i'm 6'6" with a thin frame and 21 years of age. i use to weigh in at about 160lbs but after three years of weightlifting and diet-planning, i now weight about 195lbs.

i've had a real hard time building my calves. they're reasonably strong but very long and thin and the muscle bulge is not in proportion to most other people's legs. i've read that the best exercise for bulking calf mass is far and away standing calf raises. however, my gym doesn't have a standing calf-raise station, only a seated cal-raise station a donkey calf station and a couple other machines that i pay no attention to...

i've been doing four sets of seated raises that get progressively heavier starting at about 15 reps and ending at about 8, once a week. during the exercise i try to stretch the range of motion to the maximum. i use to add donkey raises but they didn't help much and i tried doing standing raises in a squat cage with an olympic bar on my shoulders but i had a hard time with balance and was hurting my back. i've also seen people doing some form of calf raise on leg press machines.

can someone give me some advice on increasing my calf size? no matter how hard i work, they seem to stay a pretty constant level... or is my only option plyometrics?

Higher reps. You have to beat the snot out of your calves to make them grow. Try 2-3 times a week, 2-3 exercises (standing/seated/leg press/etc) 3-4 sets of 20-30 reps. Your calves can handle a lot more weight than you might think. Another option, for variation, is doing long-hold reps. 10-15 reps of holding the top of the contraction and *squeeeeezing* for 5 seconds is great also.

Does your gym have a squat machine or a leg press? You can use either of these to do a calf raise. Instead of standing flat footed, move your feet back so you are resting on the balls of you feet.

Higher reps, 20 to 35 per set. Do them slowly with full range of motion and hold them as Naxis said for even better results. Keep in mind you are working different muscles in the calves depending on if you are doing them with bent knee or without bent knee. Bent knee (seated raises or donkey raises) work the soleus muscle which is basically the sides of the calves whereas without bent knee you are working the gastronomeous (sp?) muscle which is the back of the calf (the part most people think of as the calf muscle). Does your gym have a smith machine? If so use that with your toes on a block of wood.

I have the same problem as the original poster, particularly when it comes to performing standing calf raises with a barbell. I have a very hard time maintaining balance. Do you have any suggestions on how to make this particular exercise more manageable? Also Naxis, you suggest doing calf exercises 2-3 times a week. Right now, I'm doing a three day split with no more than 2 consecutive days of weight training. Day 1-Chest/Shoulders/Triceps, Day 2-Legs, Day 3-Back/Biceps/Forearms. Wouldn't doing calf exercises 2-3 days per week mean I'd have too many weight training sessions per week? I don't want to risk overtraining. What happened to the rule of never training more than 2 days in a row?

Never heard of any rule stating not to train 2 days in a row. I train on consecutive days all the time, just not the same muscles is all. You don't have to train calves in conjunction with another routine. You can go and only train calves if need be.

If balance is an issue do them on a smith machine. Its like a squat rack but the bar is on a track and balance isn't an issue using that. Certain squat machines work too.