The fitness world is constantly evolving, and everyday there’s a new workout with someone saying it’s the best workout ever. But as the industry progresses, we’ve left behind some classic workouts that still get the job done.

The Donkey Calf Raise Is Heavily Underrated

It’s an old school workout, and some may think it looks a bit goofy, but donkey calf raises are one of the best calf workouts, and was even Arnold Schwarzenegger’s favorite for that area.

All it takes is a forward bend at the hips, resting your upper body on something stable, and proceeding to do calf raises like in the picture above. You don’t need a machine, as you could simply stabilize the upper body by leaning on a bench, still keeping the torso inline with the hips, not letting it sink below them. When there’s dorsiflexion, or the front of the feet are elevated, this places even more of a stretch of the calves.

Donkey calf raises target both calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus) more effectively than traditional standing calf raises. When the body is bent forward with anterior hip flexion, a significant stretch is placed on the entire lower posterior chain, including the calves and achilles, allowing more range of motion and isolated load on the calves.

When wanting to add weight, place them on the lower back/upper glute area. You could use a plate, dumbbell, barbell, a dip bar belt attached to weight, or have someone sit there, which was more common than some people may think. With the standing variation, the weight is held by hand or on the traps, and the upper body’s need to stabilize the weight takes some load off the calves, giving an edge to donkey calf raises.

How To Incorporate Donkey Calf Raises Into Your Workouts

Donkey calf raises target the gastrocnemius more than standing raises, but it doesn’t isolate the soleus better than seated raises. Doing both seated and donkey variations would make a great superset at the end of a workout, effectively targeting both calf muscles. And that doesn’t mean ditch standing raises either, as it may be easier to add weighted resistance compared to the donkey position. You could even superset donkey raises with calf jumps to work on explosiveness. The possibilities are endless.

So grab a friend, lean forward, and ask them “hey, can you sit on my hips?”