A couple of months ago, I listened to an episode of the Jacked Athlete Podcast that changed the way we train calves. These tips will strengthen your ankles for hiking on trails and for sports like pickleball.
Usually, you would perform calf raises on a step to get extra stretch in the calves, but we didn't have a convenient way to do that in our space.
Bodybuilders often perform them by turning the feet in and out to emphasize different areas of the calves, but we focus on function and performance over aesthetics.
What I learned in the podcast episode is that the Achilles tendon has a lot of subdivisions rather than being one uniform tissue. That means to optimally develop it, we need to take the ankle through a greater range of motion and turn the feet in a variety of positions when performing calf raises.
To get more stretch in the calves, we started doing calf raises on 15 degree foam wedges purchased from BC Strength. This was a low-cost option that was convenient to set up.
We also started doing our calf raises with toes in, toes out, and toes straight. We do each position for 4-8 reps totalling 12-24 reps per set.
Finally, we added some calf raises into our warm-ups with our feet turned in and out like you would experience if you've ever twisted your ankle. We're not sure if we want to try loading this position.
You can check out that video here: Ankle Inversion/Eversion Calf Raise
We recommend doing 5-10 reps per position.
Stay fit,
Jonathan Pratt
