Calves a trouble area for many physique competitors. It just seems no matter how hard some people try their calves just won’t grow. Genetics seem to play a big role in whether you have big calves or you don’t. If like me you have difficulty developing your calves read on because Abbas Khatami has explained how to develop big chunks of meat on the lower legs.
Abbas was wearing long sweat pants when I met him at Gold’s on Sunday afternoon. Before he spoke to me about training calves, Bill Comstock our photographer asked Abbas to pull his pants up and show me his calves. In terms of calf development I was astounded. Abbas appeared to have complete calf development in all areas – size, proportion between medial and lateral heads, thickness all the way through to the lower calf and ripped to shreds with roadmap like vascularity and conditioning.
Abbas assured me that his calves were not the result of a genetic blessing. He had to work extremely hard to bring his calves up which meant three times a week at one stage. After he got his calves to a certain size he was able to cut the volume back to two and eventually one calf training session a week. He explained that most people treat calves as an after thought training not training them consistently or not training them hard enough. I told him in my case this wasn’t true as I have now been training calves twice a week, very hard for the last year and a half. In that time I have managed to bring them up by about an inch but progress is still a little slow.
At this stage Abbas asked what my rep range was. I answered honestly that it was between 8 and 25. This is where he thought I was going wrong saying that the calves needed at least twenty reps to grow. He then went on to say you should be sticking to basic exercises like standing calf raises, seated calf raises and something like leg press calf raises. I mentioned that my gym didn’t have a standing calf raise despite my efforts to educate them. He looked a little surprised that they didn’t have such a basic piece of equipment but he said I would just have to modify and make the most of the equipment I have access to.
I also asked Abbas about my current training which is to train calves as heavy as possible getting as much movement as possible (but a little short of full range) and repping out each set to failure. I originally got this idea when reading about Arnold bringing up his calves, which were a weak point. I think Reg Park had explained to Arnold that because one calf was capable of easily supporting his body weight, both should be able to support double his body weight and much more. Abbas didn’t believe in this type of training for calves. He said I should be getting a complete range of motion and a good peak contraction on each rep.
We started off with standing calf raises. Abbas demonstrated on the machine. He started with his toes pointing in with his weight on the inside of his feet to hit the outer head of the calf. After ten reps he changed his stance to a toes turned out position with the weight on the outside of his feet to hit the inner head of the calf. He emphasized a complete stretch at the bottom and a complete contraction at the top. In between sets he advocated stretching the calf on a step or incline for at least ten seconds each side. Apparently stretching is not only good for increasing your range of motion but is actually a component of hypertrophy and therefore it is important for bodybuilders to stretch. He said for calves he would generally rest for around one minute and thirty seconds before completing another set and he would do three sets for each exercise.
Standing Calf Raise – 3 sets of 20 reps
Next we went on to another basic movement, the seated calf raise. Again we used exactly the same formula of ten reps with feet turned in and ten reps with feet turned out. Abbas noted that this exercise would be the most painful of the calf exercises. I have to say I agree with him there!
Seated Calf Raise – 3 sets of 20 reps
The final calf exercise Abbas showed me was the Cybex Donkey Calf Raise. I have spoken about this machine in previous articles. It is a plate loaded machine that moves on a 45 degree incline. Needless to say the toe positions and principles were again similar to the previous two exercises with one variation. After completing twenty reps or reaching failure on each set, he suggested to rest for five seconds or so and then with feet straight complete another five to seven reps. I questioned whether or not Abbas used a feet straight position generally when training calves. He said that you can, however the other two positions hit all areas of the calf anyway. One more point about this exercise was to have the knees just slightly bent. He thought you should never have your joints completely straight under load because it puts too much stress on the ligaments and tendons supporting the joint. Anyone who is familiar with anatomy knows that the gastrocnemius muscle works best and independently of the soleus muscle when the knee is straight. However, I think that having a slight bend at the knee won’t make too much of a difference because we are talking about a small bend and the knees are still relatively straight. After three sets we were done and I thanked Abbas for his time and expertise.
Cybex Donkey Calf Raise – 3 sets of 20 reps
I should also point out that I completed an entire quadricep and hamstring workout before training calves with Abbas. I started with Hamstrings while I was waiting for my friend Hassan to arrive. He wasn’t running late but a producer had approached me in the Gold’s Gym parking lot and asked me to participate in a Justin Timberlake music video in the evening so I had to get my training out of the way earlier than expected. I also thought it was a good idea to start my leg workout with hamstrings as many trainers had suggested it was a good way to develop them. When Hassan arrived we trained Quads as well as going through Abbas’s calf workout above.
The Workout:
Hamstrings and Quads
Lying Leg Curl – 120 x 20, 140 x 16, 160 x 12, 180 x 10, 190 x 8
Seated Leg Curl - 100 x 25, 120 x 20, 140 x 16, 160 x 14, 180 x 12
Leg Press – 720 x 20, 720 x 20, 810 x 16, 810 x 16
Smith Machine Reverse Lunge – 225 x 8, 225 x 9, 225 x 10, 225 x 10
Leg Extension – 200 x 20, 200 x 20, 200 x 20, 200 x 20
During the end of my calf workout, the producer that had spoken to me earlier that day said he would pick me up in just over an hour at the gym and take me to the Justin Timberlake shoot. I had to rush home, eat, shower and ride my bike back to the gym. I made it just in time.
The video was going to be shot in a hardcore fight gym in downtown LA. Justin Timberlake was not going to be there as he was going to shoot his portion of the video in Memphis. When we got to downtown LA I thought the place really lived up to its reputation of being a ghetto. The gym was definitely hardcore too. On the door hung a sign that read “Train hard….or stay home!!!!!”. The place was worn and dirty inside. A boxing ring lay in the far corner behind various shaped heavy bags and from the walls speedballs were attached to boards.
The producer led me behind the boxing ring to set up a barbell with as many free weight plates as possible. I was going to have to shoulder press the weight above my head from a standing position and then drop it on the floor.
Before me they filmed a pitbull attached to a chain. The trainer was able to make the dog bark when he held a toy behind the camera men. Still those camera men were getting closer to the pitbull than I would’ve liked to be. It turns out the pitbull was actually fairly tame and spent most of its non working time either laying down or chewing its toy.
My friend Hassan lived in nearby so he arrived not long before it was my turn. The make up girl sprayed me down with olive oil and a water spray to make me look like I’d been sweating profusely. I handed my camera to Hassan so he could take photos and video of what I was doing. I think the bar was loaded with 155 pounds. We had some assistants hand the weight to my shoulders so I didn’t have to deadlift and clean the weight up each time. So pretty much I pressed the weight a few times until it became difficult which is what they wanted for the video. I also threw in a menacing face for good measure.
After we were done with a few takes they started setting up the next shot which was a boxer with gloves punching someone across the face. At this stage Hassan and I were getting hungry so we headed off to find somewhere to eat. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a restaurant in LA which is open (other than fast food) after 9.30 pm at night. We ended up eventually going to the Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Ray at around 11 pm. I ordered a shepherd’s pie and got a red velvet cheesecake to go which apparently is their speciality. I have to say it was delicious. I would have never thought that morning when I woke up that I would be asked to be in a Justin Timberlake music video. These type of things happen only in LA!
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