In this work we give optimal, i.e., necessary and sufficient, conditions for integrals of the calculus of variations to guarantee the existence of solutions-both weak and variational solutions-to the associated L-2-gradient flow. The initial values are merely L-2 functions with possibly infinite energy. In this context, the notion of integral convexity, i.e., the convexity of the variational integral and not of the integrand, plays the crucial role; surprisingly, this type of convexity is weaker than the convexity of the integrand. We demonstrate this by means of certain quasi-convex and nonconvex integrands.