Well developed calves really help to balance out your leg development and enhance the overall look of your physique. After all, nobody wants to have well big muscular thighs stacked on top of puny little calves.

But having weak calves is one of the most common physique flaws that you’ll see among the gym regulars, and it really does look like “Chicken Legs”.

Now I’ll admit that when it comes to building Huge Calves, your genetics play a big part. There’s no denying it, some folks just have been genetically blessed with massive calves, and in some cases they don’t even workout!

I know you probably hate these people…

And then there are some folks who workout regularly, bust their butt in the gym, follow a strict diet, take their supplements, etc. and it seems like they can’t add an inch of muscle to their calves if their life depended on it.

The most important thing that you need to realize is that even if you are not genetically gifted below the knees, improvement is always possible. After all, if you’ve been able to build some muscle in your other body parts – your back, shoulders, chest, arms and thighs – then you can certainly build muscle in your calves as well.

Granted you’ll probably never build “World Class Calves” without having good genetics for them, but you can still build “GOOD Calves” that are in proportion to the rest of your body when you follow the right training protocols.

There are 2 main reasons why the calves are so darn hard to build:

1. The calves are a very dense muscle, there are literally more muscle fibers in the calves than any other muscle group in the body. They also have a very high work capacity from having to carry heavy weight for high reps all throughout the day. Every time you take a step you are literally doing a mini calve raise with your bodyweight. Because of this it’s much harder to push the calves into the “Growth Zone” compared to other muscle groups.

2. The calves are NOT a glamorous muscle group. When most guys start working out they are generally focused on building up their chest, arms, abs, etc. These are the “show off” muscles of the body. The calves are way down on the list of priorities for most people. It’s usually only after you’ve been training for a while and are getting more advanced with your workouts that you all of a sudden realize “Uh-Oh… I don’t have any calves…” and then you try to play catch up (this is where a lot of guys are right now).

The actual calve workouts themselves are a real challenge because to build the calves requires a different kind of intensity compared to training your other body parts. You can’t just train heavier, or do more sets & reps, etc. The basic principles of progressive overload just doesn’t work the same for the calves like it does for most other muscle groups.

You need to Look Outside The Box and do some unorthodox training in order to get those suckers to grow.

There is a definite “Right” and “Wrong” way to go about maximizing muscle growth in the calves. And unfortunately most guys you see at the gym are doing things wrong and making some critical mistakes in their calve exercises that prevent them from getting the gains that they should be getting.

And that’s exactly what I cover in my Killer Calve Workout Program:

In the Killer Calve Workout Program I go into detail and share some of my best calve building tips and tricks. And I break them all down into a simple to follow training strategy that you can incorporate into your weekly workout routine to finally build a set of well balanced
muscular legs!

And the best part is that this Program is 100% FREE!

Until this Sunday January 8 you can get it as an extra special bonus when you pick up a copy of the 21-Day Fast Mass Building Program during our HALF Price New Year’s Sale Discount Promo.

Learn How To Gain Lean Muscle Mass WITHOUT Getting Fat ->> Click Here <<-

So if you are ready to kick off 2012 on the right track towards building a bigger, leaner, and more muscular physique – The 21-Day Fast Mass Building Program will help you reach those goals in record time. And make sure to get your copy now while it is still HALF Price This Week ONLY – and you’ll also get a FREE Copy of the Killer Calves Workout Program as well.

Last year over 6,000 guys put this program to the test last year and set new personal records in size and strength. So what are you waiting for? Click Here To Download Your Copy Now!

For example, it’s common to see folks with a big upper body and skinny legs (or vice versa).
Or it could be the individual muscle groups themselves that are lagging, someone could have big and well developed thighs that are stacked on top of scrawny little calves. Some folks may have big muscular arms, but flat chests. Some people have big biceps, but very weak triceps, and others may have thin “Spaghetti Noodle” arms and need to gain mass in a hurry.

Regardless of the situation, the good news is improvement is always possible!

