How to do the Dumbbell Seated One-Leg Calf Raise

Steps

1. Place a block on the floor about 12 inches from a flat bench.
2. Sit on a flat bench and place a dumbbell on your upper left thigh about 3 inches above your knee.
3. Now place the ball of your left foot on the block. This will be your starting position.
4. Raise your toes up as high as possible as you exhale and you contract your calf muscle. Hold the contraction for a second.
5. Slowly return to the starting position, stretching as far down as possible.
6. Repeat for your prescribed number of repetitions and then repeat with the right leg.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the dumbbell seated one-leg calf raise to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.