The calves are one of the most difficult muscle groups to exercise effectively. Even the great Arnold Schwarzenegger confesses that he was so embarrassed about his skinny calves that for years he always had his pictures taken with his calves in the water.

The main reason why most people fail to build calves is they simply do not train them hard enough.

Think about it. Your calves handle your body weight while standing, running, and walking and doing just about any other physical activity. This means they are already used to lots of stimulation and will only respond to super heavy weights.

If you train your calves for 10 minutes every workout as an afterthought you can continue to expect mediocre results.

If like me you have really skinny calves, you will need at least half an hour, four times a week for several months before you see significant results.

Below are the most effective Calve Exercises

1. Standing Calve Raise

This is the primary mass building exercise for the calves. To do this exercise you need a standing calf raise machine.

Place your toes on the base of the machine so that your heels are hanging into space and tuck your shoulders firmly under the rests.

Begin by lowering your heels as far down as possible and then raise them all the way up again so that you attain the full range of motion.

It is ok to 'cheat' on the last few repetitions and not achieve full range of motion as long as you maintain the intensity.

Note: Use a weight heavy enough that you feel the strain in your calves i.e. when observed from the side you should see them flexing. But make sure the weight isn't so heavy that the pressure on your toes makes it impossible to raise the weight all the way up.

2. Seated Calf Raise

This is another core exercise for the calves and one of my favorites. Use a seated calf raise machine and load it up with the appropriate weight-one heavy enough to shock the calves.

The motion for this is fairly simple. Plant your toes firmly on the bottom mount. Place your knees under the cross bar.

Lower your heels as far down as possible and then raise them again all the way to the top for a full range of motion.

Just avoid rocking back and forth on the machine.

3. One Leg Calf Raise

This is a variation of the standing calf raise but you only exercise one leg (calf) at a time. Include this exercise in your rotation to make sure your stronger side is not overcompensating for the weaker one.

It is particularly useful if one of your calves is smaller than the other and needs to be built to be as big as the other.

These three exercises done with SUPER HEAVY WEIGHTS will get you bigger calves than you thought possible.

The story is that Arnold used to train his calves with 500lbs but couldn't figure out why they were not growing. He then visited Reg Park (a famous South African body builder from an earlier era) and discovered that Reg was training his calves with 1000lbs!

You don't need 1000lbs but you certainly need to use poundages much heavier than what you are currently using.