Barbell Seated Calf Raise

How to do it

1. Sit on a flat bench with a block or step in front of it and place the balls of your feet on the block, heels hanging off.
2. Have a loaded barbell placed across your lower thighs, just above the knees, with a pad under it.
3. Hold the bar steady with both hands and keep your knees bent to roughly ninety degrees.
4. Let your heels drop below the block until you feel a stretch through the lower calf.
5. Push up onto the balls of your feet as high as you can, keeping the knees bent.
6. Pause at the top, then lower under control to a full stretch.

Common mistakes

• Placing the bar on the middle of the thigh rather than just above the knee. Close to the knee transfers the load through the ankle properly; further back and the thigh takes it.
• Skipping the pad. A loaded bar directly on the thigh is unpleasant enough to shorten the set for the wrong reason.
• Short, bouncy repetitions. A pause at the bottom is what makes the soleus start each rep from a dead stop rather than off the tendon.
• Straightening the legs. A seated calf raise with straight legs is just a standing one done badly — the bent knee is the entire point.

Muscles worked

Primary

• SoleusCalves