And that’s why I’ve put together my “Muscle Specialization Training Guide”.
This is a comprehensive 104 page e-Book manual that covers unique muscle building specialization moves for each and every bodypart.

And the Best Part… You can download this e-book right now for FREE!

Yes that’s right, just enter your name and your best e-mail address in the form below and I’ll personally send you my “Muscle Specialization Training Guide” ASAP.

Note:
There’s no catch and there’s nothing to buy. All you have to do is enter your name and e-mail address in the form and you’ll get instant access to this FREE e-Book.

You owe it to yourself to check out this killer program because in addition to getting a FREE copy of the e-Book, I’ll also keep you up to date with all my latest muscle building tips and tricks that will help you build rock solid muscle mass faster than ever before!

Workout 3 – Legs & Abs With the earlier workouts in this 3 part program we paired up the pushing muscles into one workout. The “pulling muscles” into the second workout. Now we’re going to complete the program by training the lower body. With the lower body a lot of the moves we’ll do are classified as pressing or pushing exercises (i.e. squats, leg press, etc.) But there are some other exercise variations we’ll be doing as well (i.e. leg curls, leg extensions, etc.) We’re also going to pair up legs with abdominals. Now while you can train your abs with any body part that you like, they do come into play as stabilizing and supporting muscle groups for a lot of the lower body moves we’ll be doing. So that’s why it makes sense to pair them up with your leg workouts.

Click Play to watch the 3rd Workout… Legs & Abs.

To watch the 1st workout, click this link:
Chest, Shoulders & Triceps Workout

To watch the 2nd workout, click this link:
Back & Biceps Workout

If you like these videos, make sure to Click Here & Subscribe to my Bodybuilding Video Channel
so that you can get early notification of whenever I add new videos.

Time-Volume Training is one of my favorite “no brains required” methods for building muscle and strength like clockwork. When you do this style of training, you know EXACTLY what weight to use, how many reps to do, how long to do it for and when to increase the weight… ZERO brains required. It’s a strategy that allows you to do a LOT of work for a muscle in a short period of time, which will stimulate muscle growth AND burn a lot of calories and boost your metabolism, contributing to significant fat loss. It’s GREAT stuff and a technique I think is absolutely worth using whether you’re looking to build muscle or burn fat. The formula for regular Time-Volume Training is simple… and you’ll be able to see exactly why I say “zero brains required”…

Nick Nilsson

Select a weight you can do 10 reps with in a normal set:
Now do 3 reps.
Rest 10 seconds.
Do 3 more reps.
Rest 10 seconds…
and repeat until you can’t get 3 reps in a set.

(You’re going to be doing this for a 15 minute block of time).

Now switch your rest to 20 seconds and keep going with more 3 rep sets.
Repeat these with 20 seconds rest until you can’t get 3 reps again.
Then go to 30 seconds rest… and so on, to 40 seconds rest.
Repeat until your 15 minute block of time is done.

If you make it 1/3 of the way through (e.g. 5 minutes on a 15 minute block) still doing 10 seconds rest, then you increase the weight on that exercise in your next workout.

That’s it!

Time-Volume Training is a form of Density Training (density training has been used by Vince Gironda, Charles Staley and many others) that takes ALL the guesswork out. The exact sets and reps and rest are all laid out for you… All you have to do is the work.

Do Time-Volume Training with just one exercise per muscle group… e.g. bench press for 15 minutes straight to work chest, leg press for 15 minutes straight to work legs, etc.

This works VERY well. You’ll get a tremendous amount of time under tension for the target exercise and target muscles and you can see tremendous results both in muscle and fat loss.

Give this simple “Time Volume Training” technique a try in your next workout, and leave me a comment below letting me know how it works for you!

And if you’d like to learn some other killer training tricks like this for stimulating new muscle growth in your stubborn bodyparts, than I highly recommend you check out Nick Nilsson’s new program: “Mad Scientist Muscle” How To Build MONSTER Muscle Mass With Science Based Training. Nick is one of those guys who thinks outside the box. He is one of the most creative muscle building coaches that I know. I’ve picked up dozens of unique tips and tricks from following his programs and I regularly apply them to my own training. So if you are looking for a new twist to help you maximize your muscle growth. You owe it to yourself to check this program out. Click Here To Visit Nick’s Website.

