If you do calf raises until you can't do another rep—whether you go all the way up or only partway—you'll end up with the same muscle growth in your calves after 10 weeks, as long as you do the same total amount of work.

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 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 untrained men do calf raises by pushing past their normal limit while their calves are stretched, they'll likely build more calf muscle over 10 weeks than if they just stop when they can't lift the weight anymore in a shortened position.

If you keep doing partial calf raises after you can't do full ones anymore, you might boost muscle growth in your calf because you're doing way more work—about 87% more—than stopping completely.

If you're into lifting and want bigger calves, doing either full reps or starting with partial reps (and finishing with extra partials after failure) twice a week for eight weeks can give you noticeably bigger calf muscles.