Shouldn’t your weakest link receive the most stimuli? If your glute are the weak link then they would tire before the quads and the quads should stall while the gluteus caught up?
[quote]mbbmrb wrote:
Shouldn’t your weakest link receive the most stimuli? If your glute are the weak link then they would tire before the quads and the quads should stall while the gluteus caught up?[/quote]
If you have overpowering quads then they’re more likely to take over if your other muscles tire out. Squats aren’t necessarily considered quad dominant; it depends on your stance, form and how you’re built too.
[quote]The Rattler wrote:
[quote]mbbmrb wrote:
Shouldn’t your weakest link receive the most stimuli? If your glute are the weak link then they would tire before the quads and the quads should stall while the gluteus caught up?[/quote]
If you have overpowering quads then they’re more likely to take over if your other muscles tire out. Squats aren’t necessarily considered quad dominant; it depends on your stance, form and how you’re built too. [/quote]
Like for me I can even go high bar ATG and my hamstrings will take a lot of it when I am getting close to failure. Low bar to me is all ham/glute and some of the rectus femoris of the quadriceps.
[quote]mbbmrb wrote:
Shouldn’t your weakest link receive the most stimuli? If your glute are the weak link then they would tire before the quads and the quads should stall while the gluteus caught up?[/quote]
Your gluteus maximus also helps you arise from a squatting position, so the importance of these muscles when squatting cannot be understated (livestrong.com).
Your weakest link will receive the most stimulus if the weak muscle group(s) (glutes) were to be involved in a movement that specifically strengthened the intended muscle group i.e. Razor Curls or Pistol Squats. While squatting the gluteal complex does not directly take the bulk of the load. The glutes play a role as a synergistic assistant “helper muscle(s)” of the quad-dominate exercise the squat.
The simplest method of strengthening your gluteus maximus muscles for squatting is to squat, and squat deeply. A study published in the 2002 “Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research” showed that the activation of your gluteus maximus was directly proportional to the depth of your squat. When squatting deeply, do not drop into the bottom of your squat – squat under control. Never allow your back to round or lean forward in an attempt to achieve greater depth (livestrong.com).
Read more: Leg Exercises for a Volleyball Player - SportsRec
Bring up the glutes if you feel like they are not functioning optimally as a compensatory assistant of the quads during the squat. Perform Razor Curls, Pistol Squats, ect., to strengthen the glutes. In fact the deeper you squat the more you activate the gluteal complex.
During a heavy compound movement like that of the squat, a massive amount energy and muscular resource is allocated by the body to be able to perform the movement. Yes the Quadriceps are a dominate muscle group required to perform the movement, but with out the help of the synergistic muscle groups like the glutes you would have no squat. So bring up the glutes be simply squatting deeper. If that method proves not very helpful try to glute strengthening movements.
REFERENCES:
Gibs, Gis (2011). What are the Effects of Having Weak Gluteus Maximus Muscles During a Squat?.
My brother always maintained that back squats and leg presses (the way most people perform them with their feet as high as they can get 'em) are great hamstring and glute exercises. Front squats on the other hand are a great quad movement.
S
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
My brother always maintained that back squats and leg presses (the way most people perform them with their feet as high as they can get 'em) are great hamstring and glute exercises. Front squats on the other hand are a great quad movement.
S[/quote]
I’ve switched out back squats for front squats for that very reason of trying stimulate the quadriceps more. I’ve also changed leg pressing form to target my quads more. I use heavy lunges and leg curls for hamstring movements. Reason for this my gluts and hamstrings would be sore each and every leg workout from being “over” worked.
[quote]Fuzzyapple.Train wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
My brother always maintained that back squats and leg presses (the way most people perform them with their feet as high as they can get 'em) are great hamstring and glute exercises. Front squats on the other hand are a great quad movement.
S[/quote]
I’ve switched out back squats for front squats for that very reason of trying stimulate the quadriceps more. I’ve also changed leg pressing form to target my quads more. I use heavy lunges and leg curls for hamstring movements. Reason for this my gluts and hamstrings would be sore each and every leg workout from being “over” worked. [/quote]
Thanks. It just seems logically that if the gluteus are the week leak, the glutes will fail first making the exercise a glute exercise as long as correct form is being done but I can see everybody else’s point though.
