The Study
Resistance Training Beyond Momentary Failure: The Effects of Past‐Failure Partials Versus Initial Partials on Calf Muscle Hypertrophy Among a Resistance‐Trained Cohort
This study tried two different ways of doing calf raises and saw which one made the calf muscle a little bigger. It found a tiny difference, but it’s so small and uncertain that we can’t be sure one way is truly better than the other—it might just be luck.
Analysis score
Maximum 90 for a randomized controlled trial.
Where the score came from
Two ways to do calf raises were tested: starting with a partial motion or doing full motion then pushing past failure with partials. Both made calves bigger, but one was a tiny bit better.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. The gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Both methods work well for growing calves; the tiny edge of initial partials isn't strong enough to say it's better in real life.
- 2Initial partials: 9.5% thicker calf; past-failure partials: 6.7% thicker calf.
- 3Difference: 0.40 mm — too small to be sure it's real.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
European Journal of Sport Science
Year
2025
Authors
Stian Larsen, N. Ø. Sandberg, B. Schoenfeld, A. B. Fredriksen, B. S. Kristiansen, Milo Wolf, Roland van den Tillaar, P. Swinton, H. Falch
Related Content
Claims (5)
If you're someone who lifts weights, doing partial reps either at the start of your set or after you've failed a full rep can help your calf muscle grow bigger over 8 weeks.
A statistical analysis found only very weak evidence that doing partial reps at the start of a workout might build slightly more calf muscle than doing them after you're exhausted — but the data doesn't strongly support either way.
Doing calf exercises with a deeper stretch at the start might help your calf muscles grow bigger than doing them with a shorter stretch, because the stretched position could put more tension on the muscle.
If you're someone who lifts weights and you do calf raises using only part of the motion for 8 weeks, your calf muscles might grow a little more than if you do full-range reps plus extra partials at the end—but the difference is so small that we can't be sure it's real.
Both workout routines made people lift the same total amount of weight over time, so if one built more muscle than the other, it wasn’t because they did more volume — something else must be going on.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.