Kettlebell calf raises can be a great addition to your kettlebell workouts. They aren’t much different than traditional barbell and machine calf raises, but since the weights will be supported from a different angle, they will challenge your calf muscles in a slightly different way and therefore encourage additional growth where you hadn’t. filled that potential.

As with all calf raises, there are a few different versions for you to experiment with and the main concern is how much stretch you want on the downside of the movement.

An athlete will find that he can lift much more weight when he performs standing calf raises directly off the floor. In this movement there is no stretch on the down side of the movement as the foot goes from being flat on the floor to standing on the balls of the toes, allowing the calf to contract before coming back down. flat feet, which allows the calf muscle to relax.

The other version of the classic standing calf raise is to use some kind of platform. The most common platform to perform this move would simply be a block of wood. The athlete is then required to stand with their toes on the end of the block with their heels hanging off. The athlete is then required to drive up to a position where their weight is on the balls of their toes, allowing maximum contraction of the calf muscles before reversing the movement so that the heel is below the flat foot position and the calf muscle is stretched. At the bottom of the movement it is very important not to allow the calf to bounce as this can injure the Achilles tendon. Explode out of the negative back into the tiptoe position.

To use kettlebells for standing calf raises, there are two ways to support the weight, both of which will challenge your calves in different ways.

The first and simplest method is to simply hold a kettlebell in each hand and let it hang at your sides. This way of holding the kettlebells tends to put more tension on the outside of the calves, which can create the fullest appearance of the calves from the rear view of the athlete.

The other, and more difficult, way to perform the kettlebell calf raise is to clean the kettlebells to the Racked position. Once in the translation position is when you would step onto the platform if you are performing this type of calf raise. Performing kettlebell calf raises from this position is much more difficult, and because of the advanced center of gravity that the kettlebell places on your calf muscles, you can find it much more difficult to balance. It would be advisable to try calf raises on the floor first if you want to perform calf raises from the rack position. Once you can master racked kettlebell calf raises, you will challenge your calves with the stability of the movement and a large portion of the weight focus will be centered towards the inner calf, helping to create the diamond shape. of a well-developed calf muscle.

Again, this is just one of the many ways that kettlebell exercises can provide the necessary boost for your workouts to further encourage muscle growth and definition.