1Ankles roll out
What you see: The weight slides to the little toes and the ankles bow out.
The fix: Press through the big toe and keep your ankles straight up and down.
Form guides · Legs and hips
The calf raise: slow up, slower down.
Small move, big payoff for walking, running and balance, if you use the whole range.
What good looks like.
A calf raise trains the muscles at the back of your lower leg, which push you off the ground with every step. Most people bounce through half the range. Slow, full reps with a pause at the top do far more.
- Stand tall, the balls of your feet on a step, heels hanging off.
- Rise up through the big toe, not the outside of the foot.
- Pause and squeeze at the top.
- Lower slowly until your heels drop below the step.
- Hold a rail or wall for balance, lightly.
- Stand tall, chin in
- Hips and knees still
- Ankles straight, not rolling out
- Up through the big toe
The faults a trainer sees most
What goes wrong, and the cue that fixes it.
The cues in quotes are the words Brad Glaser uses with his own clients.
2Bouncing
What you see: Quick little pulses at the bottom and top.
The fix: Pause at the top, lower for three seconds.
3Half range
What you see: The heels never drop below the step, or barely rise.
The fix: Go all the way down and all the way up.
4Leaning on the support
What you see: The hands take the weight.
The fix: Fingertips only on the rail or wall.
Make it easier, make it harder.
Easier
- On flat floor instead of a step.
- Both feet, holding a counter.
- Seated calf raise with a weight on the knees.
Harder
- One foot at a time.
- A dumbbell in one hand.
- A longer pause at the top.
Move within a range that feels comfortable, and stop any exercise that hurts. Have a health condition, or been inactive a while? Ask your doctor what is right for you first. VeraForma is coaching, not medicine. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it does not replace your doctor or physio.
Let your phone check it.
Prop your phone up and train. VeraForma's camera draws the line on your body and names what it sees, with the number it measured.
Free: your reps counted out loud, and the common standing faults shown right on screen, with the fix in your set report. Go Premium and it speaks the fix while you move: "Knees out." "Chest up."
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free: your movement screen, Phase 1 of your programme and all of nutrition.
More form guides
Built by Brad Glaser · NASM Master Trainer · NASM-CPT, CES, PES · 20+ years · has certified 100+ personal trainers.
He owns a personal-training studio in Southern California. The same method he uses standing next to a client, built into the app.
Train it right, free.
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free account, no card. Brad's questions. One squat on camera. Then your results.