4 Beginner Soleus Exercises

Easy Beginner Exercises to Strengthen your Soleus Muscle

For athletes that sprint, jump and make quick sudden movements like runners, basketball players and tennis players to name a few, fatigue, overtraining and soleus strain are common injuries. To prevent soleus injuries, we recommend doing calf raise type exercises. Read below for 4 beginner exercises that can help you strengthen your soleus muscle.

If you’re looking for more advanced exercises, check out the videos on our Soleus blog post.

Wall Sit

• Using a wall, get yourself into position with your your knees and hips at 90°, feet far enough in front of you so that your knee and heel are in a nice, straight line
• While in this position, raise your heels up and get on your tiptoes
• Hold position for a couple seconds, if this is too difficult, you don’t need to hold, the longer you hold, the harder the exercise
• Return to starting position

Seated Calf Raise with Resistance

• Start by sitting down, with your feet lined up so they’re directly below your knees
• We recommend using a weight if you have one, or using your hands as resistance
• Push down with as much resistance as you can handle and while you push down, raise your heels off the ground and then return to starting position
• The more you push down, the more resistance you’ll get

Bridge Position Calf Raises

• Start by lying on your back with your knees bent, heels pretty close to your butt
• Get into bridge position by lifting your hips off the ground, forming a straight line from your shoulders to your knees
• While holding that position, lift your heels off the ground and get on your tiptoes, holding for a beat or two and then slowly lowering your heels back down
• Make sure you’re staying in that straight bridge position
• To make this harder, you can try lifting and maintaining one leg straight in the air while doing the heel raises

Bent Knee Calf Raises

• Standing on a staircase (ideally with a railing on each side), hold onto the railing for support
• Have your toes, up to the ball of your feet on the step and your heels hanging off
• You want a nice bend in your knee, let your heels drop below the step and then raise them back up
• You can hold for a beat or two at the top or at the bottom to get the stretch
• Aim for 10-15 reps
• This one is a bit more advanced than the ones above, but I would consider this one of the earlier, beginner type exercises

Check out the video below to follow along with the exercises in real time.

Exercises