Hermann Goerner
Steve Reeves
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Chris Dickerson
Mike Matarazzo
Dorian Yates
Ben Pakulski, Eric Fankhouser
No Hills On My Paper Route
The question of who has the best looking calves in the world cannot be answered here. Undoubtedly Steve Reeves comes to mind when one thinks of impressive calves. He had a lot of natural size but still performed a terrific amount of specific calf exercise in order to improve the sharpness and shape of his lower legs.
It has been publicized, initially I believe by the late Earle Liederman, that Steve Reeves built up his calves by pedaling up and down the Oakland hills during his paper route. Recently Steve was asked about this, and I have his answer on tape in this very room in which I am writing this:
"Actually," says Steve, "There were no hills on my paper route."
The fact of course is that Reeves had "natural" calves. Even his pre-bodybuilding photographs show a tendency towards massive lower legs. But of course, this takes nothing away from the Reeves physique. In spite of his endowment of natural lower "pins" Steve did train hard and regularly on calf work to keep them defined.
Oh, yeah. Almost forgot . . . this.
From a 1964-published Earle Liederman article titled, "Different Muscular Formations"
Once, during a cross-country train journey, a young Reeves took advantage of the rather boring traveling conditions and leaving his compartment seat proceeded to perform 1,000 calf raises. "Just to keep my calves in shape."
Other fellows who come to mind as possessing well-built calves include Ron Lacy, Chris Dickerson, Bill Pearl, Doug Stroll, Len Sell, Frank Stroll, Len Sell, Frank Colombera and Reg Park; the latter man, Park, was by no means a "natural" where calf development was concerned. When Reg first came to North America after winning the Mr. Britain title he was advised by numerous people he trained with to build up his calves.
During those early days Reg concentrated more on his shoulders and his calves were definitely somewhat neglected. Six months later Park had the most outstanding calf development of any bodybuilder in the world.
The question has been raised as to whether calves can be overdeveloped. There was a time when I felt that the forearms, shoulders and calves were three areas of the human body which could not be overdeveloped. I know that although it takes some doing, all three can be overdeveloped.
In some of the other muscle magazines which trade in huge, bulbous, vein-choked bodies one can see samples of chronic overdevelopment.
Oh-oh . . .
But don't be put off. Chances are you couldn't overdevelop your lower legs if you trained them from now till doomsday. To become overdeveloped in this area you would have to have:
1) Have natural size to begin with
2) Train your calves excessively
3) Use juice
What then is the ideal calf size and shape?
This is difficult to say. Some authorities feel that the calf muscle should measure two-thirds of the thigh. In other words if a fellow had 24-inch thighs his calves should measure 16 inches and I don't mean measured from origin to insertion.
However, ideal statistics laid down through numerical formulas are not really a safe and sure guide to how you should look. Your guide has to be "appearance." If you calves look good then that's it! There is no such thing as an ideal measurement of calf for a certain height. One man at 5'10" may look good with a 16" calf (that was neither defined or well shaped); another with a 16" measurement could look totally undeveloped in the lower leg region. Appearance.
One point that may be raised in your mind is . . .
"Can basic calf shape be changed?"
The answer to this is NO! Not significantly . . . but at the same time one should realize that an increase in size in some cases can give the appearance of improved shape. In fact, many extremely underdeveloped fellows are not aware of any calf shape at all. It is only when the muscle starts to build up that they realize that they have a decent "shape" thus dispelling their fears that they had no basic shape to begin with.
The problems, or lack of problems, of building your calves becomes evident to you over time and consistent training. Depending on whether you are a calf "natural" or not you will find calf-building easy or hard. As we mentioned earlier, Steve Reeves found that his calves responded very well to exercise. In fact he had to work extremely hard on his neck and arms to "bring them in line" with the natural massiveness of his calf development. Don't ya just hate this Reeves guy sometimes. We have to exterminate all genetically gifted calf developers in order to even the playing field.
Chris Dickerson is another fellow who has utterly phenomenal calf development. In fact if he works his lower legs too strenuously he finds that they can actually become too big.
I'll stop underlining "in fact" (well that was a quick fail) . . . he uses that phrase a lot in his articles; one of the "tells" to look for in trying to determine which stuff Bob Kennedy wrote for the early MMI under a different name and no, I don't need to get a life, I like my shite just fine.
And then there are the fellows whose calf development is actually lacking in proportion to the rest . . .
I can't resist. Another way of guess-determining the real authors of pen-named writing is how often they choose to drop the definite article . . . you know, the word "the".
Some will choose: "Grasp the dumbbells firmly . . ."
Others go with: "Grasp dumbbells firmly . . ."
"In the starting position prior to the first pull . . ."
or
"In starting position prior to first pull . . ."
and of course it'll be selective and not a necessary constant, so we get something like this as well from the same author:
"In the starting position prior to first pull . . ."
The muscle-writer I've found to be most consistent with dropping "the" is Frank Zane. I kid you not. At first I thought he was trying to be poetic, but nope and no-siree.
Now that the intermission, no, now that intermission is over let's continue with the article . . .
. . . AND THEN there are the fellows whose calf development is actually lacking in proportion to the rest of their bodies. Rick Wayne, Dave Draper, George Eiferman:
I did not notice till now, Bob.
He has girly calves yet still scores with the ladies!
16 inch measurement stated.
Who knows!
Fucking Bob Kennedy!
Now I can't stop seeing just his smallish calves.
Still scorin' with the ladies though!
It's as if someone said
THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS!
The stress and disappointment of this is too much.
To be continued
once I can get my emotions in check over here.
Enjoy Your Lifting!
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