Dumbbell Standing Calf Raise

Calf raises target the two main muscles in the calves: the gastrocnemius and the deeper soleus. In this variation, you perform the exercise on an elevated surface and use dumbbells for resistance. Compared with the single-leg version, this variation shifts the emphasis from maximum strength effort to stabilizing work. After all, it is difficult to maintain your balance.

Standing calf raise execution

Stand with the balls of your feet on the elevation, holding the dumbbells in your hands.

Extend yourself until your legs are almost straight.

Lower yourself slowly until you feel almost a full stretch in the Achilles tendon.

Push yourself up as far as possible.

Standing calf raise technique

When training the calves, you can use the following rule of thumb:

Bent legs train the soleus. Straight legs also engage the gastrocnemius.

When training the calves, you should mainly consider a few properties of the gastrocnemius and soleus. These properties determine the effectiveness of the different calf exercises. One of the most important differences is between exercises with (nearly) straight legs and exercises with bent knees.

The soleus crosses only the ankle joint. Therefore, it makes no difference to the soleus whether the knee is bent or straight.

The gastrocnemius consists of two heads that end in the same attachment as the soleus: the Achilles tendon, which crosses the ankle joint. However, both heads attach to the thigh bone higher up. The gastrocnemius therefore crosses two joints: the ankle and the knee. This means that the possible contribution of the gastrocnemius can be influenced by bending or straightening the leg.

With the leg straight and the foot at a normal angle, as when standing, the gastrocnemius can produce maximum force. When the leg is bent, the gastrocnemius is already partially shortened. If you push off with the foot from that position (plantar flexion), the muscle can no longer exert maximum effort. The opposite happens when the leg is straight and you point your toes toward your face. The gastrocnemius is then overstretched to produce maximum effort.

If you want to train the calves as completely as possible with a single exercise, you should do so with (nearly) straight legs.

Feet pointing straight forward

EMG measurements show that it is best to keep the feet pointing forward. Therefore, do not point your toes inward or outward. Pointing the toes outward appears to reduce the engagement of both the inner and outer portions of the gastrocnemius by almost 10%. Pointing the toes inward has this effect only on the inner portion of the gastrocnemius.

Pointing the feet straight forward results in the highest activation of both heads of the gastrocnemius

Train heavy or light?

The soleus, which lies deeper than the gastrocnemius, can be considered the workhorse of the calves for prolonged but low-effort activities such as standing upright and walking. The soleus can therefore consist of up to 90% slow-twitch muscle fibers.

The gastrocnemius also contains many slow-twitch muscle fibers, accounting for half to three-quarters of all its muscle fibers.

You can train the fast-twitch muscle fibers by training explosively and/or heavily. You also target the muscle fibers with greater growth potential. However, you also target a relatively low number of muscle fibers.

Performing more repetitions and training with lighter weight targets the largest number of muscle fibers in the calf muscles.

At a glance