Building Powerful Legs With Squat Exercises
What are you most powerful muscles? Your bulging biceps which you’ve spent countless hours in the gym working on? Your well-developed chest? The answer is: neither! You may not have spent much, if any time training your strongest muscles.
Your legs, your quadriceps in particular are the strongest muscles you have! These would be the muscles of the upper legs and a lot is asked of these workhorses of the human body in just about every sport; even bodybuilding.
I’m always amazed when someone has worked out every other part of their body, yet has underdeveloped quads (and legs in general!). I want you to listen today, because today I’m going to help you unlock the power of these powerhouses. It’s really a pretty simple matter to increase the power of these muscles to their full potential.
Squat exercises are far and away the most efficient way to build your quads and are easy to work into your weightlifting regimen. I’m not going to lie and tell you that it’s totally painless - your legs have a lot of endurance already (you stand and walk on them well, all the time, right?) so you will have to put in some effort.
There are benefits to be had from squats beyond the quadriceps - your abs will also benefit from these exercises (or “core” in today’s fitness parlance). Read on for two great squat exercises to help you make the most of the strongest muscles you have:
Squats - Walk under a barbell placed at the right height for you on a squat rack - the bar should rest on the back of your shoulders. Holding the bar, raise it up off the rack and take one step backwards. Remember to keep your legs as far apart as your shoulder span and your back straight. Bending you knees, lower yourself until your hips are just slightly less than 90 degrees from the floor, then slowly return to your starting position. Remember not to overdo it, but make sure you’re getting a workout for your quads here.
Front Squats - This one will build the outer sweep of your quads. This works much the same as regular squats, but of course with the barbell held in front. Start with a barbell at chest height and step back after lifting from the rack.
Symmetry is important in bodybuilding and it would be a shame to neglect such an important set of muscles; especially when they are the most powerful ones in the human body. These exercises can get your quads to where they need to be - built up just as much as the rest of your body.
Last 5 posts by Caleb Lee
- For Better Fitness, Why Not Give Cycling A Whirl? - June 6th, 2008
- Creatine - How Does It Work And Should I Use It? - June 6th, 2008
- Building your Best Chest - June 6th, 2008
- The Three Best Exercises For Building Your Abs - June 5th, 2008
- How to build muscle fast in just WEEKS - June 4th, 2008
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.