If Your Forearms And Calves Aren't Growing, Read This

Struggling to grow your forearms and calves?

The forearms and the calves are two muscle groups that most people struggle to grow. And there is a specific reason for this: these muscles are slow-twitch dominant.

Muscles are categorized into two categories: muscles with fast-twitch fibers and slow-twitch fibers. To make it easy, fast-twitch fibers are easier to grow (biceps, triceps, chest) because they're less prone to genetic pre-disposition and generally they grow faster. Slow-twitch fibers are often harder to grow, and for some people a complete pain in the ass because they're more prone to genetic predisposition.

I have a friend whose genetic disposition didn't allow him to grow big calves even tho he was training them fairly well. This is simply because some people are unlucky, or they haven't learned to train properly. And, I used to think I was one of those "unlucky guys".

I always struggled to grow my forearms and my calves, whatever I did. My calves would take size from time to time and my forearms a little bit but it would take MONTHS and MONTHS of hard work on them to see any significant changes. I would train them consistently and I thought they were quite skinny.

As time passed, it really annoyed me: I couldn't seem to grow my forearms or my calves. And this is until, I found a new technique to grow them, something that actually worked for me.

The technique that actually works

I had once read this technique but I hadn't listened. I thought it was too complicated or perhaps I thought I knew better. But I was wrong not to try it. As time passed, I never even looked back at this technique even tho it was all this time under my eyes, at reach.

I began implementing it. The technique is simple: train your forearms and calves four times a week.

I began implementing it simply in my Push Pull Legs routine by doing a few sets here and there throughout the week. And surprisingly, my calves grew a lot, and my forearms too, in only the matter of two to three weeks of training.

So, if you have a Push Pull Legs routine (6 times a week) I suggest doing 2 sets of a forearm exercise at the end of your pull days, 2 sets of a forearm exercise at the end of your leg day, 2 sets of a calf exercise at the end of your push day, and 2 sets if a calf exercise at the end of your leg day.

I personally do reverse curls and cable finger curls for forearms, and for calves I simply do calf raises on the Smith machine. I always make sure to have my feet elevated by something (it could be a big plate for example) so I can stretch further my muscles. When you go down in the calf-raise movement, the back of your feet should slightly touch the ground, which means you should not elevate yourself too much.

Training your forearms and calves four times a week truly works and I suggest implementing it in your routine. However, you might have a different routine than I have.

If you have an Upper body / Lower body routine (you have two training days), train your forearms and calves once in those two days (for example forearms on Upper body day and calves on Lower body day) and add days throughout the week where you would train once more your forearms and your calves.

For example, if you do Upper body on Monday and Lower body on Friday, you could do two sets of calves and two sets of forearm training on Monday and Friday, as well as two sets of forearms and calves on Wednesday and Saturday, at home or at the gym.

If you have a four-day routine (Upper Body/ Lower Body/ Upper Body/ Lower Body) then I suggest doing the same, but doing each day 2 sets of forearms and 2 sets of calves. So, this way, you can train your forearms and calves four times a week.

If you have a three-day split (Full body) I suggest trying to do forearms and calves each day and then adding another day throughout the week, perhaps at home or at the gym.

I'm not going to explain how to use the four-times-a-week training technique for each program that exists since I would have to write for hours because there are too many training programs out there, but you got the idea.

How much volume should you perform per week?

One of the common problems in bodybuilding is overtraining. The problem often arises because steroid-enhanced people who can recover faster and better often share very high-volume training programs, which means training programs that have a lot of sets per muscle group per week. These programs often have an outrageous amount of volume.

Yes, some people out there are performing 20 sets of bicep curls per week thinking it is the key to muscle growth. MORE ISN'T BETTER.

For a natural bodybuilder who has natural recovering capacities and a natural physique and natural capabilities, then it's better to reduce the volume to a minimum. You see, studies have shown that greater muscle growth was found in people who had a high-volume workout plan (with a lot of sets per muscle group). However, even tho high-volume training might induce a bit more muscle growth in the short term, in the long-term, it induces way more fatigue.

This fatigue, when accumulated, makes you incapable of practicing progressive overload: one of the key principles of muscle growth that can't be overlooked. It also makes you constantly tired and lethargic and your performance drops.

On top of that, you often hurt your hormonal health and mess it up if you accumulate too much fatigue: you most likely will have reduced testosterone which is one of the primary hormones for muscle growth.

