Well, I know the benefits of SQ in higher numbers. I do not run away from this, but I say that it is more difficult for me. But I really very rarely did more than 5-6 repetitions of SQ or DL. I mean such repetitions, which, for example, will leave you with at most 1-2 in reserve. I haven’t done SQ or DL to reach failure somewhere around 9 or 10 reps. If there was such a case, it was rare.
That’s an awesome goal.
My question is: what does feeling good look like to you? Feeling physically good makes sense, but i’m assuming there’s some kind of self-image goals in there too?
And then…
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Apparently there was some confusion or I mispronounced. When I say that nothing hurts me, I mean pain that haunts you all day and in your life. And the example I gave that hurts me after DL, I meant that it is immediately after the exercise or shortly after. But I said that because I don’t have any pain with any other exercise. But even with DL, it didn’t hurt every time. Probably due to the small warm-up of the body, and this is a difficult exercise.
Well, I’m energetic, I’m agile, I have a desire to train. I like the muscles in the mirror, even though I have a lot of fat on them to burn.
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Okay. Apparently there was some confusion.
Lifting is a LONG game. Always adapting. Always striving to better than yesterday. Setbacks and comebacks. Always learning.
Glad to see you posted some vids. Others may see something you don’t. This is a great forum for people keeping you at your best.
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Do you need to deadlift to do this?
100% NO
I do it because of the opinion that only DL and Squats cause a significant hormonal response of the body associated with muscle growth. I also perform it to strengthen the Core. But I think there are many other exercises for the latter purpose.
I’m fat right now, but if I were underweight I might be training mostly for street fitness. As a young man, I was very good at this type of training. I was also on the school gymnastics team.
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Trap bars do this pretty well, with much less lower back strain. In fact, in my experience, they do a much better job because you can really push the volume with lower injury.
this is an antiquated, and essentially wrong, proposition. If this was true, you’d never have the dudes with big arms and chicken legs. I don’t know why trainers used to (and probably still do) push this nonsense, but it’s very silly for 2 reasons. 1. As I said, you can get sufficient hormonal response from NOT doing squats and DL to grow your upper body. 2. squats and DL are absolutely not the only things you can do for your legs and lower back. PLENTY of other options, and you if you want to abandon both lifts, go for it. Only strength athletes really need to do these lifts. And even strength athletes don’t have to work on both regularly.
I’ve known powerlifters who essentially never practiced deadlifting in their training. They would rely on their squat going up to support their deadlift numbers in competition.
I went close to 3 years without squatting in the gym when I was in my prime in Strongman. I was a top 10 competitor in the world in my weight class, and I would squat maybe 3-4 times a year. That alone should tell you that there are many ways to get strong, have big legs, do whatever you want to do without these lifts.
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As great as it is that early on in peoples training the “big 4” are pushed, it does create a bit of a catch-22 situation whereby people spend too long thinking it’s the be all and end all.
We all must adapt.
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I’ve always believed in the “hormonal cascade” effect, but always been unconvinced of the explanations.
I feel a very different effect from sessions which involve high volume squats, deadlifts or even push presses or heavy loaded carries. It’s easy to call that a hormonal effect, but i suspect the real reason is that, when you’re not very strong, these are the only lifts in which you can move enough weight to stoke your hunger. Does that make more sense?
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Well, maybe it’s because these exercises are closest to the body’s natural movements, where you use more force. To Squat and stand up, to lift something off the floor, to lift something above your head / to push something.
Hoho, many years ago the symbol of strength was the Shoulder Press, not the Bench Press. But due to a number of factors it has established itself as a more prestigious and useful exercise. And this is not the case. It just happened because with a Bench Press you can push more weight and that makes it a more impressive exercise.
For an excellent paradigm shift
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well sure, there are a lot of different reasons for this.
And I might be going too far with it, I just think the idea that squats are going to make you grow all over is a really misguided approach, and more importantly, I think that, for anyone who really doesn’t want to squat, this idea can discourage ANY work in the gym. If a trainee thinks ‘I hate squats, don’t really want to do them at all, but you HAVE to squat to get big’, they may just give up instead of sucking it up. I don’t want to see that.
And to be very clear, I’m NOT advocating AGAINST squats and deadlifts in general. They’re a huge part of how I built my own physique. I used to squat A LOT, I was nearly a 600 lbs squatter at my best. But I did it because I wanted to do it, not because it was necessary to, say, build a big bench press, lol.
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I feel that the value of the squat isn’t the moving up and down/bending of the knees but in the supporting of weight on the spine for prolonged durations, which is why it’s high REP squats that are billed as full body builders. And, of course, I say this with zero formal education or scientific backing, but I figure placing great weight across the entire body for prolonged periods sends signals to the body that it needs to make EVERYTHING bigger in order to support this demand.
This theory has extended to creating value on the yoke walk, which I can believe. It would also explain why the leg press is a poor substitute for this, but the belt squat might be able to answer the mail.
But in that regard, it means we CAN look outside of squatting to achieve a similar effect. How about carrying a heavy sandbag/keg high up on the chest for some long walks? Or maybe the value of the weighted vest walk as a conditioning tool.
Food for thought.
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That certainly meshes with my experiences too. All the exercises that seem to elicit that response in me are ones in which heavy weight is being stabilised by the spine for extended periods.
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It reminds me that I meant to include in my tirade that it’s why I find the front squat so valuable in hypertrophy phases, but that it’s for high reps/conditioning work rather than chasing after max poundages. I like the front squat because it naturally limits loads compared to a squat, but still places the whole body under great stress. Anytime I can use less weight to create more demand is good for my connective tissue.
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I’m probably in the minority here, but I find that I get better results when I actively try to maximize local muscular fatigue while limiting systemic fatigue. A big part of that is de-prioritizing big barbell exercises like deadlifts and squats.
I understand the argument that handling the heaviest weights possible will lead to the most muscle growth, and that may even be true in a vacuum. However, I found that following that logic lead me to being cyclicly injured and burned out to the point that my ability to train hard was compromised. Focusing on maximally stressing my muscles rather than just maximizing overall stress allowed me train harder with more volume and frequency, which thereby improved my results.
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