Dorian Yates used two exercises to grow his calves during his career.
Bodybuilding legend Dorian Yates had no trouble adding muscle during his career and that includes to his calves. During a post shared earlier this week, Yates shared how he added six inches to his calves using a very simple method.
“Train calves like any other muscle, hard with intensity. They’re often left as an afterthought but you should be training them as hard as you’re training your chest, back and so on.”
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From 1992-1997, Yates did not lose a competition and racked up six-consecutive Olympia titles. Following his final victory on the biggest stage, Yates retired from bodybuilding after suffering different injuries. In retirement, Yates has maintained a shredded physique while sharing his wisdom in the gym.
Yates has also created a successful social media platform, where he continues to share different tips to weightlifters today. While keeping himself in great shape, Yates also discusses how to grow different body parts.
Dorian Yates’ Method to Growing Calves
Dorian Yates believed that calves should be trained like any other muscle to get the best benefits. For him, the method was simple — use two exercises once a week to failure.
“I managed to grow my calves by 6 inches from 16.5inches to 22.5inch by training with just two exercises and total 2 working sets to failure once every 6 days. A massive 6 inch increase… proof that you don’t need to do more.”
Yates does not believe in the notion that calves should be trained everyday. Instead, his own method was able to add size while not overtraining the muscle.
“One thing I’ve heard over the years is that “you need to train calves everyday because they are stubborn and you walk on them all the time.” Well, why is duplicating this with high reps going to change them?”
Training Calves Wrong
Most people make the mistake of doing the same exercises over and over again, this will not grow the calves. The most amount of variation they have in their calf workouts is the weekly alternation between the standing and seated calf raises. As it is for any muscle group, you should have variety in your training.
First off, calves are a very stubborn muscle group and can be one of the hardest to grow. You need to train your calves from all the angles to ensure an overall development. The standing variation targets the gastrocnemius while the seated version targets the soleus.
When it comes to calf training, some people treat it as accessory work and train them at the end of their leg workouts after they’re completely exhausted. You have to think, if you continuously train calves when you are already fatigued and cannot give it the same intensity as you do other muscles, how will they grow like other muscles?
While most people like doing 12-15 sets per muscle group when training things like chest, back, arms, or whatever else, they stick with just three sets for their calves. You stand on your calves for entire days. You utilize them when you walk. Your calves are used to constant use and abuse. You need to be doing more to shock them into growing.
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