Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You stimulate more testosterone production when you do lower body workouts because those muscles are the largest in your body. This helps all muscle growth throughout your body.
I started doing more leg workouts like squats two months ago and it has improved my upper body strength quickly. Today, I benched 2 reps of 225 lbs. Haven't done that since I was 20. It's also helped improve things like pull ups and deadlift.
Anyways, I recommend doing exercises like squats to improve your overall strength.
Has this helped anyone else?
Yes - absolutely - and I wish I would have learned this much younger in life. Squats and Deadlifts have helped my overall fitness (including my upper body strength) tremendously the past year. I've heard multiple reasons and don't know what is actually true (I've heard they increase testosterone, and I've heard they help your nervous system, and I've heard they just use a lot of muscles in your body). I just know that I've never made the strength gains, the body fat loss, and the bodybuilding gains I'm making now with these two exercises in my routine.
Yes, I recently discovered the virtues of working out the legs. Squats and deadlifts are great for the core. I don't usually target abs but I've noticed a lot of defininition since I started on legs.
All the muscles really are just one interconnected web.
Location: Winter nightime low 60,summer daytime high 85, sunny 300 days/year, no hablamos ingles aquÃ
700 posts, read 1,499,660 times
Reputation: 1132
Quote:
I started doing more leg workouts like squats two months ago and it has improved my upper body strength quickly. Today, I benched 2 reps of 225 lbs. Haven't done that since I was 20. It's also helped improve things like pull ups and deadlift.
Well, maybe.
1. Did the rest of your routine (including all upper-body work) remained exactly the same, and the only difference are the squats?
2. Did you make any changes in your diet?
3. Any changes to you rest periods during and after the workouts?
4. Any extra sleep, any additional supplements you started taking?
5. Was it a "once-upon-a-time" accomplishment (can you consistently bench the new amount now)?
If you answer YES to 1. and NO to 2-5 all, then your experiment strongly indicates that in this specific case squats increased upper body strength. Otherwise, this would be a case of improperly conducted experiment, where outside parameters biased the result. And if your experiment is indeed valid, all the concurring voices here amount to Anecdotal_evidence
For properly conducted experiments in sport and exercise science, including the effect of squats, go here http://www.jssm.org/
Last edited by skiffrace; 10-06-2013 at 07:16 AM..
I just started working out. I did legs for frist time and it was very painful. How often do I need to work my legs so that they Dnt stay so sore
I get extremely sore from squats if I go longer than around 6 days without doing them. I'm currently in that situation with an IT band injury and will just have to bite the bullet after my next leg workout. I'll probably cut the weight and only go to about 2-3 reps short of failure for the first workout. You probably want to shoot for 2-3 leg workouts a week as a beginner. Some people don't do squats and deadlifts on the same day.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
