The Bull stops here

Summer is on the horizon and there is a muscle that quite often gets forgotten about...... the calves. Even Arnie, whilst training for a competition, was embarrassed by his calves. What did he do? The same Arnie style as always; chopped the bottom off all his trousers so his calves were constantly on display, his shear disappoint of his calves encouraged him to train harder to achieve the best calves.

If you have been training all other body parts except for your calves, it's ok, there is still time to add the exercise into your training regime which won't add too much extra time to your workout.

There are a couple of exercises you can do:

1. Using a step do a calve raise with your heel hanging over the edge, as you lower the movement allows the muscle to be stretched and you work the muscle harder when raising the heel than if you were to do the movement on flat ground. This can be adapted so you start to increase intensity by holding weights.

2. Using leg press machine with your feet on the platform and you heels over the edge as before raise up onto to tip toes and as the muscle lowers it receives a similar response to the previous exercise. The intensity is increased when weight is added to the machine.

By doing 3 sets of 3 you should notice over the coming weeks a harder and better defind calve muscle.

Don't forget to use pre and post supplements which will take advantage of you weight training and increase muscle size and density. Feed the muscles when they need it most.

Article Updated: 2^nd February 2012