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Overview
One legged calf raises are a great variation to the standing calf machine. By doing each leg separately, you are able to place greater focus and a greater quality of stress on the leg being worked. These can easily be done at home on any step as well as in the gym.
Setup
Find a step where you can stand with balance. If your gym has a stairway, you could stand on the edge of the step and use the rail for balance. Also, you could stand on the spotter step behind the incline bench press or military press and hold on to the upright bars for stability.
Take a weight in your right hand and stand on the step with the ball or your left foot. Hold onto the upright support bars with your left hand and hold your right foot in place by placing it behind your left foot. Once in position, allow your heel to drop down as far as possible and stretch out your calves.
Movement
Use your calf muscles to press your body upwards as high as possible. Hold at the top for just a moment before lowering your body back down to the starting position with the heels below the toes.
Tips From the Trainer
Remember that you are doing this exercise with only one foot at a time, and that means that adding weight will have a greater effect… Let’s do the math. Let’s say that you weight 180 pounds and are doing the standing calf raise machine using both feet with 180 pounds of weight on it. Your legs are pressing a total of 360 pounds including the weight of your body, but since you are using both feet, each leg is pressing only 180 pounds.
To get the same effect as doing 180 pounds on the standing calf machine, you would only have to press your body weight without any added resistance on the one-legged version to get the same effect. Also, since you are only using one foot, if you add 25 pounds to your set, it is the same as adding 50 pounds to your set when you are using both feet.
Those just starting may find that their own body weight is plenty to exhaust their calves, and weight can easily be added as needed by taking a dumbbell in your hand.
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