LEG TRAINING SQUAT VS LEG PRESS – Which is better? (Part 1 of 2) This is my personal opinion on the SQUAT! OVERVIEW: Generally, guys want bigger legs and girls want a bigger ass, right? Well the SQUAT can certainly help you achieve both of those! Not for the faint of heart, the SQUAT provides an OVERALL lower body workout incorporating everything (quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves). Doing a squat isn’t just as easy as walking into the gym and doing it though. The movement takes time and practice to get right. To start, perform squats with extremely light weight or even just with your own bodyweight so that you can get the technique down before anything else. WEIGHT: I tend to stay away from heavy squats. 30 reps of 40kg is far more effective than 2 or 3 reps of 140kg when it comes to building muscle. The only time I would be doing a set of any less than 5 or 6 reps would be to test my strength to see if I’ve made gains or to show off in front of a mate lol. Personally I would only do really heavy sets (1-4 reps) maybe once a month or less. Doing this week in week out might feel fine now, but will be detrimental to your joints in the years to come. Personally, most sets of squats are nice and slow, would be around 8 – 15 reps per set, looking to recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibres. FORM/TECHNIQUE: Everyone’s body shape and skeletal structure is different and thus everyone’s opinion on “perfect form” will be different. Vary your foot placement to try and find your perfect form. When I squat I am looking to keep my torso rigid and as upright as possible, making sure as I squat down my knees are going in the same direction as my feet are. If my feet are facing outwards then as I squat down the path of my knees will be going right over my feet at near enough the same angle so that everything stays in alignment throughout the whole movement. I’ve shared a video here of myself performing the squat. This was my last set of squats for the workout and to intensify this I use whats called a DROP SET. Doing as many reps as you can with a particular weight then immediately dropping some off and going again and then a third time. If you are looking to make maximum gains you have to be in the mood for some intensity! You might notice that I tend not to come all of the way up and will not lock out my knees before coming down for another rep. This means that you achieve constant tension on the muscle and get the most out of the set. Remember to keep your reps nice and slow. I aim for a 2 second negative and a 1 second positive. That means 2 seconds on the way down, and 1 second on the way up. No one ever said this shit was easy! Happy Leg Training Everybody! ;)
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 06:14:27 +0000
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