muscleupcrohn
Legend
Frank Zane, Lee Haney, and Buchanan (who I posted a pic of) all had wide waists and bulky looks, right?
Growing legs without squats....
- Thread starter Rossm09
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muscleupcrohn
Legend
He’s doing it because of injuries/pain, not trying to keep a small waist. Can OP do front squats?
Old Witch
Well-known member
Can he do leg extensions and hamstring curls? Donkey calf raises?
muscleupcrohn
Legend
You just said do front squats, because you monopolized the topic to talk about the irrelevant topic of waist size, completely ignoring OPs situation in favor of expounding your views when they aren’t even relevant...
Old Witch
Well-known member
Could have something to do with trends in training over several decades versus focusing on the past two. But hey, I guess I don’t know anything...
muscleupcrohn
Legend
Arnold squatted. Zane squatted. Olivia was a power lifter who squatted. Squatting has been poplar for several decades too, and by people with amazing waists. You’re so focused on only one guy’s recommendation you have blinders on to everyone else.
Old Witch
Well-known member
Well I can’t/won’t back squat because I have had a broken neck... so my input was coming partly from that standpoint. That being said I took a risk and back squatted 335 just a couple of months ago.
I won’t be doing that again.
muscleupcrohn
Legend
Arnold had a naturally wide waist, he admits such, but he still did squats and hit amazing vacuums and is widely regarded as the best bodybuilder of all time.
Just tell him the RELEVANT parts of Vince’s beliefs, and focus on how you can help OP, don’t turn it into a diatribe about how squats ruin waists.
muscleupcrohn
Legend
And why is it ok to squat if you have narrow hips? Why would it not still make their waists a little bigger? Either it makes waists wider or not...
Old Witch
Well-known member
Because the waist isn’t going to exceed the width of the hips unless you’re grossly overeating, sedentary or similar. I guess unless you’re genetically cursed.
John Smeton
Legend
I build some of my best legs without squats. Iy\t sounds like you have long femure bones. Tall people lets say over 5ft11 and/or people with shorter torsos, longer lower bodies have this issue. Do some research on femure bone length and squatting.
Although, for my height at 6 ft 2.5 my lower and upper body are about even, I still have long femures, and I get more out of leg press, hacks, leg extensions. Other exercises as well, these are just about the bread and butter. Cable squats are a good option as well.
This is me in 2017 at chicago's JR Nats on the far right. Anyone that knows me know I have impressive quads.
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Although, for my height at 6 ft 2.5 my lower and upper body are about even, I still have long femures, and I get more out of leg press, hacks, leg extensions. Other exercises as well, these are just about the bread and butter. Cable squats are a good option as well.
This is me in 2017 at chicago's JR Nats on the far right. Anyone that knows me know I have impressive quads.
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Ricky10
Well-known member
My legs are definitely my weakest and proportionally underdeveloped body part. However, they also happen to be very much on the skinny side as part of my natural build. I never really got into squats because I have lumbar compression issues, and my chiropractor told me to never do them. Honestly, I have always been too leary of doing them in fear of injury anyway. It’s always been leg presses and extensions for me.
I have often wondered how much overall progress I have potentially sacrificed. However, the potential of worsening lumbar compression wouldn’t get me anywhere period.
I have often wondered how much overall progress I have potentially sacrificed. However, the potential of worsening lumbar compression wouldn’t get me anywhere period.
jrock645
Well-known member
I’ve got a couple blown discs in my low back and find that done properly, and with a belt, high rep squats don’t bother my back at all. The lack of weight makes me feel like a real gash, but doing 30-40 reps makes up for it. Most people can’t tolerate that kind of pain.
Ricky10
Well-known member
If I were to get adventurous, high reps would definitely be my approach. I know I would injure myself with doing anything overzealous. I get injured just going to the bathroom at my gym if I go for too much!
