Frank Zane's Build Your Calves e-Book

Frank's calves were not naturally good, and he says so. When he started bodybuilding they were not very developed, and his thighs growing from regular squatting made his proportions look worse still. He worked out how to get them to grow by trial and error, and this is that method.

The book carries photographs of his own calves at 18 and at 37, side by side, so you can see what the work did. His position is that anyone can build calves if they know how, whatever they look like now.

What follows is eleven specific points, and they are the kind of detail most programmes leave out. Wear flexible soled shoes rather than training barefoot. Raise from an elevated block so the heels stretch below the plane of the floor. Keep the knees slightly bent for a deep stretch. Reps between fifteen and twenty five, working for a burn, holding a second or two at the top. Point the toes outward for the inner calf, inward for the outer calf as you go heavier. Stretch between sets for fifteen seconds. And a caution: working calves daily is fine for a short specialisation block, but past two weeks it will not make them grow, only increase definition.