Think of a see-saw at the playground. Put a 50lb kid on one end and a fully grown adult on the other. The adult obviously lifts the kid, right? Put the adult one inch from the center pivot point and guess what, the kid’s weight now lifts the adult.

Think of how long your quads are in relation to the length of your femur. Pretty much equal. Now think of your calf’s length in relation to the length of your foot. Its almost twice as long. That’s almost twice the amount of leverage compared to your quads.

This is the difference between the two and why your calves seem so much more capable for their size than your quads.

Leverage.