I have just recently started doing functional calve focused exercises in my ZGYM workouts, and I have to say that I’ve never been happier with the “looks” of my legs before. Knowing how counter productive it is to do isolated moves such as weighted calve raises that only produce non-functional hypertrophy -meaning that you’re only building muscles for the look, but it won’t help you at all in any sport or activity, I have always focused on the “right way” of training of those lower leg muscles. I have been happy with my workout and athletic performance, but my calves just didn’t look the way I’d like to. I decided to find the missing pieces to my training.

The way you want to train your calves for maximum athletic performance is with jumping, running, and doing high intensity workouts or calisthenics. Believe it or not, but the size of your calves has nothing to do with your ability to jump high or run faster. Many professional athletes have those tiny calves that don’t even match the rest of their body. The reason for that is that it’s not your calves that make you jump higher. The muscles that make you faster and stronger athlete who can jump high or run fast are mostly your thighs, glutes and even shoulders. Calves? Not really.

In fact, training your calves with weighted isolated moves can create more problems for you such as shin splints, which you’re going to notice during your jump rope session or when you go for a run. So how do you make your calves to grow bigger in order to make your body look more symmetrical without jeopardizing your athleticism? You have to look at those athletes that have it all. Who they are and what they do?  Who’s got beautiful calves, and an incredibly strong athletic body that can jump high and run fast? I’ll give you two examples:

1. Soccer Players
2. Ballerinas (I absolutely love Misty Copeland. I’ve never even though I’d be so inspired by a ballerina)

Neither of them get’s their strong calves by doing calve raises standing on a ledge. Each calve raise they do is on the ground, not on a ledge, which is the natural and functional way to train those muscles. Both of them do a lot of plyo exercises, jumps, squats, and dynamic moves that are natural for your body. So the bottom line is – do your calve raises on the ground and try your best to combine them with dynamic moves that will fire up those muscles creating a functional hypertrophy. Stop ruining your performance in the gym by doing slow calve raises on a ledge and hit it hard with high intensity training.

Enjoy your 5 Minute Fat Burning workout for legs and calves!

Warm Up Routine

Cool Down & Stretching
Workout Breakdown

5 Minute AMRAP

1. Sumo Calve raises (x2) to jump squat x 5

2. Dead Swing to Low Squat Calve Raises (x4) x 5

3. Pistol to Calve raise x 6 alt.