Ask any bodybuilder at your gym which musclegroup he/she thinks is the hardest to make grow, and I can assure you that 95% of them will answer: "The calves." And to remedy this, they finish almost every gymsession, every day, by doing a few sets of standing and seated calf-presses before hitting the shower. Later at night they scratch their heads as they look down and see absolutely zero improvement, in spite of their daily work.
What's wrong with this picture?
Boy, there's plenty wrong. Obviously, as they're not growing! However, let's take a step back and see WHY that is before going into detail of what works. For one thing, what on earth are you planning to accomplish by training the same muscle group every day? I mean, except for making a classic example of overtraining? Would you train your PECS every day? No way! You hit it hard, then let it rest for a week to rebuild and overcompensate before going at it again. I know some people argue that it's OK because it's mainly slow-twitch muscle fibers, and is simply made to last longer. It's about 80% actually, and that means they're slightly less explosive and don't have quite as good potential to grow as if it was a majority of fast-twitch fibers ... which only makes it even MORE important to train them properly! Just because they have higher tolerance before fatigue doesn't mean they don't need to recuperate just like your pecs once you've torn them down, so to speak!
And in order to tear them down, as in training effectively, you need to train them like every other muscle - hit it hard and precise, then let it rest.
Which brings me to the next point: The keyword in my last sentence is "hit them hard." If your calves are lousy in the first place, making your entire legs look disproportional, why would you let your worst bodypart play second fiddle to another bodypart that is way ahead in the first place? The classic example of this is they guy who blows off all his energy and then some on set after set of heavy squats and leg presses, then dutifully does two sets of leg curls and two sets of seated calf presses before crawling home. He repeats the procedure once a week for three years. Then, suddenly, he looks down when wearing shorts, and exclaims: "Gee, look how tiny my calves are! Why is that?" Duuh... I guess we can simply conclude that he won't be seen on Jeopardy anytime soon.
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