The calf muscle that helps you push off when you run or jump (gastrocnemius) grows bigger with weight training better than the deeper calf muscle (soleus), because it has more types of muscle fibers that respond well to exercise.

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.

When you do strength training, your calf muscle (gastrocnemius) grows just as much in size as your thigh muscle (quadriceps), both in absolute terms and compared to how big they were before.

Muscles that are made up of more slow-twitch fibers don't grow as much when you lift weights as muscles with more fast-twitch fibers.

When you do strength training, your calf muscle (specifically the inner part of the gastrocnemius) grows just as much as your thigh muscles (quadriceps) do.

Taking a brief stretch between sets of weightlifting might build slow-twitch muscles more than fast-twitch ones. This could happen because slow-twitch muscles are more sensitive to the physical stretching signals that tell them to grow.