# Squatting and muscle imbalance



## mikeod (Jan 20, 2012)

Was taking the bins out this morning in my grits when my wife decided to say" you cant go out there with them legs", anyway after this she says above my knees my legs have grown but below were like bit of string hanging out my shorts.

so this got me thinking about muscle imbalances, i am not really bothered if my calves look skinny but dont want to have imbalances. these are the exercises that i do which involve legs:

squats

fronties

sldl

deadlift

gm,s ham curl

im quite happy doing these but do you think that i should add in some calf work or are they being worked enough through these exercises?

oh and my goals are strength


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## stebro (Sep 26, 2011)

Gota do calf raise etc, its like sayn i dont do shoulders cos i do chest press


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## k3z (Oct 17, 2007)

Deffo throw in some calf work, dealifts will do the whole back of the legs to a certain extend but you need to give the calfs a direct drilling cause there f*ckin hard work mate


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## Wardy211436114751 (Jan 24, 2011)

Talk of calves in the strength section???!! Might be worth working them for strongman but for powerlifting its just dead weight really! Could always work em for vanity reasons though


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## mikeod (Jan 20, 2012)

thanks for your input lads, not at all interested in how they look just dont want my lifts too suffer because of weak calves.


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## jay101 (Aug 9, 2011)

bongon95 said:


> thanks for your input lads, not at all interested in how they look just dont want my lifts too suffer because of weak calves.


It wont take long to add a few sets of calf raises in , if it stops the wife nagging it's gotta be worth it , can even do em on the stairs at home with no additional equipment .


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## MRSTRONG (Apr 18, 2009)

think of it like this , if you do a push press you need strong footing so the stronger your calves are the better foundation and flick at the top you will have .

train calves .


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## mikeod (Jan 20, 2012)

cheers lads calf raises it is then


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## Jalapa (Mar 18, 2010)

Donkeys are good..


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## stone14 (Mar 24, 2005)

If your naturally tall slim with long tendons its unlikely you will ever have decent calves, there's always synthol lol


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## mrbez (Feb 8, 2008)

stone14 said:


> If your naturally tall slim with long tendons its unlikely you will ever have decent calves, there's always synthol lol


What Stone said.

I'm 6ft 2 and I hate mine.

They are getting there now though, I'm training them 3 times per week. Google Jim McClellans calf routine.

I read that if you were born with **** calves, you can try to improve them. Genetics play a huge part.


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## stone14 (Mar 24, 2005)

Tbh calf raises is an iso exersise I doubt you will get much more out of them then you will freeweight bb squats, calf raises never made mine grow anymore, I would prefer to incorperate calf raises into bbell front squats with a raise at the end of each rep rather than a iso calf raise machine alone, just an idea


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## stone14 (Mar 24, 2005)

Front or back squats....


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