Technique Summary

With dumbbells in your hands, raise your body using your calves.  Exhale as your raise yourself, inhale on the way down.

Technique Details

Keep your chest out and your back straight throughout the exercise.  Keep your feet straight, but don't lock out your knees.  Stand with your feet at shoulder width apart, and toes facing forward. Raise your body with your calves as far up as you can.  Breathe out as you raise your body, breathe in on the way down.

Standing with your feet flat on the floor reduces the range of motion.  You can use a foot plate (anything stable that will elevate your body several inches off the ground) to extend the range of motion.  Usually gyms have wooden blocks that serve this purpose, or you could use one of those        4-inch aerobic steps.  Using a foot plate disturbs balance.  To keep balance you should only do one foot a time.  Hold a dumbbell in your right hand if you are exercising the right calf.  Hold on to something stable with your left arm.  Keep your left foot in the air.  Raise yourself with the right foot.  Exhale on the way up, inhale on the way down.

Since your calves are stressed every day of your life, they require higher reps and weight for development. You should perform the exercise until you feel a burn!  The weight and the rep count will vary with your routine, but the underlying idea always remains the same - don't worry about overwhelming your calves.

Your calf consists of three muscles.  You have the medial (inside facing) and the lateral (outside facing) gastrocnemius head.  These make up the bulk of your calf.  There is also a slim muscle that extends in a line from both sides of your calf called the Soleus.  You could isolate these muscles in performing calf raises.  To isolate the lateral head (the outside facing calves) you should position your feet so that your toes facing inward (each other).  To isolate the medial head (the inside facing calves) you need to keep your feet facing out and away from each other.  Don't over do the angle on either one.  Fifteen degrees in or out is sufficient.  To isolate the Soleus you should flex your knees.  This removes some of the pressure from the gastrocnemius to the Soleus.