A Must Have Item For Your Home Gym!

Homemade Calf Raise Block

Calves are the hardest muscle to build. You walk around on them all day and toughen them up.

You need to do standing and seated calf raises, in bare feet for a greater range of motion, and at least five sets of twenty five reps.

Some websites suggest just using a single 2 x 4 piece of wood, but that hardly provides any stretch at all. The homemade calf raise block I built below is 4 1/2" high, giving your calves a good stretch.

I found this new one on a web site for $40, plus shipping:

A quick trip to a home improvement center, and I built this one for around $8:

I’ve included an exploded view, pdf file of this project. If you are having trouble viewing this, please open your adobe reader and refresh this page.

List of materials needed:

I always buy the best cuts of wood and try to find the straightest boards. This makes the projects easier and the finished product more aesthetically pleasing.

I had the power tools at home, but I got lazy and had the home improvement center employee cut the 2" x 4" x 8' into four 24" pieces.

Next, cut the rubber stair runner to 7" x 24".

Glue the stair runner to one of the 2" x 4" x 24" pieces. Only one inch of the stair runner is glued at first (see photo); then I put an olympic plate on top of the 2" x 4" x 24" to hold it in place and let the glue set over night.

Next step was to wood screw the three boards together making an "H".

Then take the last 2" x 4" x 24" board with the stair runner barely glued to it and fasten it to the top board of the "H".

I wrapped the stair runner around the 2" x 4", glued it, and tacked the other edge with five roofing nails:

A nice coat of primer, and then some black spray paint and you're done!

Now I'm using this on a carpeted floor, so it doesn't slip. If you're going to use this on concrete, I would glue some of the left over rubber stair runner to the bottom of this to provide more traction.

Keep on lifting!