So, you might have a little bit more muscle growth, but in the long-term, it's just not worth it: people who work out less actually get better results and are healthier. This is taking into consideration you're a natural bodybuilder, if you're an unnatural bodybuilder (you take PEDs or Performance Enhancing Drugs) then high-volume training is fine.

Overall, for a natural bodybuilder, you should get on the lower range of training volumes. I recommend the website RP Strength as they have "Training tips" for almost every muscle group and they often list the minimum effective volume (MEV) for each muscle group required to gain muscle, and most times, adding two to four sets on top of this MEV is the training volume you should do per week as a natural bodybuilder to maximize your muscle gains (even tho that is hypothetical considering bodybuilding isn't a one size fits all thing)

For forearms and calves tho, we'll stay on the lower range: 8 sets per week for forearms and 8 sets per week for calves. If you train these 4 times per week it's 2 sets of forearms and 2 sets of calves each time.

Common mistakes you might be doing

There are a few mistakes you might be making in your calves or forearms training. The first one is not establishing a correct mind-muscle connection.

Mind-muscle connection is important: thinking about the muscle, and feeling it totally can really help build bigger muscles and increase the efficiency of each set. However, with forearms and calves, it is of the utmost importance.

DO NOT FOCUS ON LIFTING THE WEIGHT UP. Focus on destroying your muscles. Calf training and forearm training should be oriented toward feeling your muscles burn and really stretching them out. You should stretch your muscles, feel them burn, and build an incredible mind-muscle connection so you can build bigger calves and forearms.

Many people (like I used to do) often put a lot of weight on calf raises and just lift the weight up without focusing on their form, without having any tempo, and therefore without controlling the weight. This kills their gains as they are not really isolating the calves much; they're just going up and down with a lot of weight.

Instead, control the weight a ton. Control is the key word here: you should always control the eccentric (the portion when your muscles are stretched the most, for example in a calf raise it's when you go down) to induce further muscle growth and to feel your calves stretch even more.

For example, lift the weight up in two seconds, and take four seconds to go back to the "original position", during the eccentric phase (when you go down).

Focus on doing the movement incredibly well and you will unlock already incredible gains. Take your time, do not rush it, and control the eccentric each time even when it gets hard. Focus on perfecting the form instead of adding a ton of weight.

For calves, try to elevate your foot slightly from the ground as I said before, and on the eccentric, at the end, your heels should touch the ground slightly.

More seriously, control the eccentric, focus on the stretch and on the burn, and perform the exercise correctly, even if you have to lower massively the weight.

I suggest training in the 10-20 rep range with forearms and calves. Train to failure or very short of failure (1-2 reps in reserve before reaching muscular failure) so you maximize your muscle gains.

But the biggest mistake of all and the one you should be on the lookout for, as I said before, is to simply "lift the weight up". I've lost so much time just lifting the weight up instead of working the muscle: focus on rather working the muscle. Focus on destroying your muscles instead of lifting the weight, as the weight isn't the objective, it's the tool used for your muscles to grow.

Also, grip strengtheners for forearms aren't necessary. Training them four times a week with reverse curls, finger curls, and wrist curls should be enough to grow your forearms.

The importance of genetics

Even tho you can grow your forearms and calves and they will 100% grow using the technique I gave you, you might not be able to have huge forearms or calves: some people are genetically "castrated" from forearm or calf growth. However, these people or conditions are SUPER RARE. If you train your muscles correctly, even if you have bad or even very bad genetics, THEY WILL GROW.

If your forearms and calves aren't growing despite all of this, I suggest checking your nutrition and sleep. Maybe these could be limiting factors too. Maybe your hormonal health sucks and so therefore you struggle to grow muscle despite doing everything right at the gym. Maybe you have an underlying medical condition.

But overall, your calves and forearms can be grown, and people give up too easily. It's not because you have bad or very bad genetics for these muscle groups or in general that you are pre-disposed to small calves and forearms forever: use all the tools at your disposition instead of whining!

Conclusion

If you use the four-times-a-week technique I gave you in this article, your forearms and calves are going to grow. For me, this technique really made a difference and since it has only been a few weeks since I started it (and I have already seen changes), I am eager to see what gains await me in the future.

As always, I hope this article was of help. Thank you for reading, and I'll see you next time.

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