Best Exercise for Your Calves Backed by Science

Turn Your Calves Into Cows: Best Exercise for Your Calves Backed by Science

In the world of exercise physiology, if a scientist wants to measure the how much a muscle is contracting, they will use what’s called EMG. An electromyogram (EMG) measures the electrical activity of muscles at rest and during contraction. Nerve conduction studies measure how well and how fast the nerves can send electrical signals. If you look at the example below, the harder the subject contracts his muscle, the larger the increase in EMG activity.

When you are training you legs, you have a limited amount of time in the gym to stimulate the chest muscle fibers, so you want to choose the exercises that activate the most muscle fibers. One of the beauties of EMG is that there are probably over 30 different exercises for the chest, so why waste time on the exercises that don’t fully activate the chest fibers the most. In the book, Serious Strength Training by Dr. Tudor Bompa, which should be in all serious bodybuilders book collection. The results of the best leg exercises based on EMG

Gastrocnemius (calf muscle)
Donkey raises ——————————-80
Standing one-leg raises ———————79
Standing two-leg raises ———————68
Seated raises ——————————-61