Tag: pro
The Calf Training Secret No Pro Wants You To Know
Calf Training of The Pros
Calves are one of the smallest, most stubborn, and desired muscle groups. Since you’re reading this article, we’ll assume you’re lacking in the calf department and are willing to change your current situation.
If you’ve been laboring away on the calf exercises but don’t have any results to show for it, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll share a calf training secret with you which will take your calf gains to a whole new level.
The Mistakes
Before we let you in on the secret, we want to go over the mistakes most people make in their calf training. Once you know what is holding you back from achieving your goals, you can get better results by fixing your shortcomings.
Training At The End of A Leg Workout
Without going too deep into the mistakes, we’ll just touch on them and tell you how to overcome them. If you have lagging calves, you should never train them after a brutal leg workout when you have no gas left in the tank. For best results, work your calves when you aren’t fatigued.
No Volume
Most people make the mistake of following a vanilla calf training program where they perform 3 sets of 10-12 reps on a couple of exercises. If you want to turn your calves into bulls, you need to be training them like you train all your other major muscle groups. Perform at least five exercises and switch up the intensity often to keep your muscles guessing.
Lack of Variations
While people are proactive in their bicep training – they work their inner, outer, and medial bicep heads – they don’t follow the same approach when it comes to calf training. You should be targetting your calves from three angles to train them effectively.
Perform your calf exercises with your feet planted parallel to target the medial calf heads. Placing your toes together and heels apart – forming an “A” – will target the outer calf heads and keeping your heels together and toes apart – forming a “V” – will work the inner heads.
The Secret That Will Change Your Calf Training Forever
Your calves are made up of both slow and fast-twitch muscle fibers. Performing exercises with long TuT (time under tension) works the slow-twitch fibers and lifts with smaller TuT train the fast-twitch muscles.
So, the dilemma with calf training is that no matter which kind of intensity (high or low number of repetitions) you go for, you’re not going to get the best results. There is a way around the problem and it has been a well-kept secret until now.
Forget Reps, Focus on Time – 1 Minute Is The Magic Mark
To make the most of your calf training, you should focus on performing the exercises for one minute. It doesn’t matter how many reps you do in that one minute but you need to make sure you’re not taking a rest-pause during the set.
You also cannot go light with the weight on the bar because if you do, the slow-twitch muscle fibers will be left out of the action. Remember – this is not a drop-set. You have to end with the same weight you’ll be starting with. If done right, calf training isn’t easy, and you’ll experience it first hand with this technique.
How often do you train your calves? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook and Twitter.
*Header image courtesy of Envato Elements.
6 Things Bodybuilding Pros Do Every Day
These Are The Habits Of The Pro Bodybuilders and Athletes
Becoming a pro at anything takes years of practice and work. What if you didn’t have so much time on your hands? What if you could straighten the learning curve to speed up your gains?
We sat down to analyze the behaviors and habits of the professional bodybuilders which could explain their success at the sport, and we’re happy to tell you we managed to find a pattern that sets them apart from the rookies.
Set Goals
By not setting goals, many people fail at the first step in achieving their goals. As someone rightly said, “If you’re failing to plan, you’re planning to fail.” You must step into the gym with a game plan or you’ll end up laboring away your time.
You also need to streamline your goals and make them actionable. Having a goal as simple as “gain muscle mass” isn’t going to cut it. Be more specific. “Add 10lbs of muscle mass in 12 weeks” is a goal that will push you to do your best.
Consistency
One of the biggest factors of mastery in a field is consistency. If you give in to the resistance and don’t practice what you want to get better at regularly with full devotion, you’re going to fail at it.
There will be days when you’ll want to take a day off or you’ll be tempted to go out with friends and family instead of training, but it’s days like these that will show your mettle and set you apart from the crowd.
Follow A Holistic Approach
Bodybuilding, like any other art, doesn’t work in isolation. To get better at the sport you’ll need to learn about biomechanics, nutrition, recovery techniques, supplementation along with going all-out in the gym.
You might start your training career with lifting big weights and solely focusing on getting huge, but after some time (and injuries), you’ll earn some wisdom and find ways to take a holistic approach.
Journal
Journaling is one of the most undervalued practices in bodybuilding, especially if you are an amateur. In the beginning, it might be a little intimidating to remember the names of the exercises, let alone the amount of weight you used, the number of sets and reps you performed in your workouts.
Having a record of all your workouts can help you set PR goals for your future workouts. You shouldn’t limit yourself to the numbers, you should write about your thought process in and outside the gym to have better clarity.
Invest In Yourself
The day you stop expanding your knowledge and limit yourself to what you already know, the same day you’ll hit a plateau. You should always be on the lookout to learn new techniques and ways of getting better at your craft.
Never hold yourself back from investing in yourself by applying for classes, seminars, conferences, webinars, reading books, etc. You should treat your education like the job it is meant to be.
Be Your Biggest Critique
The first point in this article is to set very specific goals. You also need to follow up and review your progress periodically. If you’re on the right path, keep going. Re-route and get on track if you think you’ve strayed off.
Don’t take the criticism or appraisals of others too seriously but be ruthless while judging your self. You should maintain a record of your physique with body measurements and pictures and take account of any injury or movement issues. Set standards for each and then evaluate yourself on the same.
Who is your favorite bodybuilder? Let us know in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow Generation Iron on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Header image courtesy of Envato Elements