Bar on Shoulders Smith Machine Calf Raise
Also known as: smith calf raise
In SetGrip: Smith Machine Calf Raise (Bar on Shoulders)
- Primary muscleCalves
- EquipmentSmith Machine
- DifficultyBeginner
- TypeIsolation · Ankle extension
- Secondary muscles
- Hamstrings
- Body part
- Lower Legs
- Position
- Standing
- Laterality
- Bilateral (both sides together)
- Category
- Strength
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With the bar racked across your shoulders and the Smith machine guiding it, balance stops being the limiting factor and your calves become it. That makes this an easy variant to load heavier than the free-weight barbell raise, and the hooks let you set a platform under the balls of your feet for a deeper stretch.
How to do the Bar on Shoulders Smith Machine Calf Raise
- Adjust the smith machine bar to a height just below your shoulders.
- Stand facing the bar with your feet hip-width apart and toes pointing forward.
- Place the balls of your feet on the edge of a step or platform, with your heels hanging off.
- Hold onto the bar for support, keeping your back straight and core engaged.
- Raise your heels as high as possible, lifting your body weight onto the balls of your feet.
- Pause for a moment at the top, then slowly lower your heels back down to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tip: Count two seconds up, hold one at the top and take three seconds down.
Muscles worked
Primary
Calves · Legs
Standing raises target the gastrocnemius while seated raises target the deeper soleus; either way you should feel a hard cramp-like squeeze at the top and a strong stretch at the bottom.
Secondary
- Hamstrings — The hamstrings only stabilize here — it is the gastrocnemius that shares the knee-crossing role, so straight legs keep it loaded while bent knees hand the work to the soleus.
Common mistakes
- Bouncing out of the bottom — the Achilles tendon does the work if you rebound; pause at the bottom of the stretch for a count before pressing up.
- Cutting the range short — go all the way down until you feel a full stretch in the calf and all the way up onto the big toe.
- Rolling onto the outer foot — drive through the big toe side of the ball of the foot to keep the whole calf working.
- Too heavy, too fast — calves handle high loads but they respond to controlled reps with a slow descent, not bouncing partials.
Where it fits in a workout
Calf raises go at the end of a lower body session or between sets of an upper body lift. Superset seated and standing raises to hit both parts of the calf back to back.
How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.
Variations and alternatives
Similar exercises
Without smith machine
When to talk to someone
- Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
- Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
- Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.
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More exercises
Sources
- ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
- ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
- ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
- CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)
Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.
Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.