If you’ve been working out for any length of time than no doubt you’ve heard the debates over how many reps you should do per set in order to maximize your muscle growth…

- Some people say “high reps for cutting” and “low reps for bulking”.

- Some say “go heavy or go home” and recommend super heavy weights for low reps.

- Others like to train a bit lighter and “pump it up” and strive to keep the muscles under tension for longer periods of time.

But the question that’s on your mind right now is:
“Which rep range is the best one and which one should you use in your workouts?”

Well, there is no cut and dried answer to this, in fact you can literally make muscle gains training in all of the above rep ranges provided that you are putting enough demands on the muscle, training in a progressive fashion, and that your nutrition and recovery are adequate to support muscle growth.

But there are some general guidelines that you can follow to help you better structure your bodybuilding workouts and maximize your muscle growth. And that’s what I’m going to share with you here in this article.

Rather than randomly selecting some magic number as your rep range for all your workouts, you need to break things down and get more specific. There is really no such a thing as the one best rep range that works for all exercises. How many reps you do will vary greatly depending on the particular exercise you are doing.

For example, if you were doing deadlifts and then afterwards going to do abdominal crunches. Do you think that you would use the same set and rep pattern for both exercises? Of course NOT.

One is a heavy mass building power move, and the other is a small isolation exercise. They both work the muscles totally differently, so obviously you wouldn’t train these 2 exercises the same way and use the same set and rep patterns.

Certain exercises are classified as Heavy Mass Building Power Moves and they work better for heavy weights and low reps. These are the “meat and potatoes” exercises that should lay the foundation to your muscle building workouts.

Than you have Mid-Range Power Moves that are still basic compound lifts, but these exercises are better worked with higher reps compared to the Heavy Mass Builders.

And finally you have Isolation Moves that are used for targeting specific areas of the muscles. These exercises work better with higher repetitions, lighter weights, and very strict form.

Generally with the heavy power moves your main focus is on moving the weight. With these exercises you should strive to increase the weights you lift on a regular basis (provided you can maintain good form of course). Than as you get into the mid-range and isolation moves your main focus should be on feeling the muscles working and getting a good pump. Rather than simply trying to increase the weights you are lifting.

Some examples of Heavy Power Moves are:
(Best Used With Heavy Weights & Low Reps)

Squats:

Deadlifts:

Bench Press:

Shoulder Press:

These are big basic free weight exercises that allow heavy weights to be lifted for low reps. The classic 5 sets of 5 reps routine works really well for these exercises. And advanced powerlifters and strongman competitors will even work up to heavier weights by doing heavy triples, doubles, and even single rep sets for these basic powerlifts.

Some examples of Mid-Range Power Moves are:
(Best Used With Moderate Weights & Moderate Reps)

Leg Press:

Barbell Rows:

Dumbbell Bench Press:

Dumbbell Shoulder Press:

Barbell Curls:

Dips:

Pull Ups:

These are mid-range compound exercises that still allow for heavy weights to be lifted, but work better with moderate repetition range of 6-10 reps per set. These mid-range exercises will make up the majority of your muscle building workout program.

Some examples of Isolation Moves are:
(Best Used With Lighter Weights & Higher Reps)

Leg Extensions:

Leg Curls:

1 Arm Dumbbell Row:

Dumbbell Flys:

Side Lateral Raises:

Concentration Curls:

Tricep Kick Backs:

Calve Raises:

Abdominal Crunches:

These are isolation exercises that work best when trained with light to moderate weights and high repetitions. Ideally you would use these exercises as finishing moves and do them at the end of your workouts. The idea here is to really pump up the muscles after you’ve already completed your heavier power moves. Keep your reps for these exercises to 10-15 per set, and in some cases you can even perform higher reps (i.e. 20+ reps per set) especially with abs and calves.

