In this Dense Club instructional video, the presenter argues that developing strong feet and calves is essential for both athletic performance and an impressive physique. He cites elite dunkers Dylan McCarthy and King Mack, noting their extraordinary vertical jumps and heavy calf training histories, to illustrate the impact of dedicated calf work. The core of the program centers on barbell calf raises performed front‑racked to reduce spinal load and increase core activation, recommending high‑volume schemes (e.g., 5–10 sets of 20 reps) and variations such as heavy partials, full‑range reps, double‑leg and single‑leg movements. Additional emphasis is placed on slant‑board work for stretch and range, and on rising onto the toes to target intrinsic foot muscles. The presenter stresses that calf training is low‑fatigue, can be slotted before or after main lifts, and provides quantifiable progress via barbell loading. Practical programming advice, equipment accessibility, and the broader athletic benefits of stronger calves and feet are highlighted throughout.
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Dance club. This is one that you probably haven't done that much of in the past, but it's going to make a big difference when we care about absolute athleticism and athletic physiques. Some of you might be blessed with big calves, but for everyone else, including me, developing strong feet and calves makes all the difference for athleticism, but also for physique standout calves, something that we all should aspire to. The other big piece of the puzzle here is that some of the biggest dunkers of the modern time, Dylan McCarthy and Darius, his name is King, King Mac. On Instagram, they put a huge emphasis on calf development, or at least they have extremely strong calves. You can listen to a podcast from Dylan McCarthy. When he was 18 years old, before he started working with any coach, he was just training himself. He was training his calves multiple times a day. Seated calf raises, sets of 20 heavy weights, and he was able to achieve a 49 inch vertical jump at a super young age. He's one of the best jumpers in the world. Dunkers in the world. King Mack, I think has the highest recorded vertical jump and he's confident he can do much more. He's done 500 pound calf raise, extending calf raise, this kind of movement, we've also got the Marinovic system that put a huge emphasis on foot and calf development. And I think the best way, one of the best ways for us to work on it is just to do the barbell work. I'm doing it front racked here, puts a little bit less stress on the spine. You get a little bit more core engagement. Sets of 20. I've already done a bunch of sets. If we can build our feet up and our calves up to be outlier, strong, we're going to go so much further with what we can do with the hips. We want to be able to run and jump. And the goal with dense club is to make you athletic at the same time as getting your ideal physique. So the work on the slant board, you're not going to be able to go as heavy, but it's going to bring more stretch, that full range. So we want to do heavy partial repetitions, full range of motion, Double leg, single leg, stretching out. And one that most people haven't tried is going up all the way onto the toes. You see ball, the foot, press out onto the toes. I'm holding onto the ring here, but we can do it just a pinky. It's tricky to balance, but this extra strength, it's mostly going to use the muscles inside of the foot, so they're right up onto the toes. If we can have. We want the muscular development from this, we want the athleticism from this. And in a way, it's free. Like, you're not going to be super fatigued from doing calf work. So you can put it in at the end of sessions, you can put it in at the start of sessions before you jump if you want healthier tissues. If you have any questions about this one, more than welcome to ask. And of course, CDC half raise is also good. All the variations are valuable. I'm just encouraging the barbell to come into the picture because it gives us nice, clear, quantified numbers where the machines are always a little bit different. And we tend to be on the barbells. If you're in a gym, they're always there. You can add in when you're squatting, you can add in when you're doing standing presses or bench press. Like it's. It's always there to do. So, yeah, five sets of 20 is a really good place to start. 10 sets of 20. 10 sets of 10. All the. All the fun stuff of dents. Do we need to do singles and stuff? I don't know, but, yeah, let's get them much stronger. And it's going to carry over to everything else that we want to do in terms of athleticism.
