Calf Raises: How to Do Them, Muscles Worked and Mistakes to Avoid

Calf raises are a simple strength exercise: you rise onto the balls of your feet, then lower your heels back down. They train the calf muscles that push you off the ground every time you walk, climb stairs or run. They need no equipment, suit every age and fitness level, and are easy to make harder as you get stronger.

How to do a calf raise

1. Set up. Stand tall with your feet hip-width apart and toes pointing forward, fingertips resting on a wall, counter or sturdy chair.
2. Spread your weight evenly across the balls of your feet, from the big toe to the little toe.
3. Rise. Breathe out and slowly push up onto the balls of your feet, lifting your heels as high as you can.
4. Pause for about one second at the top and squeeze your calves.
5. Lower slowly over two to three seconds until your heels touch the floor. The lowering matters as much as the lift.
6. Repeat without bouncing. Once this is easy, do it on the edge of a step and let your heels sink below it for a deep stretch at the bottom.

Form cues

• Feel it in your calves, not your toes or feet.
• Push through your big toe so your ankles do not roll out toward your little toes.
• Keep your knees straight but not locked, with your hips over your ankles; no leaning.
• Look straight ahead and use the wall only for balance, not to pull yourself up.

Muscles worked

Your calf has two main muscles. The gastrocnemius is the visible, two-headed muscle that crosses the knee; the soleus lies underneath and does not. Both join the Achilles tendon and lift your heel.

Knee position shifts the work only a little. In 48 healthy adults doing single-leg heel raises, calf activity averaged about 23% of a maximal contraction with the knee straight; bending the knee 45 degrees raised soleus activity by 4% and lowered gastrocnemius activity by 5%, which the authors note may be too small to matter (1).

Training studies tell you more. In 14 untrained adults who trained one leg standing and the other seated for 12 weeks, the standing calf raise grew the two gastrocnemius heads by 9 to 12%, while the seated version barely grew them; the soleus grew about the same, 2 to 3%, either way (2). In 42 young women, partial reps through the stretched bottom half, from a deep stretch to flat-footed, grew the inner gastrocnemius by 15%, versus 7% for full reps and 3% for top-half reps (3).

Toe angle is a fine-tuning detail. In 22 young men, toes turned out grew the inner gastrocnemius more and toes turned in grew the outer head more, but every position worked (4). Toes forward is fine.

Common mistakes

• Bouncing. Quick, springy reps let your tendons do the work. Fix: pause at the top and take two to three seconds to lower.
• Cutting the bottom short. The stretched position builds the most muscle (3). Fix: lower all the way, and use a step once floor raises are easy.
• Rolling onto the outside of your feet. Fix: keep pressure on your big toe as you rise.
• Leaning or bending your knees. Fix: stand tall and let only your ankles move.
• Staying easy forever. Bodyweight two-leg raises soon become light work. Fix: move down the table below.

Variations: easier and harder

Knee, back or wrist limits? Standing calf raises barely load your knees, back or wrists. If standing is hard on your balance or knees, the seated version still trains your calves.

Sets, reps and how often

Start with 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 slow reps two or three days a week, then train for your goal using the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) position stand on progression (5):

The calf trials above trained two or three times a week (2, 3). Light loads build as much muscle as heavy ones when sets go close to failure (6), a finding graded A in our Evidence Index, so single-leg bodyweight raises taken near failure do real work. When you beat your target by one or two reps, add load or move to a harder variation (5).

Standing vs seated calf raises: which is better?

For bigger, stronger calves, standing wins. In the 12-week trial, standing raises grew the whole calf more than twice as much as seated raises (5.6% vs 2.1%), almost all of it in the gastrocnemius (2). Seated raises are still useful if standing is hard on your balance or knees.

So what is the number one calf exercise? On current evidence, the standing calf raise done through a full stretch, off a step, on one leg or with weight. The long-length partials in the second trial suggest the bottom half matters most (3).

Are calves the hardest muscle to train?

They can be slow. The authors of the standing vs seated trial describe the calf as relatively unresponsive to training and quick to shrink with inactivity (2). But the trials above still found 9 to 15% growth in parts of the calf within 8 to 12 weeks (2, 3). You walk on your calves all day, so easy reps do little; hard sets through a full stretch do the work.

What happens if you do 100 calf raises a day?

Mostly, you build endurance and a good habit. In 500 adults without Achilles problems, the median person managed about 25 single-leg heel raises before fatigue (7), so 100 two-leg bodyweight raises spread through the day are light work for most people. That is useful as daily movement, like the heel raises in our Japanese longevity exercises, but for bigger or much stronger calves you need harder sets, not more easy ones (6).

