How To Do The Standing Calf Raise To Avoid Calf Cramps

The standing calf raise is one of the best exercises to strengthen your calf muscle and help avoid calf cramps. The calf muscle is a bulky superficial muscle at the back of your leg. It is formed of two major muscles, the soleus and the gastrocnemius. These muscles add volume breadth and proportion to the lower leg. The gastrocnemius is the larger muscle, and it originates as two heads from the knee joint to be inserted in the ankle joint as the Achilles tendon. When well developed, it can be easily seen in a person with low body fat as a diamond shaped muscle. Another smaller muscle that comes into play here is the tibialis anterior which is a small muscle yet very important for strength, endurance and shape of your calves. Here is how to carry out the exercise to strengthen your calves and avoid calf cramps
• You will need to use a standing calf raise machine or if unavailable, you may achieve similar results by carrying a dumbbell in one arm and balancing your body with the other.
• Stand with the ball of your foot on the block keeping your heels projecting off the edge of the block.
• Keep your head between the shoulder pads to allow your shoulders to push on the pads.
• Lift the weight to get it off the support.
• Keeping your body and your legs straight, slowly bring down your heels as close to the floor as possible for maximum stretch.
• Then rise up on your toes by contracting your calves as much as possible.
• Hold this position for 1 or 2 seconds then slowly return back to initial position this will strengthen your calves and stop calf cramps.
Once you know how to do the standing calf raise in proper form, execute 3 sets each session, maintaining 2 to 3 sessions a week. Start with 30 kilograms for initial weight and slowly build up your strength as you increase the weight this will strengthen your calves muscle and prevent calf cramps. To make training more intense and focus more on the gastrocnemius, try doing partial repetitions. Follow those simple steps and you will have bigger stronger calves in no time.