There are multiple reasons why any muscle group is resistant to growth, this is no different when it comes to your calves. However, one of the most common factors which cause a huge percentage of people to struggle with calf growth is NOT what you might think. . . Ankle Mobility.
It's very common to suffer from poor ankle mobility due to an extremely tight Achilles tendon.
As a result, your range of motion within your calf muscles is drastically reduced which means you will struggle to get the contraction you need in order to fully stimulate the calf muscles.
How often when you train calves do you find a lot of the pain is in the arches of your feet and the contraction within your calves is limited? To test this, see how hard you're able to make your calf muscle at full flexion. Potentially you'll find it's limited at best.
To really make your calves grow you must overcome this issue.
Here's a 3 step plan for you to significantly improve your ankle mobility and as a result make your calves grow better than ever before.
1. Stretch every rep
Every single rep you do on calves should focus on stretching the calves and Achilles tendon as far as you can, in a controlled and safe manner at the isometric point after the eccentric (negative). Effectively, at the bottom of each rep really allow your Achilles to be stretched out (safely!) for 1-2 seconds before doing your next rep. Over time, this will really help improve your mobility within this area, which is going to be key to seeing growth within your calves Ian.
2. Stretch between sets
While you're resting between your working sets stretch your Achilles out with static stretching for holds of 15-20 seconds per leg. Doing this will increase the mobility within the area and increase the elasticity of the tendon, which can be very stubborn to becoming more flexible. Stretching between your sets is a way of overloading the area and forcing increased mobility. This shouldn't be painful or aggressive, just enough to gently stretch the tendon out. You will feel this down the back of your calves as well.
3. Warm up accessory work
Before you start your working sets, you need to warm your calves up correctly to maximize the engagement within the area which you will do by working the muscle through the fullest range of motion possible.
Start with single leg calf raises with a very light weight where you're able to stretch the tendon out at the bottom, hold and then extend all the way to the top and hold again for 1-2 seconds WHILE tensing your calves so they are hard.
Doing 3-4 sets of this, with 12-15 reps will improve the engagement within your calf muscles massively. The KEY here is getting right to the top of the rep and squeezing the muscle there and stretching it right out at the bottom. These are two things most people never do, hence, the issues they get which I've outlined for you above.
Make sure you follow this next time you train calves and you will see the difference.
To further increase the mobility within your ankles I'd recommend you stretch your Achilles for 10-12 minutes as frequently as you can. For instance, if you can do it daily you'll see the benefits of doing this quickly.
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