Conclusion…

These exercises and rep ranges are applicable to most weight training workout programs. However, there will always be exceptions to these rules depending on the particular training program. For example, the classic 20 rep squat routine is one such example of using a heavy mass building power move for high reps. And there will be other times when you may train isolation exercises with heavier weights and lower reps, especially if you are following a body part specialization program such as Blast Your Biceps.

However, the general training guidelines for most workout programs are:
- Heavy Powerlifting Exercises: 5 reps per set
- Mid-Range Compound Exercises: 6-10 reps per set
- Smaller Isolation Exercises: 10-15 reps per set

Now even if you have your weight training program structured perfectly with the correct sets and reps for each exercise, that’s only one piece of the whole muscle building puzzle. What you feed your body is just as important (if not more important) than the actual workouts you do in the gym.

If you don’t have your muscle building nutrition program nailed down pat, than you may end up like a lot of guys who waste their time and effort busting their butt in the gym only to look the same… day after day… month after month…

And the problem is – most guys have NO IDEA they are even making these errors and that’s why they’ll never have a body that truly sets them apart from the pack. In the informative video presentation below you’re going to learn to solution to the Top 3 Nutrition Mistakes That Are Costing You Precious Muscle Gains.

If so there are certain exercises (that I’ll show you in the video below) that you can do that will force each side to handle an equal workload and help you develop a well balanced, proportioned, and symmetrical physique.

Just click on the link below to see all the videos for each category…

Chest Workout Videos

Back Workout Videos

Shoulder Workouts Videos

Arm Workout Videos

Leg Workout Videos

Ab Workout Videos

Bodybuilding Nutrition Videos

Both myself and my girlfriend Patricia are now back on our regular schedules again and we did our first workout since xmas.

We trained legs the other day and posted up a video clip of the workout below:

If there are any workout or nutritional videos that you would like to see added to the website than please let me know. I have set up a video request submission form for you to submit your video ideas.

http://leehayward.com/blog/video-requests

I’m super pumped to get my new bodybuilding blog up and running. This is really going to help me deliver even more killer muscle building and fat loss advice that will help you take your physique and muscular development to the next level.

There is a lot more “bells” and “whistles” with this newer updated blog compared to my old blog…

Note: I’m still keeping the old blog online as an archive as there is almost 2 years worth of valuable posts at: http://www.LeeHayward.blogspot.com and I certainly don’t want to get rid of it.

So what I need you to do now before you go any further, is to make sure that you have entered your name and e-mail address in the form above and download my FREE Muscle Building Training Course. This will give you the foundational base of training information that you need to get started building your ultimate body. Plus you’ll also get on going muscle building and fat loss training tips from my a few times per week.

Another thing I suggest you do is get yourself set up with a Gravatar (globally recognized avatar) at: http://en.gravatar.com

This will add your face and personality to your comments.  It’s always more enjoyable to see another persons face when conversing.  It’s not mandatory but I encourage you to do so. You only need to set this up once which is great because if you post on other blogs or forums on the Internet, many of these websites will recognize your Gravatar.

I really encourage you to share your feedback with me by leaving your comments to the blog posts. This allows you to become part of the Total Fitness Bodybuilding community and it gives me valuable feedback and direction as to what things we should focus on and where we can improve the website in the future.

We also have the option for you to share these blog posts via Social Media outlets like FaceBook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and many more!  By sharing content, you help others and bring more people to this site to continue to make it even bigger and better.

If you enjoy a post, send it to your Twitter friends, post it to your Facebook news feed, or simply email it to your contacts.  The sharing tool below each post makes it so easy!

In fact I need your help with sharing this site and all the valuable information on it!  Together, we can help so many people better themselves and get in their all time best ever shape!

I’m looking forward to chatting with you in the comments section!

In fact you can leave your first comment right now below and introduce yourself on the new blog!

all the best,

Lee Hayward

(Your Muscle Building Coach!)