Calf-raise machines come in two common forms: a standing version, where the knees are straight, and a seated version, where the knees are bent under a pad. Buyers of a home gym or a multi-station machine often have to choose which to fit in. This article summarises the abstracts of two training trials on the calf raise, one comparing standing and seated positions and one testing partial repetitions beyond failure. Both used untrained volunteers and measured muscle size with imaging, so they show what happened in those groups over 10 to 12 weeks and do not rank particular machines.
Trial one: standing against seated, one leg each
Kinoshita and colleagues, in Frontiers in Physiology in 2023, started from the point that the calf muscle group, the triceps surae, is relatively unresponsive to resistance training in terms of growth. They compared two positions: standing with the knee extended, where the gastrocnemius calf muscle is lengthened, and seated with the knee bent to 90 degrees, where it is shortened.
Fourteen untrained adults trained one leg in each position, at 70% of their one-repetition maximum, doing 10 repetitions a set, five sets a session and two sessions a week for 12 weeks. Magnetic resonance imaging before and after measured the volume of each calf muscle and of the whole triceps surae. The abstract reports:
- Muscle volume rose significantly in all three muscles and in the whole triceps surae for both legs, except for the gastrocnemius muscles of the seated leg.
- The increases were greater for the standing leg in the lateral gastrocnemius (12.4% against 1.7%), the medial gastrocnemius (9.2% against 0.6%) and the whole triceps surae (5.6% against 2.1%).
- The soleus, another calf muscle, grew by a similar amount in both legs (2.1% against 2.9%).
The authors concluded that standing calf raises were far more effective than seated ones for enlarging the gastrocnemius, and therefore the whole triceps surae, and that the similar soleus result together with this suggests that training at long muscle lengths promotes growth. This is a single trial of 14 people, so it is a reasoned suggestion rather than a settled rule; the same idea is discussed more broadly in this site’s guide to stretch-mediated hypertrophy.
Trial two: partial repetitions beyond failure
Goli and colleagues published a 2026 trial in the International Journal of Exercise Science that asked whether extending calf-raise sets with partial repetitions in the more dorsiflexed part of the range, the lower, stretched part of the movement, would increase muscle growth. Sixteen untrained men (average age about 25) completed 10 weeks of unilateral standing calf raises twice a week. One leg did traditional sets of 10 to 14 repetitions to full-range momentary failure, four to six sets a session. The other did half as many sets to full-range failure, followed by partial-range repetitions to a second failure, two to three sets a session. Total volume-load was equated, and muscle thickness of the gastrocnemius was measured by ultrasound.
After training, both approaches produced equivalent changes in muscle thickness, about 8% in each. Per set, however, the partial-repetition approach was more efficient (0.16% compared with 0.08%). The authors concluded that under volume-load-equated conditions the two methods seem to evoke similar changes in gastrocnemius thickness after 10 weeks in untrained young men, and that adding longer-length partial repetitions allows more volume-load per set. Broader evidence on full and partial ranges is summarised in this site’s guide to range of motion in strength training.
Reading the two together
- Knee position appeared to matter in the first trial: the standing position produced far larger gastrocnemius growth, while the soleus responded similarly either way.
- The second trial used standing calf raises only, so it says nothing about seated machines.
- In both, the participants were untrained, and each person served as their own comparison, with one leg per condition.
What the trials cannot show
Neither abstract compared brands, machine designs or plate-loaded and selectorised versions. Both trials involved small groups and relatively short periods. The first measured muscle volume; the second measured muscle thickness; neither reported jumping, running or other performance results. The findings apply to the muscle-size outcomes measured, and to the ranges of load and volume used.
What this means when comparing equipment
For a buyer whose aim includes bigger calves, the first trial gives a reason to favour a set-up that allows a standing, straight-knee calf raise over a seated machine alone. The second suggests that adding a few partial repetitions at the stretched end is an option that does not need extra equipment. This site’s guide to leg and glute equipment covers which machines load the lower body.
Frequently asked questions
Is the seated calf raise a waste of time?
Not on the trial’s own figures. Seated training still produced significant growth in the soleus, and the whole triceps surae grew by 2.1%, but it produced far less gastrocnemius growth than the standing version.
Do partial repetitions grow calves faster?
In the second trial, they produced the same overall growth for equated volume-load, with better growth per set. That is a single trial of 16 untrained men.
The bottom line
One 12-week trial found standing calf raises produced much more gastrocnemius growth than seated ones in 14 untrained adults, while the soleus responded similarly; a 10-week trial in 16 untrained men found that adding partial repetitions past failure produced similar growth to full-range training when volume-load was equal, with more growth per set. Both are small, so a station allowing a standing calf raise is a reasonable priority, without treating the results as final.
Sources
- Kinoshita M, Maeo S, Kobayashi Y, et al., “Triceps surae muscle hypertrophy is greater after standing versus seated calf-raise training,” Front Physiol, 2023
- Goli A, Attarieh P, Nunes JP, Nehegadar S, Khani S, “Does Performing Partial Repetitions Beyond Momentary Failure Enhance Muscle Hypertrophy in Volume-Load-Equated Calf-Raise Resistance Training?,” Int J Exerc Sci, 2026