A couple questions

leaner

leaner

New member
1) SQUATS

I've just started adding squats into my weight lifting routine recently. I have a smith machine / squat rack and I started off with light weights and concentrated on proper form. I was always a little hesitant to do leg exercises like these because I have an old knee injury. (torn ligament from wrestling 20 years ago) S, in the past I've limited my lower body workout to walking and jogging. I have read that more than any other exercise, the squat will help add inches to your arms, chest and legs, and activates the grow button for your whole body, and that squats make the body produce huge amounts of natural growth factors and hormones. Is this true? Has anyone noticed a lot of overall muscle growth after beginning training hard with squats? Just curious, thanks.

2) SUPPLEMENTS

I am curious about any of your first hand experience with any of the following: creatine, lipolic acid and fish oil. I've read some information on the web, and am interested in learning more about these. Currently I take a multivitamin, vit B-12, and have a protein shake post workout. Other than that I'm just eating healthy, counting calories and drinking lots of water. My goal is to gain more muscle and lower my body fat %, and yes I want to do them at the same time.
 
leaner said:
1) SQUATS

I've just started adding squats into my weight lifting routine recently. I have a smith machine / squat rack and I started off with light weights and concentrated on proper form. I was always a little hesitant to do leg exercises like these because I have an old knee injury. (torn ligament from wrestling 20 years ago) S, in the past I've limited my lower body workout to walking and jogging. I have read that more than any other exercise, the squat will help add inches to your arms, chest and legs, and activates the grow button for your whole body, and that squats make the body produce huge amounts of natural growth factors and hormones. Is this true? Has anyone noticed a lot of overall muscle growth after beginning training hard with squats? Just curious, thanks.
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It doesn't sound true to me. There is no reason for the leg muscles to be magical and give you huge amounts of hormones when compared to arm muscles or chest muscles or whatever for example.

Also, since muscles grow when they repair themselves after you damage them with exercise, it doesn't make much sense for your shoulder muscles to grow because of a squat for example. Unless you're doing a strange kind of squat that also works your shoulder muscles.
 
if you want to put on muscles and are bulking then creatine is highly recommended..it will make you gain weight though (water weight mostly), people don't use it for cutting or losing weight.
you don't need the lipolic acid..but get the fish oils they're probably even more important than your multivitamin. maybe add some calcium citrate with vitamin d3 if you aren't getting a daily dose of dairy (calcium boosts testosterone and helps fat loss and most people don't get enough vitamin d in the first place)
 
biggestloser105 said:
It doesn't sound true to me. There is no reason for the leg muscles to be magical and give you huge amounts of hormones when compared to arm muscles or chest muscles or whatever for example.

Also, since muscles grow when they repair themselves after you damage them with exercise, it doesn't make much sense for your shoulder muscles to grow because of a squat for example. Unless you're doing a strange kind of squat that also works your shoulder muscles.
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actually you are completely wrong here. Squats are indeed the best exercise to do to maximize the growth of other muscle groups. Lets break this down, my terms are rusty, so I'm being very generic here so bear with me, but I'm sure other people can go more in depth about terminology..

When you work out, you break down muscle tissue (or can be depending on your goals, the OP seems obviously talking about hypertrophy). Now, muscle "growth" occurs during rest as the body takes the calories and aminos from your diet to rebuild and adapt this muscle fiber to the stresses placed upon it. Makes sense right? This is muscle building 101..

Now, it's not quite as simple as this, as the body signals the muscle to "go build" in certain ways. When you exercise, the more muscles that work, the more hormones like HGH and testosterone is released into the body that signal and aid the body to repair tissue and adapt it to make is stronger. This is where squats come into play..

you've heard the addage, wait minimum 48 hours ebtween working muscle groups, right? Well lets say you do chest on one day, your body is then flooded with hormones and you start the repair process. The next day you do dquats, your body is then again flooded with hormones that again signal to repair, so your chest if you will is again getting a benifit from squats, without having to actually do anything...

This is why _every_ resistance training template worth anything focuses on big compound movments over structured timelines. Becuase what you do one day can help whats been done previously. Now, squats are called the king of exercise for a reason. No other exercise (aside from Oly lifting) works as many muscles, and floods the body with more hormones when done properly.

So long story short, if you want big arms, do squats. ;)
 
as for supps, 99% are garbage. Creatine however is one that has a huge proven track record. Stick with a basic pure bulk Creatine Monohydrate power, and just mix 5g into every post workout shake. Stay away from the other "fancier" BS creatine products though. As for fish oils, can be recommended, but if you eat fish it's just as good.

Multivitamin about the only other thing I would recommend. Buy a cheapy bulk bottle that will last ya the year and you're good...
 
Nothing is better than a correctly performed full back squat at increasing overall strength, fitness, and muscle mass. Anyone who designs any sort or strength training regiment that does not include the squat is an idiot and should be castrated with a weed eater.

And get off that smith machine. Get a power rack or some saw horses.
 
Exercise: Deadlifts, squats and clean and press seem to be the best ones for overall strength/bulk. I prefer deadlifting over squats... personal choice.

Supplements: Tied for #1 = A good multi vitamin and high quality fish oil, second would be some form of a protein powder unless you're sure you're getting all your protein from your food and then creatine would be next. Creatine is amazing whether you're bulking or cutting... supposedly it helps you keep muscle mass while on extremely low calories (if you lift heavy...)
 
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