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Realistically, I think that anyone with a modicum of natural athleticism should be able to squat his or her own weight. You're probably at elevated risk of injuring yourself in a fall or something like that if you can't.
To be clear, I meant that if you weigh 225lbs like I do, you should be able to back squat a barbell weighing 225lbs. If you do any strength training, it should honestly be well above that.
on the other hand, and I'm a petite woman, I workout my lower body with heavy weights and my arms with very light weights. I have trained my legs a lot on leg press and I'm now squating just the larger barbell which I believes weighs 45lbs?
I find my lower body can handle this just fine but its my arms and shoulders that have a hard time balancing and holding the barbell on my shoulders...not quite sure what to do and I'm wondering if this is because I always neglected my upper body.
First of all that's awesome you're doing squats. Very great for your upper body strength. Start out slow and alternate your workout for your upper body so you learn the forms and gain strength. I don't know what your workout routine is but you can focus on say chest for one day and do your triceps. Then your back the next day (back is a very big muscle area to work on) with abs, etc.
The more muscle you have, the less fat you carry. Muscle feeds off of the fat reserves in the body. Your legs, specifically quads and hamstrings, are the biggest muscle group on your body. So training them would have a significant effect on weight loss and maintenance.
I agree. This is the biggest muscle group in your body. Increasing its strength and the blood flow through them will benefit you in terms of metabolism, fat loss, and overall physique.
Leg day bores the living crap out of me, too, but I do it once a week regardless.
Squat cleans, overhead squats, back squats, thrusters, snatches...all add to leg/body strength and development as well as add variety. Leg work increases metabolism big time...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Del Boy
Did your body give you any indication that you were hurting your knees when you were squatting?
Did you do box squats?
We did box squats, leg press, free squats, power cleans, "the bear" and everything else you can think of.
I never had any sudden event or joint pain while lifting, it was a very gradual progression and I didn't notice that things weren't the same until I was 27 or 28. About that time my knees would swell after the sort of 100% exertion that you experience in, for example, a lacrosse game. Lot's of sprinting and changes in direction aggravated them. I went to an orthopedic knee specialist who was suspcious that I had a meniscus injury and ordered an MRI. The radiologist noted some signs of inflammation in the meniscus of my left knee but called my attention to the big divots in the femoral articular cartilage and advised me not to squat heavy anymore. I took the MRI to another orthoped for a second opinion and he agreed.
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8,309 posts, read 38,766,834 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hooligan
To be clear, I meant that if you weigh 225lbs like I do, you should be able to back squat a barbell weighing 225lbs. If you do any strength training, it should honestly be well above that.
I totally agree. I'm just saying that if you are not able to squat your own weight that's probably a marker that you're either waaaay too fat or you are not athletic enough to catch yourself in a fall.
The amount of people I see that can't even squat 185lbs is 99%.
I would say this is pretty accurate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hooligan
To be clear, I meant that if you weigh 225lbs like I do, you should be able to back squat a barbell weighing 225lbs. If you do any strength training, it should honestly be well above that.
So you're saying someone who doesn't lift weights should be able to squat 225? I sure would not recommend that someone try it just to see if they can.
This would be like saying that someone who doesn't do any running, should be able to run a 5K in under 20 minutes, and if they do any running, it should be well under that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimboburnsy
I totally agree. I'm just saying that if you are not able to squat your own weight that's probably a marker that you're either waaaay too fat or you are not athletic enough to catch yourself in a fall.
I don't understand the part about "not athletic enough to catch yourself in a fall." The one time that I failed in a back squat, I was able to duck my head and dump the barbell. Squats don't take a lot of athletic ability. They simply require doing lots of squats at progressively higher weights.
I've seen it over and over again at the gym; Guys who lift and bulk up their upper body and have nothing for leg development.
Do they realize just how odd that looks?
Apparently not.
because of this I've always worked on my legs more than my upper body and as a result I have some nice bulky leg development with a nice and built upper body.
The key is to not look like an egg on toothpicks.
Work your legs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
Quote:
Originally Posted by VTHokieFan
So for about a year now I have been actively lifting my upper body 3 times per week. That's not a ridiculous amount so I'm not expecting to be totally ripped by now, but I have been doing a fairly consistent 3 times/week. Even my personal trainer who I had last March says he notices improvement. Unfortunately, I never got into the habit of lower body lifting and I don't do that at all (I do cardio though 5x per week so my legs get SOME exercise). What I want to know is how much can NOT lifting lower body affect my upper body gains, my fat loss, my ability to look cut, etc.?
( Photo of bulked guy with no leg development) Exactly what I was talking about!!! LOL!! That's sadly more true than anything else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ITSPECELP
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