Doing specific calf exercises for nine weeks can make the calf muscles bigger, but exactly how much they grow depends on how you position your feet during the workout. This shows that small changes in your exercise form can target different parts of the muscle differently.

40

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

40

Community contributions welcome

40

Different Foot Positioning During Calf Training to Induce Portion-Specific Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy.

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

2020 Aug

The study shows that doing calf exercises for nine weeks builds muscle in young men, and changing how you point your feet can target either the inner or outer part of the calf muscle differently.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Different Foot Positioning During Calf Training to Induce Portion-Specific Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy.

Score: 40

DOI: 10.1519/jsc.0000000000003674

Science Topic

Does targeted calf resistance training with different foot alignments increase gastrocnemius muscle thickness in young men?

Supported

We analyzed the available research and found that evidence leans toward targeted calf resistance training increasing gastrocnemius muscle thickness in young men. The gastrocnemius is the large muscle in the back of your lower leg. The evidence we've reviewed suggests that foot alignment during these exercises may influence how much the muscle grows. Our current analysis shows that 40 studies support the idea that specific calf exercises can lead to larger calf muscles over a period of nine weeks, while 0 studies refute this finding [1]. The evidence we've reviewed leans toward the conclusion that exactly how much the muscle grows depends on how you position your feet while working out. This suggests that small adjustments in your exercise form might help target different areas of the calf muscle differently. What we've found so far points to a connection between foot position and muscle growth, but this is our current analysis based on the evidence available. We do not have a complete picture yet, and our understanding may improve as more data becomes available. If you want to build your calves, try changing how your feet are positioned during your calf exercises. You might see different results by making small tweaks to your form.

2 items of evidenceView full answer

Similar Assertions

If you do weight training for eight weeks, the outer part of your calf muscle tends to grow bigger than the inner calf and the deeper calf muscle. This happens because the outer calf has more fast-twitch fibers that are naturally better at building size.

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Doing more calf exercises per week (going from 6 to 12 sets) doesn't actually make your calf muscles grow bigger. In a short 6-week program, women who did fewer sets saw the same muscle growth as those who did more, meaning calves might not need as much training to grow.

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Doing calf raises while standing up with your knees straight builds more calf muscle than doing them while sitting down with your knees bent. Research shows that keeping your legs straight during the exercise leads to much bigger muscle growth over a few months.

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After eight weeks of leg workouts, the outer calf muscle grows noticeably bigger than the inner calf muscles in beginners. This suggests that muscles made up of faster-twitch fibers are naturally better at getting bigger when you first start training.

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