Squatting and the testosterone effects...

[Pleonastic]

I rarely do squats, because I used to not trian legs. I do train them now and will try and incorporate sqauts more. To answer your question I beileve squats dont really do **** for your upper body. Benching increases test too and is a big strength building movement, but it doesnt build your legs.

I for one have built a big upper body and never did squats. But my legs need some good help, so squats here we go!

[brk_nemesis]

To answer your question I beileve squats dont really do **** for your upper body.

Try doing a set of 315x15+ on squats (DC style rest-pause) and tell me squats dont do sh!t for the upper body when your back, shoulders, arms, and abs are burning like hell. You may be able to build an upper body without squats,..... anyone can,.... but you need a strong upper body to hold up any HEAVY weight on squats for ANY lengthily amount of time, hence the indirect involvement of the upper body muscles during a squat movement.

[Pleonastic]

Try doing a set of 315x15+ on squats (DC style rest-pause) and tell me squats dont do sh!t for the upper body when your back, shoulders, arms, and abs are burning like hell. You may be able to build an upper body without squats,..... anyone can,.... but you need a strong upper body to hold up any HEAVY weight on squats for ANY lengthily amount of time, hence the indirect involvement of the upper body muscles during a squat movement.

Yea I cant do that kind of weight with squats, Im new to them. Maybe sayig they wont do **** for your upper body is a lil too much. But its indirect. You might need a strong upperbody to help with real heavy sqauts. But you DO NOT build a strong upperbody by doing squats. It seems very obvious, but people seem to constantly talk about how great squats are for your upper body and how great squats are for your bench. They are great for your LEGS!

[RenegadeRows]

. To answer your question I beileve squats dont really do **** for your upper body.

I disagree. You can't have a big flowering tree, without a giant trunk. I finally saw the gains I was looking for when I started doing lower body exercises.

True, you can build an upper body without working legs...

...but it would be so much better if you did.

[Knewsance]

one of the guys that is heavy in squats at the gym I go to won't stop till he pukes or blows a vein in his eye I could believe that squats help build mass all over

[brk_nemesis]

Yea I cant do that kind of weight with squats, Im new to them. Maybe sayig they wont do **** for your upper body is a lil too much. But its indirect. You might need a strong upperbody to help with real heavy sqauts. But you DO NOT build a strong upperbody by doing squats. It seems very obvious, but people seem to constantly talk about how great squats are for your upper body and how great squats are for your bench. They are great for your LEGS!

Ive never heard anyone admit that squats will build chest mass or strength. But the indirect usage of the upper body muscles having to stabilize even moderate weight on squats will still add size overtime. No you wont get significant, noticeable gains on all your upper body lifts by doing squats, but the information I have provided above should be practically common sense to any "serious" lifter. If you deny this, I guess you deny the fact that your forearms will gain size from heavy deads(INDIRECT involvement). I assume you would also deny that heavy rows and pulls of any sorts wont affect arms(bi's in particular) mass or strength at all(again, INDIRECT involvement). Just because some muscles are not being DIRECTLY worked, or not being specifically used for a specific lift, does not mean over time they will not grow from INDIRECT involvement. But then again, I'm responding to someone who claims "I rarely do squats, but will try to incorporate them more" ....... So I think anything you argue concerning how indirect involvement affects the upper body on squats is rather null and void.

[Pleonastic]

Ive never heard anyone admit that squats will build chest mass or strength. But the indirect usage of the upper body muscles having to stabilize even moderate weight on squats will still add size overtime. No you wont get significant, noticeable gains on all your upper body lifts by doing squats, but the information I have provided above should be practically common sense to any "serious" lifter. If you deny this, I guess you deny the fact that your forearms will gain size from heavy deads(INDIRECT involvement). I assume you would also deny that heavy rows and pulls of any sorts wont affect arms(bi's in particular) mass or strength at all(again, INDIRECT involvement). Just because some muscles are not being DIRECTLY worked, or not being specifically used for a specific lift, does not mean over time they will not grow from INDIRECT involvement. But then again, I'm responding to someone who claims "I rarely do squats, but will try to incorporate them more" ....... So I think anything you argue concerning how indirect involvement affects the upper body on squats is rather null and void.

I dont want to go back and forth forever and Im sure you dont want to either. I do agree that the muscles hit indirectly will benefit from the lifts. I mean they are still being hit. I have heard squats being praised too much for their upperbody building qualities on this board before. I guess I carry a kinda bias now to try and dispell this theory. However I am agreeing squats do give some benefit to the upperbody, I just think many over hype its effects. Im not on the side of the fence that they give nothing to the upperbody just not as much as most say.

All that being said though I do really want to start incorporating these into my workouts.

[ILiftBig]

ok ive always known squatting is the king exercise but only recently did I read stuff like: "squats are proven to add about 15-20% to your UPPER body mass, by virtue of the free flowing testosterone that squats release."

now heres my stupid question...this 'release' of free flowing testosterone... does this mean someone who squats has more being produced or just flowing around their body, or being 'used up'?

if so... what other effects does it have on the body? more facial hair for us babyface guys coz more testosterone activity? more horny in the mornings? lol, stupid question i know but im wondering if it does actually mean there could be other benefits or "side effects" to it considering it does help you get larger in the upper body due to this 'release'.

I'm thinking of squatting 2x a week now instead of once due to the recent amount of interesting squatting articles I've been reading.

Yes, the bigger the muscle group that higher the hormonal response. What makes an even bigger difference is the intensity. It has been found that the higher the intensity the greater the response of testosterone, adrenocorticotrophic hormone and cortisol. These hormone are directly used in protein synthesis. So squats with a heavy load are much better (85%+ 1RM).

Ronnie Coleman does legs twice a week (heavy/light). You will adapt to it easily and should get some good results.

[edgebsl]

I dont want to go back and forth forever and Im sure you dont want to either. I do agree that the muscles hit indirectly will benefit from the lifts. I mean they are still being hit. I have heard squats being praised too much for their upperbody building qualities on this board before. I guess I carry a kinda bias now to try and dispell this theory. However I am agreeing squats do give some benefit to the upperbody, I just think many over hype its effects. Im not on the side of the fence that they give nothing to the upperbody just not as much as most say.

All that being said though I do really want to start incorporating these into my workouts.

Ive been reading alot on the same subject.

From what's being explaind to me, the Sqaut doesnt exactly work the upper body per say but rather "allows" it to grow quicker by provinding the key hormone fuels mentioned above.And by signaling the body it needs to grow It will make your upper body workouts more productive. I imagine it works abs and stabilizers throught the body directly though.

Lets say you currently bench 185 (hypothetically) and your goal is to bench 265. Well if you dont sqaut or deadlift or do big lifts and say your max sqaut at the moment was 270 lbs, it would be unlikely that you could bring your bench to eqaul or more than you are capable of sqauting. Or at least it would be harder to do that.Its actually harder to make your body grow disproportionately. Without doing heavy compound lifts you could be in the gym for months and see very slow gains on upper body.

What's the saying? If you want your arms to grow an inch you better put on 5-10 lbs of lbm? Something like that?

At least, thats the way I had it explained to me.
Im a beginner so I may have things wrong but it makes sense.

[DerickVonD]

Squats are my overall favorite exercise and I'd never take them out of my routine, however deadlifts I hate. I can only bench what I can squat. I've never benched more then I could squat. In fact my record squat was 245lb and record bench press was 150lb, before I lost weight.