Squat? Leg Press?

[watchfan]

So its pretty common knowledge that squats are one of the best exercises period. Obviously for quads and various other stabalazation muscles. But I was wondering, is it worth doing leg press, when squats are so much better. Reason I'm asking is that I usually do squats every other week, so I alternate one week I'll do squats, the next I'll do leg press. And its not that I don't enjoy doing squats, I'm just always trying mix things up and not do the exact same routines every time I train legs. I mean leg press is a fairly compound movement right? Maybe not as much as squats though. So I guess I'm asking, should I just maybe do squats every week and skip leg press alltogether or do both. Any advice would be great. Thanks.

WF

[Rachel_n_SD]

If you want to change it up, I would do so by trying one legged squats, or DB squats instead of the leg press.

personally I found the leg press to be pretty useless. also, doing squats every week is fine, IMO.

[papi93]

Here are some squat alternatives:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459865

I have noticed people have a very difficult time with the barbell hack squat. It is difficult for them to maintain neutral spinal alignment. I haven't had this problem from all of the deadlifting I have done, during my strength training years. Basically, a reverse deadlift with the exception of the greater recruitment of the quadriceps.

I prefer the Olympic Front Squat, I feel I have better control, but this exercise could be difficult for an individual with great biceps hypertrophy.

Do you deadlift during the week, as well?

[The Brotherhood]

Alternating is fine, the leg press is an excellent leg excercise.

Yes, squats ARE better, and better by quite a distance, but leg presses are very good too.

[watchfan]

Here are some squat alternatives:

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459865

I have noticed people have a very difficult time with the barbell hack squat. It is difficult for them to maintain neutral spinal alignment. I haven't had this problem from all of the deadlifting I have done, during my strength training years. Basically, a reverse deadlift with the exception of the greater recruitment of the quadriceps.

I prefer the Olympic Front Squat, I feel I have better control, but this exercise could be difficult for an individual with great biceps hypertrophy.

Do you deadlift during the week, as well?

Hell yeah I deadlift! I freakin' love doing deadlifts!! And I do hack squats as well, and those are really fun. I'm just thinking that leg press isn't all that great when squats are so much better. I still do it for the change, but leg press does give you a false sense of strength imo. I mean its not too hard to do a lot of weight. Plus i hate putting that many 45 plates away

WF

[Andrew.Cook]

If you want to change it up, I would do so by trying one legged squats, or DB squats instead of the leg press.

personally I found the leg press to be pretty useless. also, doing squats every week is fine, IMO.

Leg press is useless? Huh? No no no! I disagree, my friend. It isn't a good indicator of strength because there are too many weird variables. Leg press is crap for bragging rights, but it is not useless. I would not like to see people skip squats because of leg sled, but adding leg sled to squats is not bad.

The better answer here is probably to do squats every week, and then add leg press every other week as an adjunct exercise.

One legged and DB squats? Sheesh

[Forge3]

It can be good one workout to do squats and leg curls. Then next time do leg presses after a good dose of stiff legged deadlifts. Throw in all your other leg work but if your core focus is on squats and variations of deads you can do well.
Peace.

[SwoleKat]

Squat Deep, Squat Heavy, and Squat Often.
*Freeweights* Fu*k Smith Machines!!

[Rachel_n_SD]

Leg press is useless? Huh? No no no! I disagree, my friend. It isn't a good indicator of strength because there are too many weird variables. Leg press is crap for bragging rights, but it is not useless. I would not like to see people skip squats because of leg sled, but adding leg sled to squats is not bad.

The better answer here is probably to do squats every week, and then add leg press every other week as an adjunct exercise.

One legged and DB squats? Sheesh

they give me waaaay better results than leg press. the results from the press were pretty much not noticeable, no matter how high in weight i was able to get them.

[papi93]

Hell yeah I deadlift! I freakin' love doing deadlifts!! And I do hack squats as well, and those are really fun. I'm just thinking that leg press isn't all that great when squats are so much better. I still do it for the change, but leg press does give you a false sense of strength imo. I mean its not too hard to do a lot of weight. Plus i hate putting that many 45 plates away

WF

Good, just checking.

They need to start supplying 100 lb plates so you don't have to spend a day loading up the leg press.

[The Brotherhood]

actually i can squat 170 for 3 reps, and can only leg press 300 lbs.

