How to do the Calf Raise
Step by step
- Stand tall with feet hip-width apart, balls of your feet on a step edge if available.
- Hold a wall or rail lightly for balance if you need it.
- Push through the balls of your feet to raise your heels as high as you can.
- Squeeze your calves at the top of the range.
- Lower your heels slowly, feeling a stretch, then repeat.
The thing people get wrong
Go through the full range - all the way up to a squeeze and all the way down to a stretch. Avoid quick, bouncy reps.
Coaching cue
Keep your knees straight and push straight up through your big toe.
Make it easier or harder
- Harder: Do them one leg at a time.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Calves
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.