If untrained young guys do calf raises twice a week for 10 weeks and go all the way to muscle failure, their calf muscles get 8% thicker — adding extra partial reps after failure doesn’t help more if the total workout load is kept the same.

If you're a guy new to calf workouts, doing extra partial reps after hitting failure on full calf raises doesn’t give you more muscle growth — it’s just as good as sticking to full reps, and both methods boost calf size by about 8% in 10 weeks.

If young women do calf raises three times a week for eight weeks, only moving their ankle partway up gives bigger calf muscles than going through the full motion — so how far you move might really matter for muscle growth.

If young women do calf exercises with their toes pointed down and only move partway up, they’ll build more calf muscle in 8 weeks than if they do the full movement — 15% more growth compared to smaller gains with other methods.

If untrained guys keep doing partial calf raises after they can't do full ones anymore, their calf muscles get slightly thicker — about 0.6 mm more on average — compared to stopping completely.

If untrained guys do calf raises and keep going with shorter movements after they can't do full ones anymore, their muscles grow twice as fast per set compared to stopping at failure with full movements — as long as the total workout load is the same.