Pay Attention to Calves, Forearm & Neck Training

It’s always the little things in life that we tend to overlook, those minute details that tend to make all the difference in the long run. Training in the gym is no exception. Think about your standard week in the gym. You have a chest day, a back day, a shoulder day, an arm day and a leg day. You train with heavy compound movements, focusing your energies upon such exercises as bench press, leg press, squats, deadlifts, rows, curls, and more. You train to build big muscles, and as a result you tend to focus your time and energy in the gym upon the bigger muscle groups. It makes sense, right?

However, it can be in the overlooking of some smaller muscle groups that you can not only limit your overall muscle gain, but also create some small deficiencies which can become bigger over time. How? Let’s take a closer look.

Your body can, conceivably, hold about 60 more pounds of muscle than you will have untrained, right? You may pack 12 pounds on your back, 10 pounds on your arms, etc. But what about the potential for growth on muscle groups such as traps, calves, forearms and neck? You might have a combined 6 or 8 pounds of muscle potential there which isn’t realized if you aren’t giving these muscle groups specialized and focused training.

More importantly, you may also be creating small holes in your overall core which can lead to injuries, or prevent muscle gain, down the road. What if your grip fails on your deadlift before your back muscles give out? You are suddenly short circuiting your back muscle gains because you didn’t spend a few minutes each week targeting forearms with deliberate exercises. Or, you can consider the squatter who can’t hit that 12th repetition not because of any weakness in the thighs, but because his weak calves give out long before any other muscle growth.

The onset of injuries resulting from a ‘weak area’ also cannot be overlooked. How many people have sustained a hernia on back day – not because of their heavy back training – but because they failed to train abdominals properly, and they ruptured as a result of the pressure the back was exerting on the body? Face it – if you allow yourself to grow unevenly, you will not have overall physique balance, and you will run the risk of becoming injured when you train.

You should always make room at the end of training days for ab training. Calves should be hit twice per week, as they are a high frequency body part which receives stimulation all day long. Forearms should be trained with 4 to 6 sets on arm or back day after everything else has been trained. Neck and traps should be hit on shoulder day. It only takes a few minutes to toss a few sets at these smaller, often inconsequential muscle groups. But their overall impact, in terms of muscle size, support role, and injury avoidance is pretty major!

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