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Do your calf muscles become flabby when you're not standing or flexing?
I am a thin person and decided I wanted to get some lines and definition on my body. For the past two months, I've been doing lunges, squats, leg extensions, toe raises, and other excercises like that to help with definition and strength. I haven't used legs weight but I did develop what I thought were calf muscles. There's definitely a bulk there that wasn't there before.
The problem: If I'm, say, lying down, and l shake the "muscle", it moves, like fat? Is that normal? Before the workout, there was nothing there. I thought muscles stayed firm. I'm not sure I like this....
Thank you for reading and taking the time to reply. I aoologize if this is a silly question but...
Please check your calves and get back to me.
I am a thin person and decided I wanted to get some lines and definition on my body. For the past two months, I've been doing lunges, squats, leg extensions, toe raises, and other excercises like that to help with definition and strength. I haven't used legs weight but I did develop what I thought were calf muscles. There's definitely a bulk there that wasn't there before.
The problem: If I'm, say, lying down, and l shake the "muscle", it moves, like fat? Is that normal? Before the workout, there was nothing there. I thought muscles stayed firm. I'm not sure I like this....
Thank you for reading and taking the time to reply. I aoologize if this is a silly question but...
Please check your calves and get back to me.
First off you're perfectly normal. As you develop muscle and increase your strength you are also fighting of bone density loss and increasing your ability to more fully participate in life. Enjoy it. Somebody else will probably jump in here and give you more and better info but in the interim...
My understanding of your concern is that when you relax so do your muscles and you're not yet happy with how you look. Don't worry. Your muscles are still there as you find when you go looking for them after a workout.
If you were to look at some eye candy on the front of a fitness magazine you would not only be looking at someone who was in great shape but also someone who had likely worked out within 20-30 minutes of the picture being taken. They get "pumped up" and lightly oiled up and then photoshopped. Most fashion photos average about 10 hours of photoshop before publication. This gives an unrealistic expectation of definition.
Remember also that definition is a combination of both muscle mass and body fat %. Decent article here;
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/07/02/body-fat-percentage/
If the calves stayed hard as a rock all the time (or formed a knot like a painful Charlie horse), I'd say you have a potassium deficiency.
My calves are still pretty hard today after a 20-mile bike-ride yesterday...but my body may be different than yours.
Facing50: The artiicle you shared and your insights were very helpful to me. It certainly broadened my understanding and will help me to have more realistic goals for definition and health. Thank you so much.
Mandoman: Yes, I guess my muscles were resting. It just seemed weird to me that BEFORE I started strength training, there was nothing moving. After I started working hard, then there's wobbling? I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.
Koolman: I've never done a 20 mile anything...yet. Maybe that accounts for the difference.
I really appreciated you all taking the time to reply.
http://onlinenutritiondiet.com/calf-exercises-building-mass-strength/