How Do Calf Exercises Help Your Muscles

A popular way to train your calves is by raising these parts of the body. Calf raises may present you with more benefits than one. Also, it’s a simple exercise wherein you can do relatively anywhere. 

Start by lifting one foot off the ground. Make sure to rise from the balls of your feet, then go as high as you can. Lower yourself back to a flat surface in a controlled manner. Repeat the steps to help train your calves. 

Next, here are six benefits that you can gain from doing calf raises.

1. Ankle Stability and Strength

Many calf raises benefits exist. One advantage of this exercise is helping improve ankle stability and strength. These factors are essential for many individuals since your ankles aid you in standing up and walking around. Also, many sports need you to have strong ankle muscles to swiftly move around.

Strong ankles may also be responsible for the plantar-flexion of joints in the nearby areas of these parts of the body. The ankle plantar-flexion may help in stabilizing it while you’re carrying heavy loads. Thus, calf raises may also help you in carrying heavier weights during weight-lifting exercises. Furthermore, the practice may aid in stabilizing your weight-lifting stance, so you won’t fall and inflict injury on yourself.

As your ankles help support walking, it can also aid you to jog or run. Thus, joggers and runners may also benefit from calf raises. Doing the exercise may assist you in traversing longer distances as it may help prevent muscle burnout.

2. Calf Pull Prevention

Aside from muscle burnout, calf raises may also aid in preventing injuries in the lower parts of the body. For instance, it may help in protecting your calf from a pull. Calf pulls may happen if you’re a runner, especially if you don’t strengthen this part of the body regularly. Also, the issue may take place if you don’t continuously push yourself to the limit.

The severity of calf pulls may differ for each person. However, it may range from small to large muscle tears. If it’s the former, then the condition may heal naturally within a few weeks. Otherwise, if the physical concern is severe, then it may come with significant pain along with months of rehabilitation and recovery.

Consider doing calf raises when you can, even if you’re not going to for a jog or run on a particular day. The beauty of this exercise is you can do it almost anywhere. You may even do calf raises on flat or elevated surfaces. Conversely, you may do compound exercises that help work the calves to aid your body to improve in other areas.

3. Improve Lower Body Performance

The calves may help in improving your performance in doing several other exercises. Weak calves may lead to poor plantar-flexion, which may cause poor stability and performance in power movements. Push presses, along with barbell cleans and jerks may need you to have muscular calves. Achieve these other workout routines without injury with the help of calf raises.

As mentioned earlier, weak calves may lead to poor ankle stability. It may also cause you to extend the hips and knees beyond a safe range. So, it may lead to a high risk of injury during power weight-lifting exercises.

Aside from doing calf raises, consider doing other workout routines that help target the calves. A few different exercises include:

• Normal and jumping squats
• Plyometrics
• Burpees
• Weighted lower body pulls

Success in increasing your calf muscle strength may lead to other benefits. These advantages may include an increase in vertical jumping power and an improvement in sprint speeds.

Remember, always check with your personal trainer when doing these exercises. Proper form is still vital in helping your body improve through regular workouts.  

4. Helps Regularize Blood Flow

Many people might like to wear high-heeled shoes as part of their daily routines. If you love wearing high-heeled footwear, your calf muscles may constrict. Thus, it may limit the range of movement of your feet, particularly in the ankles. The calf muscles may weaken because of the irregularity of the blood pumping action in these areas.

Avoid injury by doing exercises that help target your calves. Calf raises, and other similar workout regimens may help improve and regularize blood flow in your calves and feet. Aside from doing these exercises, consider stretching your calf muscles after your workout. You may also extend your legs after wearing your high-heeled shoes after a long day.

5. Enhanced Balance

Balance may be a critical aspect of the daily life of many individuals. Proper balance is essential to stand, walk, and move around. Conversely, an improper balance may lead to falls and other accidents. Thus, it’s necessary to do calf exercises to help improve control of your ankle motion. As you develop your ankle stability, you also help your body sustain better balance.

You may achieve excellent results by performing calf raises regularly. Also, proper balance is achievable by doing calf raises one foot at a time. If you have trouble doing the exercise because of poor balance, you can assist the body by placing your hands on a stable chair or other surfaces. Aim to perform the single-leg calf raise routine without holding onto something over time.

Single-leg calf raises may help improve the strength of your lower body equally. It also aids in training your body to balance better on one foot. Athletes, like long-distance runners and high jumpers, may benefit well from doing this exercise regularly.  

6. Larger-Looking Calves

Specific individuals don’t like “Leg Days” at the gym. So, the physical appearance of these people might look fit at the upper parts of their bodies, but they may have weak-looking legs. If you’re looking to improve your body’s aesthetic appearance, consider working out your calves regularly.

Calf raises, and other similar workout routines targeting the lower parts of the body may help you achieve larger-looking calves. Toned calves may also give you extra points in bodybuilding competitions.

Conclusion

Many variations of calf raise exercises exist. You can do it while standing, sitting, or with the help of a machine. Nonetheless, make sure to consult your doctor or professional trainer before attempting to do any exercise to prevent injury.