multiple sneezer

thanks dj pat for the advice.
what thai dishes are healthy? they all seem greasy to me.
just turned 40 and noticed i wear xl now... so we just bought an exercise bike and have biked everyday for a week. swimming in the pool too.
quitting sodas should help, man i was (am) addicted to those
carbonated cans of sugar.

richie122

Anyone have any tips on how to increase calf size. I know it sounds trivial, but I look like a Marshmellow on Toothpicks.. I work my legs really hard, but my calves don't seem to get any larger... It looks pretty funny when I wear shorts

zehner

^you tried cycling?

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richie122

Some... However it isn't lack of work on my calves.. They just haven't grown.

mugwump

Place something like a thick phonebook on the ground and stand on it so that only your toes and balls of yoru feet are on it and the rest of your feet are hanging over the edge. Raise yourself up and down. If you've got dumbells or a barbell to hold while you're doing this, great. If not, anything helps. Get some jugs of water and throw them in some plastic bags. You'll likely need to triple or quadruple bag to prevent tears or handle breakage.

DJ Pat

Was there yesterday.

Anyone thinking of travelling soon should check out their deal on FBT and FILA bags. Only 259 Baht each for a large weekend style travel bag. Good quality.

They have loads, and a year ago these same bags were 600 Baht.
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they are greasy.

I am careful which Thai dishes I eat cos many are deep fried or cooked in far too much fat.

Grilled chicken is ok, take off the skin.

The salads are ok.

I eat and cook at home.

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Cyrille

FBT does some good stuff. Cheaper because of the logo, that's all.

DJ Pat

FBT are just as good as Adidas if you're going to wear them as regular as the other, if that makes any sense to you.

FBT's range of gear are vey good value.

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dino67

richie122


A lot of your potential to grow your calves is genetic. A lot of African and Indian people have a smaller inner Gastrocnemius muscle. If your calves are well developed you should see these 2 muscles when you flex your calves in the mirror with a gap down the middle. The shape or potential shape is determined by genetics.

Cycling is a good way to develop them as is sprinting.

Here is what worked for me. Alternate very heavy days with light days and lots of reps. 1 week go heavy - you should be able to do calve raises with way over your body weight. Work them over a full range of motion. Next week go light and lots of reps and supersets and get them burning. 1 set of calve raises, on to seated raises and then on to donkey calve raises. Have a rest and do it again for 3 supersets. Once a week was plenty as I was also doing track 5 days a week.

Now the front of the shin is also important for adding size to the lower leg. We had a special piece of equipment to hook over our feet and provide resistance while we pointed our foot down and then lifted it back towards the shin with resistance. I think this exercise made the biggest difference to my lower legs.

We also did lots of hurdle jumps and drills running high on the balls of our feet and plyometrics - explosive jumps etc. Single leg hops for distance and speed over 40 metres.

Good luck and I hope you can see some improvement.

DJ Pat

I cycled to school from the age of 12.

Along the route every morning and every afternoon was Crouch Hill, that hardest part was the way to school in the mornings.

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Red hat

five days a week training! Noob enthusiasm, you'll burn out very quickly with a regime like that. Better day on day off, mon wed fri. That way youre body will have time to recover.

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Or change the parts of the body your trying to condition on alternate days but with always 1 day off a week. I started boxing a few monthsd back and I seriously recommend it to people who want to(beat ten tonnes of shit out of people that piss you off) or even get much fitter, increase your stamina and have a great cv work out.

Was thinking about muay thai, but FUCK that. Thats dangerous man.

dino67

Red Hat

Sorry I wasn't clear in my original post. The alternate days should have said alternate weeks. I'm still half asleep at that time in the morning.

"Once a week was plenty as I was also doing track 5 days a week"


I trained calves once a week ! Track 5 days a week means I was at the track 5 days a week. Some of those were recovery sessions.

"Noob enthusiasm" - I'm not a noob at sprinting or weights - I've been at it over 30 years !

Not bragging but at 40 years of age I can still run under 11 sec for the 100m, despite not training for track for the 3 years I was in Thailand.

SnoopBot

Yes, this worked for me. I had small calf muscles in my teen-years and mid-20's. I wanted stronger calves for stability in the sports I was involved in.

Here is how I did it:

1. Lift HEAVY weights to build your calves- if you can lift the weight more than 15 times it is too light. You must hit failure at reps of 4-6 or less. Calves need heavy weight to get the mass they need.

2. Burnouts- use this method to alternate between heavy lifts and lighter easily controlled ones. Pyramid up and down. ex 15-10-8-6-4 then dump weights to keep a 10-10-10-10 rep burnout

3. Alternate exercises, if your calves don't burn or you don't feel it, switch your exercises as needed to get this burn. Example standing calve raises stop working, switch to seat raises or change your technique. Growth = overload. No feeling of overload = no growth and calves can get easily adopted to exercise stress. Just by changing your foot angles and depth you can do this. Don't bounce with your legs!

4. Cross-train them- I would put ocean fins on and swim 1-2 km in a pool with only using my calves/legs.

Now my calves are so huge, I've had people come up and ask me "How did you do it"?

I've had to build up the rest of my legs to match the size of my calves.

What was once a source of ankle sprain and jumping weakness now has become a powerful part of my body thanks to the scheme listed above.