Again, if you are going to do direct calf work, do it via plyos. The reason why mort is because there is so little strength there already and you really aren't going to be gaining much, besides the fact that most of the work in the area is elastic. Eccentric calf raises are good if you have achilles problems and maybe even regular weighted calf raises in some other special circumstances (if you cannot do any impact activity like running, jumping, other plyos, etc.). Before I did track I had done calf work because my hs football coach liked them. My calves grew much more when I was sprinting in spikes and doing absolutely no direct calf work and my calves/lower leg are prob. too thick as it is…
Again, if you are going to do direct calf work, do it via plyos. The reason why mort is because there is so little strength there already and you really aren't going to be gaining much, besides the fact that most of the work in the area is elastic. Eccentric calf raises are good if you have achilles problems and maybe even regular weighted calf raises in some other special circumstances (if you cannot do any impact activity like running, jumping, other plyos, etc.). Before I did track I had done calf work because my hs football coach liked them. My calves grew much more when I was sprinting in spikes and doing absolutely no direct calf work and my calves/lower leg are prob. too thick as it is…
shit with or without calf raises ur calf and ankles would still be thick - just thank god.
thats funny, i remember in college a guy came to our school trying to sell strength shoes and all he was talking about was how they made ur calfs stronger, so our great strength coach mike clark took him to our vertec machine and ask him to do a one vertical jump only using calfs -lol no hops then coach clark ask him to do a normal vertical like most people do 1/4 squat dip and explode etc - let me say he went alot higher. calves only play 1-3% in jumping ability, train the big muscles and if ur overall sprint program is correct ur calves will get lots of work. i perform 600-700m of speed work in spikes and boy i can say i dont need any calve work - calves are looking pretty darn good. i would rather perform low depth drops (4-8in) landing on my toes.
Yea try doing a vertical jump without using your calves.
thats funny, i remember in college a guy came to our school trying to sell strength shoes and all he was talking about was how they made ur calfs stronger, so our great strength coach mike clark took him to our vertec machine and ask him to do a one vertical jump only using calfs -lol no hops then coach clark ask him to do a normal vertical like most people do 1/4 squat dip and explode etc - let me say he went alot higher. calves only play 1-3% in jumping ability, train the big muscles and if ur overall sprint program is correct ur calves will get lots of work. i perform 600-700m of speed work in spikes and boy i can say i dont need any calve work - calves are looking pretty darn good. i would rather perform low depth drops (4-8in) landing on my toes.
Yea try doing a vertical jump without using your calves.
i bet u jump alot higher then u would only using calves, dont take a smart guy to figure that out - let me see quads, glut,hamstring and lower back compare to calves.
thats funny, i remember in college a guy came to our school trying to sell strength shoes and all he was talking about was how they made ur calfs stronger, so our great strength coach mike clark took him to our vertec machine and ask him to do a one vertical jump only using calfs -lol no hops then coach clark ask him to do a normal vertical like most people do 1/4 squat dip and explode etc - let me say he went alot higher. calves only play 1-3% in jumping ability, train the big muscles and if ur overall sprint program is correct ur calves will get lots of work. i perform 600-700m of speed work in spikes and boy i can say i dont need any calve work - calves are looking pretty darn good. i would rather perform low depth drops (4-8in) landing on my toes.
Yea try doing a vertical jump without using your calves.
i bet u jump alot higher then u would only using calves, dont take a smart guy to figure that out - let me see quads, glut,hamstring and lower back compare to calves.
It doesn't take a smart guy to figure out that if you jump without using your calves you probably won't get above around 50% of your max vert.
thats funny, i remember in college a guy came to our school trying to sell strength shoes and all he was talking about was how they made ur calfs stronger, so our great strength coach mike clark took him to our vertec machine and ask him to do a one vertical jump only using calfs -lol no hops then coach clark ask him to do a normal vertical like most people do 1/4 squat dip and explode etc - let me say he went alot higher. calves only play 1-3% in jumping ability, train the big muscles and if ur overall sprint program is correct ur calves will get lots of work. i perform 600-700m of speed work in spikes and boy i can say i dont need any calve work - calves are looking pretty darn good. i would rather perform low depth drops (4-8in) landing on my toes.
Yea try doing a vertical jump without using your calves.
i bet u jump alot higher then u would only using calves, dont take a smart guy to figure that out - let me see quads, glut,hamstring and lower back compare to calves.
It doesn't take a smart guy to figure out that if you jump without using your calves you probably won't get above about 50% of your max vert.
ok, lets meet and u use all calves and see what happen. lol
Mort I think the reasons are different. Maybe I am wrong, but I view one of the main reasons why jumping w/o using calves is because a substantial bit of the force doesn't go to the ground because you are conciously forcing your legs into an unnatural position—not because the calves are producing a lot of force into the ground themselves (in fact, we see this is not true in a lot of EMG work).
Jumping depends heavily on glute strength (post.chain). Too many people implement too much knee bend when they jump (quads) thus decreasing leverage, when the minimize the bend in the knees and mainly bend from the hips (exactly the power position in the olympic lifts), they get way more explosive.
Calves play a very very minor role, they are used in triple extension. YES, but they hardly CONTRIBUTE to actual jumping power.
Jumping depends heavily on glute strength (post.chain). Too many people implement too much knee bend when they jump (quads) thus decreasing leverage, when the minimize the bend in the knees and mainly bend from the hips (exactly the power position in the olympic lifts), they get way more explosive.
Calves play a very very minor role, they are used in triple extension. YES, but they hardly CONTRIBUTE to actual jumping power.
Well for my single leg presses work alot of my quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Well I hope I'm not mistaken when I say single leg presses.. I know them as step ups but a trainer that I know calls them single leg presses.
Why, why is everyone against calves, if calves have nothing to do with jumping why does every vertical jump program use them. Why did my vertical go from 28 to 38 during a time when my training switched to a heavy concentration on calves, this was over 2 years by the way not a couple month bullshit story.
Where did you get the 1-3% of a jump comes from the calves, just random numbers?
