"No other exercise or machine can stimulate muscle and help growth like the standard full squat." - Mark Rippetoe
Mark. This famous quote from Rippetoe in his book Starting Strength is an eternal iron rule in optimizing strength training. If you want to get stronger, kick the machine aside and embrace the barbell. Rippetoe's statement is based on his experience of watching countless athletes. Even today we still see that training with free weights is more effective than training with machines.
In a research report in the journal Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, researchers raised a question: "Which exercise can release more "What about the hormones? Is it the machine or the free weights?" So they chose to conduct a comparative test with the leg press machine and the barbell squat to see which one can make the body secrete the most testosterone and growth hormone. Ermon.
In this study, 10 volunteers were recruited, each of whom had experience in strength training. First, ask them to practice leg presses with 80% of 1RM for 6 sets of 10 reps. After several days of rest, practice barbell squats with 80% of 1RM for 6 sets of 10 reps. After each exercise session, blood samples were taken immediately.
The test results are not surprising, as barbell squats do produce higher testosterone and growth hormone. Compared with leg presses, squats produce about 25% more testosterone and up to 200% more growth hormone. waitWhen measured again 30 minutes after the two exercises were completed, it was found that the growth hormone content of squats was 100% greater than that of leg presses. Wouldn't double the growth hormone bring double the fun? Because both growth hormone and testosterone are key to helping us build muscle. In addition, squats will produce more cortisol than leg presses, which further proves that squats will bring different physiological experiences.
The more parts of the body that are under pressure, the more Will secrete more hormones. Squats are the king of training. They mainly train the quadriceps, gluteus maximus, upper hamstrings, and lower erector spinae. In addition, the strength of the waist and abdominal muscles also determines whether Can stand firm. As for the leg press, since there is no need to bear weight behind the shoulders and stand upright, the pressure on the upper part of the waist and abdominal muscles, erector spinae muscles, and hamstrings is reduced to a very low level, and the force on the gluteus maximus is also small. It mainly tests the strength of the quadriceps muscles. , if the strength of the quadriceps is strong, the leg press can bear a larger weight. It should not be difficult to understand why the amount of hormone secretion is not as high as leg pressing as squatting.
So is leg press a bad exercise? Of course not. The focus is efficiency. We are all pursuing the best results, but time and energy are limited, so of course we should do the exercise with the best results. If you have to choose between two, of course the first choice is squats.
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