Welcome to the 2nd installment of Marc’s Bag of Tricks, the series of articles providing you with quick tips you can take to the gym and notice immediate benefits from. And of course, a few sprinkles mixed in of that sexy little thing we call science. If you missed the first Bag of Tricks, check it out HERE.

1. Work the Hard end of the Strength Curve

After completing all the work sets for a given exercise, add an extra set of the same exercise, only using the hardest 1/3 of the movement. Perform a set of 10-12, with a 3 second eccentric, explosive concentric, and a pause at the stretch position.

Taking the preacher curl as an example, you would perform a set starting at about 120 degrees of elbow flexion, lower it over 3 seconds to a fully extended 180 degrees, pause a full second, then raise it back up as fast as possible to 120 degrees.

Preacher Curl

You’ll have to play around with the weight depending on where your weakness lies. Many people cheat their way through or completely avoid the hardest parts of the strength curve…so you may have to lower your weight significantly in order to perform this set.

2. Spice up Calf Training

Most peoples calf training tends to be about as exciting as listening to Ben Stein read the lab report of Paris Hilton’s STD exam. I like to see people mix it up a bit, not just for the sake of avoiding the lifeless monotony of machine calf raises but also for an increased training effect.

First let’s take a brief look at calf anatomy to understand why traditional calf training may be missing something.

If I were to take my high heels off and dissect the calf, this is what we would be looking at. Notice that the soleus is the deep muscle (lies closest to the bone), and runs from the knee to the posterior ankle. Its main function is plantarflexion of the ankle (as well as keeping you from falling over when you’re standing, but that’s not what we’re focusing on here).

Also notice that the gastrocnemius (cut away) attaches above the knee, unlike the soleus. What this means to you is that to allow for greater untapped contribution from the gastrocnemius you want to involve both the ankle and the knee joint in some of your calf movements.

Some of the more physiology adept of you may already know that due to attachment locations, the soleus is better recruited when the knee is maintained in a flexed position (seated calf raises where the knee is bent to 90 degrees), and the gastrocnemius is better recruited when the leg is in a straight position (standing calf raises). This is due to the 2nd function of the gastrocnemius being knee flexion.

When in a seated calf raise position, the gastroc is already preoccupied with knee flexion to enough of a degree that the soleus gets a better crack at the action. It may seem like a passive knee flexion, but it isn’t…put your hands on your hamstrings next time you perform a seated calf raise and you can certainly feel the contraction. The gastroc is still working, just not as hard as when the leg is straight.
So what’s the point? Try out the following calf exercises and you will be optimally recruiting everything below your knee.