Natalie Jill leads a short at-home calf-focused workout demonstrating four bodyweight exercises (plie toe raises, squat toe raises, on-toes small jumps, and straight-ahead toe raises). The video gives setup cues, brief form tips (toes position, heels elevated), optional progressions (add weight, alternate legs), and notes that running technique contributes to developed calves.
Chapters
Hey, guys. Natalie, Jill. Welcome back to Happy, healthy and Fit. Today we are calling in the calves. Not that kind of calf, these kind of calves. We're going to work these. I've had a lot of requests for calf exercises, so we're going to do four of them that you can use with your own body weight and do them anywhere. Are you ready?
Okay, I've got four exercises for you. You can do them anywhere. We're going to start with a simple plie move. So feet are shoulder width, distance apart, toes pointed out. And we're going to come up on our toes just like this. And it's just a slight move. Up and down. Just like this, up and down. You're going to be working a little bit of balance here, too. This will also work your inner thighs, which is always a plus. You will feel it in your calves. Now, if you want to make this harder, you can always add a weight and hold it here or hold it here. Definitely working our calves with these. Keep it going.
Squeeze. Now, if you were to put your heels down, we would take our calves out and we would just be working those inner thighs. But by keeping it up here, we're working those calves, too.
Few more.
Nice. Good job. Shake it out. All right, next one, we're going to take it to a squat down right here, right here. And we just got up and down, up and down. Do it with me. Up.
Up, up.
Little movement. You will feel this in your quads, too, but definitely a lot of calves right here.
Give me three more.
Nice. Bring it up. Shake it out. All right, Got little jumps here. Here on our toes, like you're jump roping. Bring it right here. Bring it out. So we're going to get our heart rate up here, too. So we got some bonus points getting our heart rate up, burning some fat. But we're also working those calves little jumps. Can alternate legs or keep it here. I'm going to alternate. Really working those.
Good job. Keep going.
Few more.
Nice. Okay, the final exercise for calves, we're just going to point our toes forward and it's just an up and down. Coming up to your toes and down. So real slight right here. Up and up. Simple, simple move. You don't need any fancy machines for calves. Just this simple move. You'll notice just a few of them and you're going to start to feel it.
Big reason that runners have nice calves is the way that they're landing, hitting that.
It doesn't take many of these and you can start to really feel it now. How often can you do all these exercises as often as you want? All of these calf exercises? Give me two more ones, too. Oh, shake it out. All of these calf exercises can be done in addition to any other workout that you're doing. All right? If you want to get in the best shape of your life and you want my help, then I highly suggest you check out my DVDs. You can get all those at the link below.
