people just don't have the muscle belly or the right tendon attachment to have big calves, but you can still try to get them as big as possible. Good luck!!!