Now this squat is ATG, and so low that Layne Norton who I was training at said "uh..alright forget what i said about there not being such a thing as going too low".


If your rolling your hips during the leg press or using half rom you can load up alot of plates.

Try doing the excercise with slow, controlled negatives, going as low as possible without letting your hips go off the seat, and no locking out on top.

Killer excercise. Add dropsets, puking material

[watchfan]

Squat Deep, Squat Heavy, and Squat Often.
*Freeweights* Fu*k Smith Machines!!

Normally I'd agree with you bro. But I don't have a training partner to spot me, plus to be honest, I have flexion problems with my calves that make it hard for me to do free weight squats. So I do do squats on the smith. But I know what you mean, everything else I'm all about free weights. Lately I've lowered the weight on my squat to focus on getting deeper. I want quality reps!

WF

[Rachel_n_SD]

Try doing the excercise with slow, controlled negatives, going as low as possible without letting your hips go off the seat, and no locking out on top.

Killer excercise. Add dropsets, puking material

yeah, did all that, no cheating, no quarter reps, still no noticeable growth.

IF i was gonna work legs using a machine, I'd go with hack squat before leg press.

[Andrew.Cook]

yeah, did all that, no cheating, no quarter reps, still no noticeable growth.

IF i was gonna work legs using a machine, I'd go with hack squat before leg press.

Can't believe you got nothing from your leg sled work. I would never be able to point at anything and say "that was what got me my legs" as I've been mixing it up for far too long at this point. Still, I love leg sled. Mostly for high rep sets or breathing sets. I never really use it as a "strength" exercise. I have squats and deads for that. I feel safer banging out 20 rep sets on sled than I do trying something lighter on squats. And I feel like the weight is still appreciable. I don't want to balance and mess around when I'm doing something silly like that

[Rachel_n_SD]

Can't believe you got nothing from your leg sled work. I would never be able to point at anything and say "that was what got me my legs" as I've been mixing it up for far too long at this point. Still, I love leg sled. Mostly for high rep sets or breathing sets. I never really use it as a "strength" exercise. I have squats and deads for that. I feel safer banging out 20 rep sets on sled than I do trying something lighter on squats. And I feel like the weight is still appreciable. I don't want to balance and mess around when I'm doing something silly like that

to each their own, i guess. all i know is, i did them correctly, and diligently for awhile and saw nothing, but once i started using free weights on the legs, they exploded.

[Hola Bola]

Leg presses are fine as long as your form doesnt look like this retards...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM6LXVVgqeM

[Karl Moen]

wtf was that ****?

seriously did you hear that guy "it doesnt matter whatevers comfortable" !!!!

lol

I do squats 3x a week, theres no exercise better for adding mass

[Andrew.Cook]

to each their own, i guess. all i know is, i did them correctly, and diligently for awhile and saw nothing, but once i started using free weights on the legs, they exploded.

Never a question of "either/or" I'm saying that if you do sled in addition to squats, I see nothing wrong with it.

By the way... aren't you about due for a new pic? Maybe you could show a little leg this time. Oh, and not look so sad. Your last pic looks very depressing. Dressed in all black as I recall.

[Rachel_n_SD]

Never a question of "either/or" I'm saying that if you do sled in addition to squats, I see nothing wrong with it.

By the way... aren't you about due for a new pic? Maybe you could show a little leg this time. Oh, and not look so sad. Your last pic looks very depressing. Dressed in all black as I recall.

where have YOU been, andy, there was one in my MP/Sesamin log, in a bikini this time. actually i mentioned in the log that i was wearing one since you told me it was difficult to judge my results wearing black pants and stuff.

im through with the log but the pics in there. gonna be a few weeks before my next one, im still recovering from vacation.

[mike_d]

bikini pic? link?

[Rachel_n_SD]

bikini pic? link?

only if you promise there will be no PIITB comments

pic is like a month old now, anyways.

[WCC]

why do people rag on leg presses?
squats are NOT better than leg presses. i'm not saying leg presses are better, but each has its strong points.

squats are more compound but leg presses can cause greater quad hypertrophy. leg presses cause a lot more GH release than squats, and they work the legs a lot harder. leg presses remove the load from the back and isolate the legs far better, so you can work them a lot harder than you can with squats.
look at people's squat and leg press maxes. it's not uncommon to have a leg press that's twice as heavy as your squat.

squats are good because they are more compound, and they hit the glutes and the hamstrings harder than leg presses do, and they work the lower back more.

neither are better IMO. both are great exercises and should be used together.

