Barbell Seated Calf Raise

Calves · Barbell

How to do it

Put a block a hand's width in front of a flat bench. Sit and place the **balls of your feet** on the block with your heels free, and rest a barbell across your thighs near your knees, holding it with your hands. Put a towel underneath or it will hurt. Drop your heels as far as they go and rise onto your toes squeezing for two seconds. **Seated works the soleus**, the deep calf muscle the standing version never touches. The classic mistake is bouncing at the bottom.

Variants

The drawing shows one way of doing it, and the technique above describes that one. Almost every exercise has variants — standing or seated, the grip, the bench angle — and is still the same exercise: if you do it another way, write it in the exercise note and you will have it every time you train it.

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