Calf raises work which muscles

The peroneus fibularis brevis attaches to the bottom third and outside half of the fibula bone on top and to the outside of your foot on the bottom. The other muscle attaches to the head and upper half of the fibula bone on top, runs along the outside of your ankle, crosses over the top of your foot and reattaches to near the base of your big toe on the bottom.

The other muscles that help the calves with plantar flexion when you perform calf raises include the plantaris and tibialis posterior, which both run along the back of your lower leg. The plantaris is a long, thin muscle that attaches to the outside of your knee, just above the attachment of the lateral head of the gastrocnemius, on top and to the back of your heel on the bottom.

The tibialis posterior muscle attaches to the outside, upper portion of the tibia bone and the inside, upper portion of the fibula bone on top; crosses the inside of your ankle; and runs underneath your foot, reattaching at various locations on the bottom. Fitness Workouts Exercises and Workouts. Matthew Schirm. Matthew Schirm has worked in the sports-performance field since Using proper technique is important to get the most out of the exercise no matter what version you are doing.

The video below demonstrates proper technique for calf raises on a seated machine. You begin by sitting on the bench pad with good posture and a strong core.

Put the balls of your feet on the foot pad and adjust the height of the knee pad to your desired height. You then press up with your calves to lift up the knee pad and then unlock it. You then perform your desired number of reps with a full range of motion and make sure to lock the pad back into place when you are finished. You can perform these with 1 or 2 legs if your machine allows it.

Make sure you have the right kind of machine if you are perform the single legged version of this exercise, otherwise you might not be able to balance it. It is much trickier, but doable if you are experienced and safe. You can see what good form for standing calf raises on a machine looks like in the video below.

You put the balls of the feet on the foot platform and get under the shoulder pads, as if you are beginning a squat. You then stand up with the weight and unlock the machine. You then perform the desired number of calf raises, using good technique and a full range of motion.

This exercise also targets other muscles, and these muscles help the calves to do the plantar flexion while you are doing the leg raise exercise. The plantar muscle is a long, thin muscle that is attached to the outside of the knee, directly above the lateral head of the calf muscle, at the top, and the back of the heel down.

The posterior muscle is attached to the tibia from the outer part of the upper part of it, as it is connected to the fibula from the upper part to the inner part of the upper part of it, where the ankle is located in the inner region and performs the work under the foot as it reconnects in various locations below. While you are exercising, you may make some common mistakes that we must avoid. These mistakes are:. Stretching during exercise is very important because it reduces contractions and reduces flexibility, so before you exercise, you must do stretching exercises for a period of 5 to 10 minutes, especially before you insert weights into the exercise.

You must do the exercise in a slow and controlled manner in order to reap the benefits from the exercise. Also, exercising quickly is ineffective, so you must raise and lower your heels slowly to increase strength and to have an aesthetic appearance of the muscle.

While you are doing the exercise, you must make your chest high while standing for a long time, in order to maintain balance during the exercise.

While bending far forward, this redistributes the weight of the body and the weight of the dumbbells, and thus leads to back pain and reduces the benefits of exercise. This exercise is considered one of the separate exercises and the range of movement of the exercise is short and small, so you must do the exercise with a large number of repetitions to increase the movement to the maximum.

Good repetitions depend on how much you use the weights during the exercise. You should do the exercise from 10 to 30 repetitions in one set. Moving your feet inward and outward during an exercise is a common mistake because it targets other muscles, so while you are doing the exercise, you must make your toes straightforward.

There are some guidelines that you must follow while exercising in order not to get injured and in order to get the benefits of exercise greatly. These instructions are:. If you want to reach the goals you want to reach, you must do the exercise with many repetitions that are commensurate with the goals you want to reach. The calf raise exercise also needs to do large repetitions, because the range of movement in the exercise is small and short, as the good repetition of this exercise is by practicing it by doing 3 sets in each group.

Do 12 to 15 repetitions and this is a good approximate repetition of an exercise.