Squats and deadlifts...

[LunaHotel]

... not arguments...

Seriously, Squats and deadlifts do have a reputation for making someone bigger.

I believe the reason for this is one of "stress". Knowledgeable people in this field, including myself, acknoledge the fact that muscle growth is a response to the STRESS of training.

Of course, the "anabolic drive" is proportionnal to the stress that makes it possible. Of course, this is true to the limit of overtraining.

So it seems very logical that squats and deadlifts, being particularly stressful on account of the amount of muscle being recruited, the poundages involved and total effort, do create a particularly effective anabolic response. They are also very easy to overtrain on.

Any studies on this?

It would seem that a training regimen based on total stress level would be interesting to look into. Of course, HIT does seem to have some of these ideas in it, but in a less formal way than what I envision here.

Thoughts?

[Dwight Schrute]

Of course they will make you bigger, the incorporate the largest muscle groups in the body.

There are a million studies on these things and its goes back to the basics of time under tension. But just because you increase your TUT doens''t mean you are are going to grow faster or larger (example: increasing my reps to 20 instead of 12). There is a threshold for each type of stimulus and it has to be progressive within that certain type of threshold.

I also don't understand what you mean by "stress". I can create an extremely stressful environment with very low reps and heavy weight and you won't grow much.

Stating the body responds to "stress" is pretty generic. THe body repsonds to different types of stress accordingly (myfobrilliar and/or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy). Those two example are both caused by stress but the actual growth and stimulus is quite different.


So once again as I said it before in numerous threads, its not the exercise people should worry avbout so much, its the weight and rep range WHILE keeping to form.

[stryder]

It's a whole another ball game when you start keeping to strict form...

[Imsleepinmonkey]

[QUOTE=Bobo


So once again as I said it before in numerous threads, its not the exercise people should worry avbout so much, its the weight and rep range WHILE keeping to form.[/QUOTE]


so what rep range/weight do you recommend for optimal muscle growth?

[Dwight Schrute]

I would use a combination of mod weight and mod reps ranges for larger muscle groups and stick to lighter weight and higher reps for smaller groups using isloation exercises. THis will give you the benfeit of increased muscle thickness along with increasing nutrient capacities.