Calf Raises With Dumbbells

Video Transcript

"Calf raises are one of the most infamous ways to target the lower part of the leg, below the knee into the calves and achilles, where they join together. We're going to do this one with some free weights or dumbbells. We're just letting them hang here, in our position to the movement. You're other option is to bring them up here on your shoulders and make sure you don't just let them weigh down on your shoulders but lift up with your hands. We're going to come up to the ball of the feet, with our feet hip width apart. Contract up and release slowly down. The calves love that ballistic deep contraction, they're really a hard muscle to tone up, so you want to make sure you're doing it smooth, slow and controlled, so you can really target that peak contraction. Again, from the side, just like any lower body exercise, we want our knee in line with the ankle, as much as possible. We don't want that forward sheering force on the knee joint, over at the toe. Control the movement up and release down. If your arms get tired of holding them here, you might try putting them up here. Contract and release. There's always a question whether do we turn out, do we turn in, neutral joint. The joint dictates the movement, muscle is going to fire towards this belly, so there's no reason to turn in or turn out. A muscle can't resist rotation, so just leave the joints in line with the muscle and neutral. Ten to fifteen reps, three sets."