There are Four Key Mindsets that you must constantly embrace while training your calves:
Stay Focused on the Workout- While training your calves, you must keep your mind on the task at hand. Stay focused on the calf training principles and focus on your workout plan. Stay on task. Let nothing distract you!
Tune Into To Your Calf Muscles- During each set, concentrate on how your calves are responding. Be sure that your form is strict and your technique is proper. Work your calf muscles to get a “lactic acid burn” and a “pump”.
Don’t mindlessly go through the motions during a set. Concentrate on each rep. During a set of 10-20 reps, it’s tempting to “slack off” and just “rep out”. Don’t! Make each rep count!
On every repetition of every set of every exercise, make sure that the calf muscles do all the work. Don’t cheat with a short range of motion or a bouncing/ballistic motion.
Endure Pain – You must “work through the pain zone” to make progress in calf training. If properly executed, you can create an intense “lactic acid burn” or pain in every set. Discipline yourself to work though that pain. Change your mindset and think of “lactic acid burn” as a precursor to calf muscle growth. With it, you grow…without it, you don’t grow. You must overcome the pain barrier and drive yourself into and through the pain zone to achieve meaningful calf muscle growth.
(A word of caution here – keep your focus on your joints and muscles to ensure that the pain is really lactic acid burn and not the pain of a muscle strain/tear, tendon pain or joint pain. This is why “warm-up sets” are so important – they help prevent injuries or they tell you that you may have an injury before you hit the muscle with heavier weights and do cause further injury.)
Be Patient and Persistent- Adopt a patient attitude when training your calves. The calf muscles are a hard muscle group to train. You must stay with your calf training program to see results. When training calves, results don’t occur overnight. To develop quality calf muscle in a safe and sensible manner, you must be patient and persistent.
If you adopt the Four Key Mindsets listed above, then you’ll be able to place your “mind over muscle” and make more progress toward building bigger calves.
For more information on advanced calf training and a FREE calf training report, visit this site.
Jeffry Robinson is a NSCA Certified Personal Trainer specializing in muscle building, fat loss and fitness consulting. With over 40 years of bodybuilding experience and his in-depth knowledge of physiology, anatomy and muscle building principles, he has developed new and revolutionary information products for bodybuilders. Bodybuilding articles and free bodybuilding reports can be at his website at:
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