This week I had the good fortune to meet with an old acquaintance that I have known since he was a youngster. His father was very instrumental in guiding me in my education and actually providing me with employment opportunities. I have not seen him for almost 30 years even though we both live in Texas. It was interesting to recall some of the events and times we shared when we were both living in San Marcos. What brought back memories was a time when we lifted weights together. The one exercise that he remembered most after all these years was the toe raise exercise we called ‘donkey raises’. The lifter would bend forward and put his hands on a support and have another lifter jump on his back like he was riding a donkey – or horse. The toe raises were done in a specific way to meet the method I used. With the feet on a board about 6 inches off the ground, the lifter would let his heels drop down as far as they could. A pause at the bottom for one count before raising up to a full range of motion as high as possible for another pause of one count at the top. The statement that my friend remembers most was that when we did the toe raise exercise it was for “pain, plus 10.” That meant that you would do toe raises until you started to feel some pain in the calf muscle and then the lifter would do 10 more repetitions.
Looking back at the exercise going slow and through a full range of motion usually found most lifters starting to feel pain at about 15 repetitions. By the time the lifter reached the tenth repetition after pain the range of motion trying to lift your heel up was measured in centimeters. I doubt that that last repetition was one inch of movement at best. And then we did it again for another two sets.
Our thought at the time was that the harder we worked the larger our calf muscles would become. Since then my observations have changed. I think if you want to get larger calf muscles you need to have parents and grandparents that had large calf muscles. If your family had skinny lower legs there is a good chance that you will have skinny calf muscles. The number of toe raises will make the muscle stronger, but they will still be skinny. I have known a few bodybuilders that have resorted to calf implants to make their lower leg muscles look bigger.
