Discover Strength

Among free-weight exercises, the barbell squat is second in popularity only to the barbell bench press.  Power lifters, athletes, and fitness enthusiasts across the globe have performed barbell squats for decades.  Indeed, many fitness professionals contest that the barbell squat is the single most result producing strength-training exercise for those looking to increase the strength, endurance, and power in the muscles of the hips, buttocks, and thighs.  However, a closer examination indicates that the barbell squat has some important limitations.  In fact, it is one of the exercises we choose to avoid at Discover Strength.  Firstly, the "squatting motion," that is, extending the hip joint while simultaneous extending the knee, is incredibly valuable.  This movement involves the large muscles of the lower body and is valuable not only for improving strength, but also for providing a cardio-respiratory stimulus and a powerful improvement in resting metabolic rate (the number of calories we burn while we are at rest).  One of the primary problems with the barbell squat is this: The barbell squat involves placing a barbell on your back, which vertically compresses the spinal column.  In all circumstances, this is dangerous and contributes to the long-term degradation of the spine.  Many proponents of the squat contest, "the squat is safe as long as you maintain good form."  It is literally impossible to avoid this dangerous spinal compression; and form has nothing to do with it.  The barbell squat is inherently dangerous, even with perfect form.

A properly designed leg press eliminates this spinal compression.  A second limitation of the barbell squat is that when training with a high level of intensity, as the trainee approaches muscle failure, the musculature of the lower back serves as a weak link and fatigues or "fails" before the powerful musculature of the buttocks and thighs.  This makes it virtually impossible to apply the intense strength-training stimulus that the glutes and quadriceps require.  A properly designed leg press limits the involvement of the lower back and thus insures muscle fatigue of the glutes and quadriceps as the true cause of muscle failure (rather than the musculature of the lower back).

What about balancing the weight?  For years we assumed that "balancing" the barbell recruited additional musculature that provide a strength/balance benefit of some kind.  Research on "stabilizer" muscles involved in free-weight exercises indicates that this simply isn't the case.  Free-weight exercises don't pose a balance or stabilizer benefit as often assumed.  

Intense Strength Training and the Heart

One of the most prevalent myths that pervade the field of exercise science is that an individual should strength train using a particular set/rep/modality scheme in order to produce a specific response.  Consult the vast majority of personal trainers, physical therapists, university exercise science faculty, physicians, or body-building enthusiasts on the topic and you will receive the same response:

High weight, low reps, and free weights produce muscle mass

Low weight, high reps, and machines produce muscle tone

And...

High weight, low reps, free weights produce muscle strength

Low weight, high reps, machines produce muscle endurance

Examples of this methodology abound...

We all have a female friend who strength trains and uses very light weights for a lot of reps because she wants long lean muscles and doesn't want to bulk up.

We also all have a male friend or know some one who insists on using only free-weights and performs multiple sets with a lot of weight and a low number of reps.

The truth is that the design of the strength training program does not determine the results an individual experiences.  An individual's genetic predisposition determines results to a training program.  The facts about the relationship between strength training and mass, tone, strength, and endurance are as follows:

Muscle endurance and muscle strength improve in a linear fashion.  If you improve your ability to lift a heavy weight five times, you also improve your ability to lift a lighter weight many times.  Muscle endurance and muscle strength are not separate entities that need to be trained separately.  If you improve one, you improve the other. 

If you have the genetic pre-disposition to develop large amounts of muscle mass, and you train with a high level of intensity - you will develop large amounts of muscle mass.  If you do not have the genetics to look like a bodybuilder - no amount of training will allow you to look like a body-builder.  Arnold Schwarzenegger looks like he does because of his genetics... not his training program.  If you follow his training program - you will not look like him.  20 reps performed to muscle failure on the leg press will build the same amount of muscle mass as 6 reps performed to failure.

When it comes to Strength Training think "Less is more".

Train hard, short, and infrequent.

20-30 minutes of intense strength training covering all the large muscle major muscle groups: shoulders, upper back, chest, quad, hamstring and glutes.

If you go to momentary muscle fatigue, moving the weight until you physically cannot move it any more, at a slow and controlled pace you can save time by only doing the exercise one time.

When you are training this intense, you need rest. allowing 72 hours in-between each workout will help with recovery. You need to recover otherwise the muscle will not build.