[mike_d]

only if you promise there will be no PIITB comments

pic is like a month old now, anyways.

promise

[Rachel_n_SD]

why do people rag on leg presses?
squats are NOT better than leg presses. i'm not saying leg presses are better, but each has its strong points.

squats are more compound but leg presses can cause greater quad hypertrophy. leg presses cause a lot more GH release than squats, and they work the legs a lot harder. leg presses remove the load from the back and isolate the legs far better, so you can work them a lot harder than you can with squats.
look at people's squat and leg press maxes. it's not uncommon to have a leg press that's twice as heavy as your squat.

squats are good because they are more compound, and they hit the glutes and the hamstrings harder than leg presses do, and they work the lower back more.

neither are better IMO. both are great exercises and should be used together.

see my posts above for why i rag on leg presses. yeah, on my leg press, i could do 3 45's on each side, that's great and all, but im happy with squatting 135 and experiencing growth in my legs, instead of leg pressing almost 300 with the exact same size legs i had a year before, give or take about .5 inches.

im not gonna argue that leg presses isolate the quads more than squats, but i prefer compound movements anyhow.

leg presses cause more GH release than squats? first time i've heard that.

[Andrew.Cook]

where have YOU been, andy, there was one in my MP/Sesamin log, in a bikini this time. actually i mentioned in the log that i was wearing one since you told me it was difficult to judge my results wearing black pants and stuff.

im through with the log but the pics in there. gonna be a few weeks before my next one, im still recovering from vacation.

Meh... I have NO idea how you managed to wear a bikini and still HIDE everything that you have been working for. Wheels, girl, wheels! I wanna see these eye poppin' gams that you have forged through countless squats. I want a complete package shot. I want some rear double bicep poses, a little side chest, and damn it, I want to see a little "game" face on you.

Your pic is very "cute"... like you were looking for a man on myspace No offense intended. C'mon Rachel! You are a bodybuilding goddess. You can do better.

[Rachel_n_SD]

Meh... I have NO idea how you managed to wear a bikini and still HIDE everything that you have been working for. Wheels, girl, wheels! I wanna see these eye poppin' gams that you have forged through countless squats. I want a complete package shot. I want some rear double bicep poses, a little side chest, and damn it, I want to see a little "game" face on you.

Your pic is very "cute"... like you were looking for a man on myspace No offense intended. C'mon Rachel! You are a bodybuilding goddess. You can do better.

yeah, but i had to do it myself, standing on my son's toy chest, in front of my medicine cabinet mirror, so...yeah. not much to work with there.
hey, at least i got the balls to show my abs online!

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=800796
oh yeah, this is the log btw.

now that this thread has gotten totally O/T

[mike_d]

yeah, but i had to do it myself, standing on my son's toy chest, in front of my medicine cabinet mirror, so...yeah. not much to work with there.
hey, at least i got the balls to show my abs online!

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=800796
oh yeah, this is the log btw.

now that this thread has gotten totally O/T

You look good

Does your camera have a self timer? That would be handy for back double bi, side tri poses etc...

We want to see those LEGS next time

I'm being a wuss and waiting till I get jacked before I post before/afters. I lied to w8, I have fatty before pics

You guys dont see them until I'm tanned and ripped.

[Rachel_n_SD]

You look good

Does your camera have a self timer? That would be handy for back double bi, side tri poses etc...

We want to see those LEGS next time

I'm being a wuss and waiting till I get jacked before I post before/afters. I lied to w8, I have fatty before pics

You guys dont see them until I'm tanned and ripped.

no, it's with my camera phone so no timer. next time i'll have my legs. they are my worst bodypart though, they're a good size, from all the squats, but not much definition, i'm having a hard time leaning them out, they are just barely starting to have some cuts.

[mike_d]

get your boyfriend (or son ) to take pics

[WCC]

im not gonna argue that leg presses isolate the quads more than squats, but i prefer compound movements anyhow.

leg presses cause more GH release than squats? first time i've heard that.

leg presses are compound.
squats are just more compound.
and apparently leg presses do cause more GH release:
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do...ageNo=0#bottom
i can understand why. they allow you to work the legs harder than you could with squats. the load is taken off the back, and your legs are isolated much more, so they can be worked harder.