What exercises cause big calves?

[amanda12485]

can anyone help me, what exercises cause your calves to get larger? I have heard step and plyometrics does, i do not want mine to get any bigger they have gotten bigger since i started doing cathe workouts but i don;t ever work them individually. I am trying to figure out what is causing them to get bigger and now i have to try to figure out good exercises to lean them out.

 

[yelly]

can anyone help me, what exercises cause your calves to get larger? I have heard step and plyometrics does, i do not want mine to get any bigger they have gotten bigger since i started doing cathe workouts but i don;t ever work them individually. I am trying to figure out what is causing them to get bigger and now i have to try to figure out good exercises to lean them out.

I've found that step, plyo, and especially anything high-impact affects my calves, although I can't say that they necessarily get bigger - just a little more definition, which I like, personally. It sounds like you just need to keep at it with the cardio. If your goal is to lean out any body part, you need cardio. You could focus more on low-impact moves versus high. And even though almost any aerobic activity is going to incorporate the calves, I doubt that they will keep growing beyond a certain point, especially after they've adapted to your cardio routines and since you said you don't specifically work them out with weights.

Maybe you just need to accept your calves the way they are. I personally
think defined calves are very sexy!

Dani

 

[Jennifit]

Jump roping, sprinting, calve raises...But, I must say, genetics really does the trick!??! LOL You really are born with them - they are one of the muscles that are difficult to change or build. But, the above exercise can help define them more!

 

[RapidBreath]

Any exercise that I have ever done.

Ok, seriously, avoid calf raises. Jogging has thinned out that part of my body, but I'm not sure if my diet wasn't part of that.

 

[SirenSongWoman]

I am PLAGUED with HUGE calves (not genetics in my family) and two FigureAthlete.com authors gave me advice.

Dr. Clay Hyght told me to keep doing what I'm doing, especially diet, and they should get smaller. But he also warned that my calf muscles got big and strong carrying around a lot of excess weight for a long time (I was obese for two decades) and that I may only be able to do so much. He said he's seen this many times. So for those of you who are overweight, unless you also want calves that are too large for the rest of you, you might want to drop those pounds sooner rather than later. If I'd known 17" calves might become a permanent condition I know I wouldn't have put off losing weight.

Chad Waterbury said that any time you don't want a muscle group to get bigger that you should never directly work that muscle group. In other words, no calf raises or calf pumps. Inadvertent calf work resulting from squats, lunges, and dead lifts would be unavoidable, however. He also has said a great way to lean-out legs is 20 minutes of steady state running every other day. It's boring, it sucks, but it works.