Carve those calves

Ever considered doing a proper workout for your calf muscles?? Why not??

Calf muscles are the muscles present between knee and ankle joint which serves as key propeller while walking, running, cycling and jumping. If these muscles are not developed or toned well you may not be able to improve your walking or running speed and the height of your jump. Most importantly, these muscles should be in proportion with your body weight as they work while shifting your weight from one leg to another during almost every activity you do on your feet. Weakness of these muscles may lead to frequent episodes of cramping, shin splints and tightness of these muscles don’t allow your ankle joint to move properly.

So, here are a few exercises for your calf muscles:

Standing Calf Raise

A great form of beginner’s exercise. This exercise is performed by raising your calf muscles and shifting your weight on your toes with a hold time of 10-15 seconds repeating the exercise 15-20 times in a set of 3. It can be done on an elevated surface and to further increase the resistance/load a set of dumbbells/kettle bells can be held in both the hands while performing the exercise.

Seated Calf Raise

Wanna work on your calves even while working?? Try this exercise!! It can also be considered as a beginner’s exercise or a form of exercise ideal for the people with a sitting job. To perform this exercise you have to raise your heels and shift your weight on your toes while sitting. The position should be held for 10-15 seconds repeating 10-15 times in a set of 3. Placing dumbbell weights on your knees held in hands can be done to provide resistance to the same exercise.

Walking on toes

An effortless kind of exercise for your calf muscles while walking which can be done anywhere and anytime. Just raise your heels and walk around, whether its across the hall or driveway, office or home, mall or street, absolutely anywhere. For increasing the load, hold a pair of weighted dumbbells, kettle bells or any other weight and perform the exercise.

Rope Skipping

Well it’s a double whammy of exercise. You can very well loose your weight along with working out on your calf muscles. It’s a brilliant aerobic exercise which not only works on your cardio-vascular capacity but engages your core area as well.

Jump Squat

An exercise to work on your calf muscles and core area effectively. Its a mix of squat and jump which emphasize on your hips, legs, core and calf muscles. It improves your explosive workout capability and does improves your jumping power as well. This exercise gives great results if included in weight loss workout. A set of 3 with repetitions upto 20 is highly recommended.

Calf stretch

Stretching calf muscles against the wall/chair is a controlled workout and can be done anywhere. You just have to align your fore foot on the wall/chair with heel resting on floor and straighten your knee in order to appreciate the stretch. It can be held for around 20-30 seconds and can be done as much as 10-15 repetitively several times a day. A phenomenal exercise specially for people having a stiff ankle.

Note: Kindly consult your Physio if you are already suffering from any ankle, foot or lower leg pains.

Any queries and suggestions are very much welcome!!

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