Do squats work your calves?

The free squat is known as the king of leg exercises, but do squats also work your calves? After all, your calves are part of your legs.

Technically, free squats work the calves, as they are recruited as synergists and stabilizers during the movement. However, if you want to develop this muscle group effectively, squats alone aren't enough.

The “Truth” About Free Squats free squats are known for training the entire leg and even upper-body muscle groups. However, most people misunderstand this concept by thinking that squats train all these muscle groups with the same intensity. This isn't the case.

Traditional free squats (we're not talking about variations) are primarily a quadriceps exercise. All other muscle groups involved in the movement assist or stabilize your body while squatting. However, the quadriceps are responsible for doing most of the work most of the time.

The point here is simply to understand that squats are indeed one of the best exercises. However, they're not a one-size-fits-all solution for your legs. Squats are a quadriceps exercise.

Do free squats work your calves?

Yes, squats work the calves. However, you can't rely solely on free squats to develop this muscle group.

See, the calves are made up of two main muscles: soleus and gastrocnemius.

Gastrocnemius : This is the calf muscle most heavily recruited during squats. The gastrocnemius plays an important role in stabilizing the ankle and generating force for knee extension. When you lower yourself into a squat, the gastrocnemius helps control the movement and maintain balance, and when you stand up, it helps propel your body upward.Soleus : This muscle is less involved in the dynamic movement of the squat than the gastrocnemius. However, it still plays a role in ankle stabilization. During the squat, the soleus helps maintain posture and balance, especially during the descent phase and when maintaining the squat position.

As we can see, both muscles are engaged during squats. However, squats work the calves for a very short period and through a very small range of motion.

Basically, there is no way to compare squats with a specific calf exercise (which will be much more effective).

Therefore, we cannot consider squats as an exercise for calves, much less rely solely on them to train this muscle group.

So, what exercises should you use to train your calves?

Training your calves is simple and should always be done after heavy squats, to prevent the “weakest link” from getting in the way of a key movement in your workout.

The main movements that train calves are:

Standing calf raises have many variations, depending on the equipment available. Calf raise machines are great, but if you don't have one at your gym, you can replicate the exercise on a Smith machine with a box or do calf raises on a leg press .

If no equipment is available, you can do standing calf raises on one leg. You can support yourself with the opposite arm and hold a dumbbell in the other hand. It's more challenging than it sounds.

Whatever your choice, the most crucial factor when performing any calf raise is to do the movement with your legs extended, only in this way can we target the gastrocnemius.

This is the “foundation” for doing any form of standing calf raise:

Stand on the edge of a raised platform with half of your foot (not just your toes).Lower your heels as far as possible to feel an intense stretch in your calves.When you reach the lowest point, hold the position for 3 seconds and then go up.At the top of the movement, hold for a few more seconds and repeat the entire procedure.

A seated calf raise machine is the best option for targeting the soleus muscle—the calf muscle most frequently activated when the knee is bent. However, not all gyms have one; if you train at home, you probably don't have one either.

You can perform a modified version by sitting on a bench and placing your feet on weight plates. For weight, place dumbbells on your thighs near your knees. This is a great alternative.

Regardless of which method you choose, here are the basic steps to performing seated calf raises:

Sitting on the calf raise machine or on a bench with your feet elevated on weight plates, rest your feet on the end of the support to be used.Lower your heels as far as you can and hold at the bottom for 3 seconds. Now raise them as far as you can and hold at the top for 1-2 seconds.Repeat.Conclusion

Squats do not work the calves significantly and should not be considered a valid alternative for training this muscle group.

For maximum results, use squats to train your major leg muscles and train your calves separately afterward.