You stroll around the gym, chest chiselled, biceps bouncing. Eyes fall your way: nods of approval from gym bros, a fluttered eyebrow from your Anytime crush. Success.
All is well with the world… and then they see your legs. Specifically, your calves; pale chicken-little sticks in comparison with the rest of your bod.
No Bueno.
Neither for your health, your Mr Universe aspirations or your full-length Tinder profile.
So what’s to do?
You could consult a personal trainer (or stop training chest and arms to the exclusion of all else). But we’re no longer in 2010. These days we take our advice from Instagram and so let us turn to Online Body Transformation Coach James Kew and his page – which serves a dualistic nature of motivation and expert advice.
A gym buddy that never lets you down.
Here’s how to get huge calves, according to James: “Calves are a notoriously difficult muscle group to grow. As a result, many people adopt the wrong attitude and don’t train them properly then blame their genetics for their lack of progress (something I’ve definitely been guilty of!).”
So far so normal.
“The same principles of growth apply as with almost any muscle group!”, James continues. But remembering three key techniques, James tells us, will help you get from Cristiano Ronaldo in 2005 (stick insect) to Cristiano Ronaldo in 2020 (tree trunk).
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1. Good form. Often guys like to jack up the weight on calves raises at the expense of their form. Bouncing off the bottom of the movement is only going to rob your calves of the tension they need to grow.
2. Training frequency. The scientific literature shows us that spreading your training volume for a given muscle group over 2-3 sessions is superior to doing it all in 1 session.
3. Overload! Muscle growth all comes down to progressive overload – aka getting stronger over time! Log your weights and reps and ensure that week by week you’re doing slightly more than you were last time.
Sexily sculpted legs await.