Doing seated calf raises can be helpful but they are not for everyone. Discover some alternatives to seated calf raises with similar effects.
By sitting down you change to focus on your lower, deeper calf muscle, the soleus instead of the gastrocnemius, the higher calf muscle.
As a consequence, seated calf raises also still offer more general benefits of working out like building muscle mass and improving bone density.
Whether you don’t enjoy seated calf raises, you don’t have a seated calf raise machine, or you want an alternative for any other reason, these seated calf raise substitutes can offer you some or all of the same benefits.
If you don’t have a seated calf raise machine but you do have other types of calf workout equipment (dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, a barbell, etc.) keep in mind that you can use these for a seated calf raise.
1. Standing calf raises
This first seated calf raise alternative is the same exercise but standing up. Standing calf raises do focus more on the upper part of your calves but you will still engage your soleus too.
Take the following steps to do a standing calf raise:
- Stand up straight with your feet pointing forward and about shoulder-width apart. If you want, you can hold any weight in your hands.
- Raise your heels off the ground with the help of your calf muscles as far as you safely can.
- Lower your body again in a controlled motion.
You can also do calf raises with the front of your feet on an edge, calf raise block, or something similar.
These allow your calves to go through a bigger range of motion. If you implement this variation take a break at the bottom of the movement so that you use your calf muscles and not your tendons to move upward.
If you do not have a lot of weights available but you do want to make standing calf raises more challenging, you can consider doing single-leg calf raises.
For this variation, you do likely want something to hold for balance.
2. Leg press calf raises
The leg press is a gym machine where you push away weights from your body with your legs.
The angle of this pushing can be horizontal or more often upward while sitting in a low seat. You can describe the leg press as a squat in machine form.
This gym machine is generally used for doing a squat-like movement but this focuses more on leg muscles like the quadriceps and glutes.
Even so, you can also do calf raises on the leg press machine by putting your front feet at the bottom of the platform on which you put your feet.
After that, the movement is similar to a standing calf raise. This means you can also change the angle of your feet to shift the focus to different parts of your calves.
You could even do a “seated” calf raise alternative on the leg press machine by folding your legs. However, when doing this you don’t have the room for the extra ankle range of motion.
3. Inward calf raises
Take the following steps to do an inward calf raise:
- Stand up straight with your feet at about shoulder width apart and pointing at about 45-angle degrees inward.
- Raise your heels off the ground with the help of your calf muscles as far as you safely can.
- Lower your body again in a controlled motion.
The upper calve muscle, the gastrocnemius, has an inner and outer part. By pointing your feet inward, the calf raises focus more on the outer muscle head (outer part) of the calf muscle (1).
If you can you can also do the inward calf raise on one leg. Keep in mind that doing the exercise this way makes it easier to twist your body into a straight foot single-leg calf raise.
It is hard to find an alternative to the seated calf raise that focuses as much on the soleus calf muscle. If you focus more on the upper calf muscle, you may as well focus on the side that you prefer.
4. Outward calf raises
Take the following steps to do an outward calf raise:
- Stand up straight with your feet at about shoulder width apart and pointing at about 45-angle degrees outward.
- Raise your heels off the ground with the help of your calf muscles as far as you safely can.
- Lower your body again in a controlled motion.
Similar to inward calf raises, the difference in foot position makes it so the calf exercise has a slightly different focus.
Putting your feet in an outward position during calf raises makes it so you engage the inner part of your upper calf muscle more.
Just like inward calf raises, you can try to do outward calf raises on one leg. Make sure you don’t twist your body into a straight foot calf raise when doing that variation.
5. Tip toe farmer’s walk
The farmer’s walk is an exercise where you simply pick up weights from the ground and walk a certain distance or amount of time.
By walking on the front of your feet with your heels in the air you make this more of a calf exercise and thus more of a seated calf raise alternative.
You can hold basically any type of weight in your hands to train your calf muscles to a larger extent.
On the other hand, these exercises are definitely not the exact same in terms of effects.
Farmer’s walks will focus more on calf muscle endurance in the gastrocnemius calf muscles. Seated calf raises focus more on muscle growth and strength increases in the soleus calf muscles.
6. Power skips
For power skips you preferably have some room, both in height and length, to do the movement. Once you have that, take the following steps to do this exercise:
- Stand upright with your feet at about shoulder width.
- Move up one thigh as far as comfortable while folding this leg, push offer the ground with your calf of the other leg, and move up the arm opposite of the leg that is in the air. Do all of this in an explosive way so that you jump off the ground.
- Land first with the foot closest to the ground. Make sure your leg is slightly less than stretched so it can fold a bit on impact.
- Stretch the leg that is in the air to slightly less than stretched and land with this leg on the ground.
- Repeat the movement but while raising the other leg first. To do multiple power skips you keeping alternating.
Initially, you may have to get used to this movement to be able to do it at higher speeds. Keep your upper body upright during the exercise.
The way you train your muscles influences what fitness component you improve. Power skips focus more on the muscle power in your calves.
Keep in mind that power skips can be hard on body parts like ankles, knees, hips, and lower back. Especially if you use extra weights.
7. Tiptoe squats
If needed you can hold a wall or stable object for balance during this next seated calf raise alternative. Take the following steps to do a tiptoe squat:
- Stand up straight with your feet at more or less shoulder width.
- Raise your heels off the ground so you are standing on your toes.
- Slowly lower your hips by bending your knees. How far depends on different factors like knee health but at your lowest point you ideally want your hips to be at or lower than your knee height. You will likely have to bend forward for balance but keep your back in a straight line throughout the movement.
- Push yourself up again into starting position by stretching your legs.
By doing the regular squat on your toes you focus more on your calf muscles while at the same time training your quadriceps and glutes a good amount.
You can do tiptoe squats with extra weight but this can be challenging when it comes to balance.
