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Okay, I'm a total hard gainer myself. I have always had chicken legs, but for a while I was getting a pretty good set of legs, calves especially (I've since slothed down a bit). I used to do calf raises, but I've always hated them... so I stopped doing them.
To keep myself motivated overall, I streamlined my routine to the "ultimate essentials." My leg routine included only two exercises: dumbbell squats and barbell deadlifts. With this focus, in a matter of time, I noticed my calves started to get wicked shapely. The reason is because of the synergistic relationship of all the leg muscles involved in these exercises. Also, by nature of the balancing requirements for these exercises, your calves are working overtime to prevent yourself from falling over. Calf raises are too restrictive since that muscle group isn't designed to work on it's own. I would only use this exercise again if I wanted freakish size and definition, which is too time consuming...
But there's more. I also "power walk" up to an hour a day. I do this by walking to the subway stations to and from work, rather than take the bus to them. I work in Queen West area near Chinatown in Toronto, so the walk there is always entertaining, which helps. This habit this is another reason why my calves are in such great shape... power walk it!
I give you these three keys:
1) massive-movement lifting to failure (1/week),
2) power walking (5 days/week, up to 1 hour/day), and
3) feed your body what it needs.
Two months of this should start building you some nice calves...
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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