Godstrength
Board Sponsor
I have bad knees and 3 herniated discs and I can squat as long as the weight is reasonable. I never eva go heavy out of possible injury. Def start out with little or no weight and slowly increase the amount and see how it feels.
The one thing I cannot do under any circumstances any longer is deadlifts. F my back up every time, muscles spasms and a locked up back for days.
Ricky10
Well-known member
Yup, my chiropractor also told me to avoid deadlifts like the plague! That was a bit before my time, but if the Plague was anything like the gonorrhea I contacted last month, I think avoiding it altogether was solid advice!
Another reason I have avoided squats is that we only have 2-3 squat racks at my gym and availability is an issue. On top of that, there is always at least one being occupied by someone standing in the center of one of them doing dumbbell curls
Outofbody
Well-known member
Big guts from squatting
Now thats some funny shyt
Squatting raises GH and GH grows your intestines therefore squatting increases your gut due to bro knowledge lol
Old Witch
Well-known member
No sh1t.
But, overeating will do it and faster.
Squats the way most people do them and with most people’s genetics will help build a thicker ass and core. Vince Gironda thought so. I’m inclined to agree based on my own observations.
muscleupcrohn
Legend
Arnold, Zane, Oliva, and Haney among pretty much every other old school pro disagreed, and had better waists then you and I, and, not to take anything away from Vince, but they all had better waists than he did considering their size relative to his.
muscleupcrohn
Legend
And how about just having most people just fix their form instead of telling them not to do squats lol.
Gerbil
Well-known member
Over eating is the number one, I think all sane people agree on this. On squats causing a thick core, I have never seen any study confirming this. As for my own experience I have yet to see anyone I know have an outlandish core from squats. Do I know people with this cores that squat yes, however they were thick to begin with.
Most people squat most people have thick cores, there is a difference between correlation and causation.
ericos_bob
Active member
I do agree about overdeveloped glutes in the case of deep squats. I have found this to hold true. I quickly found myself with overdeveloped glutes from olympic squats. Looking at olympic lifters I can see the likeness. Squatting to parallel as I've seen a lot of the old timers do keeps the glutes in check. Tom Platz would squat very deep on the other hand. He had massive legs but also insanely big glutes (too big IMO).
To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger
"The full squat, all the way down and all the way up, has the advantage of working a lot of other body parts besides the thighs; like back, glutes and chest. They certainly developed the lumbar muscles of my lower back, That was a terrific advantage. The disadvantage was that 50 percent of the effort worked my thighs, and at least 30 percent worked my glutes. I found that the first third of the movement of coming up from a full squat worked my glutes. The final two-thirds of the movement worked the entire thigh, but no particular part. So, what happened was my rear got big, and my thighs got bulky and shapeless. Neither of these two effects served my purpose for bodybuilding. "
To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger
"The full squat, all the way down and all the way up, has the advantage of working a lot of other body parts besides the thighs; like back, glutes and chest. They certainly developed the lumbar muscles of my lower back, That was a terrific advantage. The disadvantage was that 50 percent of the effort worked my thighs, and at least 30 percent worked my glutes. I found that the first third of the movement of coming up from a full squat worked my glutes. The final two-thirds of the movement worked the entire thigh, but no particular part. So, what happened was my rear got big, and my thighs got bulky and shapeless. Neither of these two effects served my purpose for bodybuilding. "
Outofbody
Well-known member
Have you given trap bar deadlifts a shot? I F’d up my back years ago and had to stop deadlifting. But now I’m able to deadlift again with a trap bar and I also do banded KB deads (heavy band under my feet that goes up around back of my head, not attached to the KB).
Also, to get back to squatting, I started doing heavy sets of 3, everyday. With very slow, very low rep but heavy squats, there’s almost no worry about injury if bracing right. I found that loading my spine greatly increased my spine health compared to when I had completely stopped squatting. Now, even with herniated discs, I can squat normally again without pain.
BarryScott
Member
That's part of the reason I do them, frankly.