Calves. A muscle group that are neglected by many or those who do train them may experience slow muscle growth. Here are the 2 most useful principles I have used & given to others that you can apply to your own routine.
Train calves through a full range of motion
Some muscles can be trained very effectively through a partial range of motion but the calves are not one of those muscle groups. We use the calf muscles quite a bit in daily activity and they are used to moving the weight of your body around many hundreds if not thousands of times a day. It is going to take an extraordinary stimulus to really make the calves want to grow. It is therefore crucially important to emphasize a full range of movement.
Don’t get fancy with calf exercises
Variety is overrated when it comes to calf work. Find a couple solid calf exercises that you like, stay with them and pound them. Standing calf presses are the old standby that work so well I am convinced that it is the single best exercise for gastrocnemius growth. Seated calf raises are easily the most effective exercise for building the soleus muscle. Between these two, almost anyone can build a very good set of calves over time.
Both of the above are not over complicated or anything ground breaking but will hopefully reemphasis just how important it is to execute them both.