Heavy Calf Training

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

First let me start by saying I do not care about calf size or development. I’m interested in your thoughts on training calf strength for improved endurance performance. I am a wildland firefighter and my job involves hiking under heavy loads. I have been running NLP without any conditioning and have made nice progress in my lifts

HT: 5’ 11"
BW: 178-196
Squat: 185-310
Deadlift: 225-340
Press: 95-152.5
(I don’t own a bench)

I started hiking again for conditioning and noticed that I support the weight better and feel less fatigued despite my lack of conditioning. But this is only true above the knees. Calves tend to fatigue quickly on steep terrain. I do understand that my sport-specific conditioning will improve my calf fatigue. However, my question is will adding heavy calf raises to my program improve my hiking capacity in the same way the other lifts did? Thank you for your time.

2

I do not suspect that performing heavy calf raises will result in a significant improvement in your hiking capacity – though it’s a pretty low-risk thing to try if you want to see how it goes!

3

You could hike while carrying a calf as it grew every week, I bet that would help!

4

I have a similar issue. I have been alternating calf raises in the leg press machine between 4 sets of 15 reps (Toe in, straight, and out really 45 reps per set) and 4 sets of 5 (really 15 reps per set) every other day. I have been doing this for 10-14 weeks. I have had less calf fatigue while running and hiking. Just my experience though I am sure there is a better way.

5

Sounds good, thanks!