How to Bulk up Calve Muscle

by Shelly
(Burlington, Canada)

Hello, I have been working on my calves muscles for as long as I can remember. I have skinny legs and would like more athletic legs. They are shaped nicely however I have skinny calves and I would like to increase their size. Currently I speed walk on my treadmill at home on the highest incline and I have noticed a very small difference. Also when I do make it to the gym I ensure I work my calve muscles' on the leg press or calve machine.

Your site is great - thanks for the tips.

Any other tips for fast results for my calves?

Thank you,
Shelly

Answer from Rumi

Hi Shelly,

You sound very fit, congrats for your athletic legs!

About calves – you probably know that it is gene related the type of the body you have. Anyway you can change your calves.

What I see as a solution is to have hard, exhausting calves’ workouts. This means to train your calves to the maximum, but be careful, don’t harm yourself and make injury.

Try to do different calves exercises in one workout. For example: do what you do now and add lifting on your toes. If you never did lifting on toes start it light and easy without additional weights, just use your body weight. Than star do this on one leg and at the end do this with weights in your hands.

Very important for muscle growth is what you eat and how you rest. Muscle growth (no matter in calves or other muscles) needs eating of protein before and after the workout. Protein is essential for muscle growth. I have written about good protein for women in my blog, check it if you don’t know what brand to buy.

Other essential thing is the rest – you need a day or two to give a rest of your calves, so they will have time to grow. In other words, train your calve muscles for example Monday, Wednesday and Friday – and do 3 different exercises in each day (lifting on toes, treadmill and leg press). At home you can do lifting on toes while holding dumbbells – do 3-5 series, each series contains as many as you can repetitions.

Don’t expect miracles, because women hardly bulk up muscles. Of course you can get some muscles, but not too much like men get. This is because women don’t have the hormone testosterone which is responsible for muscle growth.

What I want to tell you that with hard workouts you can bulk up calves, but not that much as man can do this.

Hope my answer helps you.

All the best,
Rumi