But your assuming that the quads and glutes are both equal strength and contribute equally to the movement, which isn’t true.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
My brother always maintained that back squats and leg presses (the way most people perform them with their feet as high as they can get 'em) are great hamstring and glute exercises. Front squats on the other hand are a great quad movement.
S[/quote]
This is true for me as well if I am going heavy, but personally I prefer high bar, ATG back squats 20 rep “breathing style” when really trying to work my quads. Not arguing that front squats aren’t good quad builders as well though.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
My brother always maintained that back squats and leg presses (the way most people perform them with their feet as high as they can get 'em) are great hamstring and glute exercises. Front squats on the other hand are a great quad movement.
S[/quote]
I second your brother’s viewpoint. I just can’t engage my quads the way I’d like with back squats so fronts and sissies are the squats for quads for myself.
I used to have trouble engaging my quads while squatting, but I noticed that spreading the weight distribution evenly across your whole foot and not just the heel helps. Also, remembering that its a hip and knee movement rather than just hip, helps quad activation.
[quote]miked512 wrote:
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
My brother always maintained that back squats and leg presses (the way most people perform them with their feet as high as they can get 'em) are great hamstring and glute exercises. Front squats on the other hand are a great quad movement.
S[/quote]
I second your brother’s viewpoint. I just can’t engage my quads the way I’d like with back squats so fronts and sissies are the squats for quads for myself.
[/quote]
I’ll also agree with this - though it takes me front squats, with elevated heels (25lb plates) and constant tension reps of at least 10+ to even get any quad involvement out of it.
Another reason the whole “squat for legs” and nothing else mantra that some people like to boast around here is silly and simplistic.
This reminds me a similar thread not long ago and I said the following:
"While there are several pros and cons for using one squat variation over the other, I think what most beginners here don’t understand is how much the EXECUTION of the back squat determines how efficient it is to induce leg (quad) hypertrophy.
There is a lot of discussion (rightfully) here on how to tweak the execution of basic exercises to emphasize a particular muscle group but very rarely on how to squat properly to get bigger legs.
What it comes down to is if you are not happy with leg growth from back squat, than you are using too much of your (lower) back. Squat more like a olympic weightlifter (high bar+deep) and you WILL feel your legs properly if you do high rep work (possibly with keeping continuous tension on the quads - no lock-out).
However, since most people don’t seem to be able to achieve such a proper oly squat on their own, they might be better off with front squats, since it is typically impossible to compensate with the lower back (you will basically fall over)."
I believe that the placement of the bar (as Infinite_Shore mentioned above), and your general method of performance, which for most involves a good degree of forward pitch, creates an obvious amount of posterior chain recruitment with traditional squatting.
That’s not to say that no one will develop excellent quad growth from back squats, but I know that for me personally, I used to back squat a pretty respectable poundage, yet had very little quad growth compared to my glutes and hams.
S
Basically try to emulate Tom?s squat form:
This WILL work your quads hard. It shouldn?t be too hard to get a similar form down, if you actually try.
Only thing I’ve ever gotten from back squats is a huge ass, front squats ftw.
The more upright your back, the more quads you’ll use.
for me the only way i get DOMS in the quad is from back sqaut,just dont get em from front squat also got a huge ass from back squats,
seems like platz drops really fast?if i droped that fast with 1/4 the weight i wouldnt be seen again.
I used to have trouble engaging my quads while squatting, but I noticed that spreading the weight distribution evenly across your whole foot and not just the heel helps. Also, remembering that its a hip and knee movement rather than just hip, helps quad activation.
I always used to go rock bottom on everything, but would normally feel it in my glutes and hammys. Now i’ll go to just about parallel on squats if i’m starting my leg workout with them. But then any assistance work will always be done working only the top half of the movement. So i’d do smith machine squats, v-squats, front squats, leg pressing to above parallel. I’ll still use as much ROM as i can before i feel the glutes and hams taking over. Might look like i’m cheating a bit but using more weight and a shorter ROM but who cares? It works for me.