How do you do a calf raise stretch?

Stand on a step with your heels hanging off, rise up, then lower slowly until your heels sink below the step and hold the stretch for one to two seconds before the next rep. For a plain stretch, lean into a wall with one leg back, heel down: knee straight for the gastrocnemius, knee bent for the soleus. Our guide to ankle mobility has more drills for stiff ankles.

Calf raises for Achilles and heel pain

Calf raises are a mainstay of rehab for two common foot problems, with a physical therapist setting the dose:

• Achilles tendinopathy. In 15 recreational athletes with long-standing Achilles pain, 12 weeks of heavy, lowering-focused calf training returned all of them to running (8); there was no randomized control group. In a randomized trial of 58 patients, lowering-focused training and heavy slow resistance training both improved pain and function over 12 weeks, with gains that lasted a year (9).
• Plantar fasciitis (heel pain). In 48 patients, single-leg heel raises with a rolled towel under the toes, every other day and alongside shoe inserts, improved foot function more than stretching at 3 months, though the groups were level by 12 months (10).

Get a diagnosis first, since heel and calf pain have several causes.

Is it safe? Who should be careful

• Pain: a calf burn and next-day tightness are normal. Stop for sharp pain. A sudden pop or sharp pain at the back of your heel or calf needs urgent medical attention.
• Balance: always keep a hand near a wall or chair, especially on a step or one leg. For broader balance work, see our balance exercises for fall prevention.
• Pregnancy: the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that without complications, exercise in pregnancy is safe and desirable, though routines may need adjusting (11). Hold a support as your balance shifts, and check with your obstetric care provider.
• Recent ankle, Achilles or foot injury or surgery: follow your surgeon’s or physical therapist’s plan first.

See a physical therapist or doctor if pain lasts more than a couple of weeks, gets worse from session to session, or comes with swelling. This page is general information, not medical advice; please read our medical disclaimer. For a fuller lower-body session, pair calf raises with a goblet squat and step-ups.

Watch it done

Two of our videos show calf raises. In 6 exercises Japanese elders do daily, the calf raise is the fifth move, and its cues match this page: hold a chair or counter, feet hip-width, rise as high as you comfortably can, pause about a second, then lower slowly, since the lowering matters as much as the lift. It suggests 10 to 15 reps and progressing to one leg. Our 5 bodyweight exercises for everyday stiffness shows the standing calf raise as its fourth move, with 3 sets of 10 to 15 and the same progression from support to no support to one leg.

Looking for your next move? Browse every guide in our exercise library, sorted by muscle group, equipment and level.

Sources

1. Hébert-Losier K, et al. Influence of knee flexion angle and age on triceps surae muscle activity during heel raises. J Strength Cond Res. 2012;26(11):3124-33. PubMed 22190157
2. Kinoshita M, et al. Triceps surae muscle hypertrophy is greater after standing versus seated calf-raise training. Front Physiol. 2023;14:1272106. PubMed 38156065
3. Kassiano W, et al. Greater gastrocnemius muscle hypertrophy after partial range of motion training performed at long muscle lengths. J Strength Cond Res. 2023;37(9):1746-1753. PubMed 37015016
4. Nunes JP, et al. Different foot positioning during calf training to induce portion-specific gastrocnemius muscle hypertrophy. J Strength Cond Res. 2020;34(8):2347-2351. PubMed 32735428
5. American College of Sports Medicine. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009;41(3):687-708. PubMed 19204579
6. Schoenfeld BJ, et al. Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- vs. high-load resistance training: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res. 2017;31(12):3508-3523. PubMed 28834797
7. Visser TSS, et al. Normative values for calf muscle strength-endurance in the general population assessed with the Calf Raise Application: a large international cross-sectional study. Braz J Phys Ther. 2025;29(3):101188. PubMed 40020545
8. Alfredson H, et al. Heavy-load eccentric calf muscle training for the treatment of chronic Achilles tendinosis. Am J Sports Med. 1998;26(3):360-6. PubMed 9617396
9. Beyer R, et al. Heavy slow resistance versus eccentric training as treatment for Achilles tendinopathy: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Sports Med. 2015;43(7):1704-11. PubMed 26018970
10. Rathleff MS, et al. High-load strength training improves outcome in patients with plantar fasciitis: a randomized controlled trial with 12-month follow-up. Scand J Med Sci Sports. 2015;25(3):e292-300. PubMed 25145882
11. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Physical activity and exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period: ACOG Committee Opinion, Number 804. Obstet Gynecol. 2020;135(4):e178-e188. PubMed 32217980