Doing seated calf raises while keeping your knees bent (short muscle length) twice a week for three months won't really build up your calf muscles. Research indicates this specific method only leads to tiny, unnoticeable muscle growth.

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.

Doing calf raises with your knees bent for 12 weeks doesn't seem to build much calf muscle, even if you train just as hard as you would for other muscles. This suggests that working your calves while they're shortened might not be the best way to make them grow.

Doing calf raises through a shorter range of motion, when the muscle is more stretched, might build more calf muscle in young women compared to doing full up-and-down reps — especially in the inner part of the calf.

Doing calf raises at the bottom part of the movement — where your calf is stretched — might build more calf muscle in young women than doing the full raise, according to this claim.

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.