Train Your Calves & Prevent Ankle Injury

Dear Body Buds,

As a dance teacher of over 10 years and personal trainer of 4 years, I have seen a lot of ankle injuries! It fascinates me how the body works, and how very simple knowledge of the body and its muscles can help us not only train correctly for aesthetics (the way our muscles look), but prevent injury and bodily misalignments as well.

Whether you have aesthetic goals or you simply wish to be healthier and have better control over your body, this simple article about calves is for you.

There are many types of calves exercises you can perform, and we could even dive into the anatomy of the calves and entire lower leg. While a few of you out there might love this, I'm going to spare the general population of Body Buds and jump into the basics of what you need to know to protect your ankles and tone up those calves.

Here is the most IMPORTANT piece of information I hope you get from this article. It's all about the bevel of the foot, something that all of my dancer Body Buds will smile over, because they know what I'm talking about. The bevel of the foot is the "neck" of the foot, or the inside part of the foot where your ankle bone is. Correctly stacking your bones from your hips, knees, and ankles to toes will train your tendons and ligaments to function normally, bending and supporting and protecting your feet and ankles with every movement.

When these tendons and ligaments are not trained properly, and simply allowed to be lax and roll all over the place, the ankle can easily get "rolled" as there is no strength or protection there. I'd like to talk about this simple little technique on which you can focus when training your calves that will be a game-changer for you and your ankles if you keep at it from here on out. Will it happpe overnight? Nope. But we know that daily behavior changes lead to great results down ther road ;)

So here it is . . .

When we train calves, we should be training in three different positions:

Parallel (neutral)

Toes In (inversion)

Toes Out (eversion)

This ensures we hit all different parts of the gastrocnemius muscle (a two-headed muscle that sits on top of your soleus muscle, which is a long thin muscle that runs from your heel bone up into the insertion near your knee).

Here is the part I really want you to pay attention to--how we use the bevel of the foot to train those ligaments and tendons and support our angel. I'll show you through these photos of my ankles in each position with the YES focus, and the NO focus.

Parallel (neutral)

NO

YES

Toes In (inversion)

NO

YES

Toes Out (eversion)

NO

YES

Here is another interesting note: development and proportional development over time . . .

Below is a photo of my calves, which was taken in October 2013. You can see how the exterior part of my gastrocnemius is very long and extends further down into my soleus than a typical person's might.

Why is that?

This photo tells me in one glance how "over-trained" my calves were from my dancer's "first position," or the toes out (eversion) angle. Is this bad? No, as my calves are developed well in all three areas and tendons/ligaments are strengthened to support my ankles. However, I share this with you as an interesting note--we are all genetically coded differently, and it is very interesting what years of simlar types of movement will do.

I am currently working to compensate for this in my training to even out my calves--so I pay more attention to my inversion and parallel positions, leaving my eversion alone. Use this information to evaluate your own calves. Where are you over-developed? Under-developed? Where might you benefit from focusing?

Calves Extension on the Leg Press --> Watch Video Now

Calves Extension on the Machine (angled) --> Watch Video Now

Barbell Calves Rollouts --> Watch Video Now

I am often asked how many numbers of sets and reps to do, almost as if there is a magic formula. While, yes, we can debate about the intensity in conjunction with fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers, which every different part of the lower leg has a different ratio of these fibers, I like training my Body Buds with a few simple concepts to help you find what is best for you!

Concept #1: If you are trying to put on mass, do heavier weight (without losing form!) and keep your reps between 6-10 with a 30-60 second rest. You may even choose to super-set your exercises with a different exercise. A super-set is the performance of two exercises back-to-back with no rest. This pushes the muscle beyone what one exercise will produce on its own.

Concept #2: If you are trying to lengthen your muscles and lean them out, stick to lighter weights and higher rep ranges, even up to the 25-40 rep range. Although these types of reps may be faster than your heavier, more controlled reps, don't just bounce through them. Ensure you are locking out a contraction, or triggering it with your mind during each rep to make sure you are being effective.

Concept #3: Mentally connect with your calves muscle, even to the extent that you reach down and put your hands on them to ensure you are maximally contracting those muscles only with each repetition. Calves training is very much about quality over quantity. Slow your repetitions down, and ensure you are squeezing the heck out of those little guys! :)

BE SURE TO STRETCH YOUR CALVES AFTER TRAINING THEM.

I hope that you will consider your new knowledge as you approach your calves training from here on out. At a minimum, you should be training your calves once each week. However, with calves being a very quickly-recovering muscle (with the exception of pushing them so hard you can't walk--in that case--be sure to listen to my podcast on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness so you know how to handle that situation), you can even train your calves up to 5-6 days per week, depending on your goal with them.

If you'd like to know more, be sure to email me at kristyjo@body-buddies.com for information on my Fitness Coachng Programs (World-Wide) and Personal Training (Salt Lake City, Utah).

Love your bud,

Kristy Jo

#calves #aesthetics #injuryprevention #exercisetips #exercise #workouttips #toningandtightening