Through the first four parts of his UGSS Presentation, IFBB Pro John Meadows has shared the philosophy of the Mountain Dog Training program and has detailed each of the following phases that comprise it:
- Phase 1: Pre-Pump Activation
- Phase 2: Train Explosively
- Phase 3: Supramax Pump
- Phase 4: Train Muscle in Stretch
Today's video is the final installment of the training portion of John's presentation. In this video, John discusses a challenging and often-ignored body part: calves. He shares four specific lessons to follow if you want to build bigger calves.
Lesson 1: When you walk around during the day, you contract your calves but you don't stretch them. When you go to the gym to train calves, it is very important to focus on the stretching portion of the movement. This is what your body isn't used to and what will help you grow.
Lesson 2: Calves can handle insane frequency. This means that you can and should train them absolutely every single day.
Lesson 3: Remember to train all of the muscles in the lower part of your leg. You need to train your tibialis anterior as well as the typical exercises for gastrocnemius and your soleus.
Lesson 4: Workouts for calves only need to be five to 10 minutes, working up to a really hard set and then being done. You don't need hundreds or thousands of sets and reps.
To close the training part of his presentation, John also welcomes questions and responds to two inquiries — one about high-frequency for weak body parts, and one about making training adjustments for women. In the next part of this series John will move to the topic of nutrition.
Some of John's best quotes from the videos:
"I'm a calves fanatic. Calves are freaking indestructible."
"People think I have really good genetics in my calves. I don't, and I have plenty of pictures to prove it. I've figured out how to get my calves to grow, though."
"[For training calves] a lot of frequency, you don't need a lot of sets, work the stretch, and work your tibia."
"The high-frequency workouts are actually a little bit shorter compared to the base workouts. That's what we're doing; we're spreading out volume."
"We all have a different idea of what we want to look like. When I train a woman I ask her, 'this is what I think, now you tell me what you want to look like.'"
"Women don't have a special muscle fiber type that men don't have. They don't respond to all this stupid plyometric stuff; it doesn't give them magical bodies. Get in their and do the same thing with just little tweaks."
By the minute:
- (0:28) Lessons of calves training
- (4:03) Do you incorporate all four phases of training for high-frequency body parts?
- (6:05) Do you have any suggestions about adjustments for women's training?
