Do squats work calves? Or it only affects your glutes? Let’s find the answer.
Squats are one of the best exercises that engage multiple muscles in your body and especially your lower body.
As you know, the lower muscles targeted in a squat exercise include:
- Hip flexors.
- Hamstrings.
- Quadriceps.
- Glutes (Medius, Maximus, and Minimus).
- Adductor.
But do squats work calves? We give you the best explanation based on the movement when you do your squats.
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The Calf Muscle
When you put your feet on the ground, the calf muscles are the first set of muscles that activate.
You don’t need to have strong calf muscles to perform your legs moving, but having strong calves jumping higher easier, and running faster.
Athletes need to strengthen their calf muscles because it helps them over their competition. And it’s not easy to train this muscle because the training targets specific parts of the calf muscles.
The calf muscle is composed of two muscles:
- The gastrocnemius.
- The soleus.
These two muscles engage during the ankle movement of the feet.
The gastrocnemius receives most of the force when performing activities and is more noticeable, and it’s made of up to 65% fast-twitch muscle fibers that are responsible for explosive movements such as jumping.
The soleus is responsible for endurance activities such as walking, and it’s composed of slow-twitch muscle fibers.
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Do squats work calves?
The engagement of calf muscles during squats
Yes, the calf muscles have a significant role in performing squats. How?
The gastrocnemius muscle of the calves gives balance to the lower body, and set the maximum amount of weight possible to squat and how a person squats.
If you do squats regularly with weights, you help increase the size and muscle mass of your lower body.
Don’t forget that the degree of development of the calf muscles is related to your body type.
Do squats work calves? YES!
Calves are one of the muscles targeted when doing squat exercises. Do your squats regularly and don’t hesitate to add some weights.
