squats; fiber recruitment theory???

kelsey

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I have alittle thery on fiber recruitment,
lets say you want to get your squat up. you have a little bit of problems getting your legs to fire properly and (near) completely.

I work out at a mostly PL'r gym, monolifts, dead plat., reverse hyper, boards and chains laying everywhere. chalky,,,

there is a pretty good hipsled in there which i have been using some. it has dust on it! none of the strong guys use it.

I know that i can recruit some hella fibers in the leg press.
i think i can go like 9 plates on each side as deep as it will go (to the catch pegs) and then power it up.
of course for only a double or single and not every workout of course but hella gains come of this and i can definitely see the results in the squat.

My question is why dont these guys burn these pathways, and build some strong quads and increase fiber recruitent ratio through presses?

my theory is such

say if average descently strong PL'r can only recruit 65-80% of his quads in the squat.

A: by doing leg presses he can learn to recruit a higher percentage by, "getting a stronger mind muscle connection",
his squats may increase because that is how he finishes the lift primarily, (quad recruitment.)

B: or by simply directly building quad muscle, and his recru. % stays the same, it still is an increase in his quad strength overall due to more muscle....right?


I dont know it sounded better when i was spurting it out with a friend, i reall belive that leg presses will enhance your squat
and i dont see why these guys let this go to the wayside.

thoughts on the matter.
 

DieTrying

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Muscle fiber recruitment is determined by INTENSITY. While squats may require different fibers than say the leg press, the fibers that are being used for both exercises don't really know the difference between the two exercises. INTENSITY is the main key.

In the beginning of an exercise, you will always primarily use all Type 1 (Aerobic) fibers. As the intensity increases, Type IIA are used, then Type IIX. This is always true, no matter the athletes' individual configuration.

There really isn't "well I can only recruit 65% of fibers during squat." It is more a function of the athlete's strength. Some people are just better at some exercises than others (my leg press kills my squats).
 

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