Together these muscles work to extend the knees and flex the hips. Thus, quads exercises bring the hips from an extended (straight) to a flexed (bent) position, and the knees from a flexed to an extended position.
The hamstrings are a group of three muscles on the back of your legs:
Semitendinosus
Semimembranosus
Biceps femoris
Here’s how they look:
The hamstrings work in the opposite fashion of the quadriceps, flexing the knees and extending the hips.
The biceps femoris is split into two “heads” or sections, just like the biceps in your arms. Unlike those biceps, however, the hamstrings tend to be one of the more neglected muscles among weightlifters.
The quads get most of the attention for the lower body because they’re larger and more visible, and this can create a muscular imbalance between the front and back of the thighs that looks strange and may increase the risk of injury.5
The calves are made up of two powerful muscles:
Gastrocnemius
Soleus
The gastrocnemius is the large (or not so much in my case—thanks, genetics) muscle you see when you look at your calf. The soleus is a deep muscle that lies underneath the gastrocnemius.
Here’s how they look:
These two muscles work together to manipulate the foot and ankle joint and are involved in knee flexion as well.
When it comes to looks, we’re most concerned with the gastrocnemius, but a properly developed soleus is important as well because it supports the larger “gastroc” in both function and size.
The Best Leg Exercises You Can Do
Barbell Squat
Barbell Front Squat
Hack Squat (Sled, Not Barbell)
Single-Leg Split Squat (Barbell or Dumbbell)
Leg Press
Lunge (Dumbbell or Barbell, Walking or In-Place, Forward or Reverse)
Romanian Deadlift
Leg Curl (Lying or Seated)*
Standing Calf Raise*
Seated Calf Raise*
Leg Press Calf Raise*
You’ve probably heard there’s just one rule to properly training your legs: always do squats. While I agree that the squat is the single best leg exercise you can do, I also think it’s smart to include other exercises in your lower-body workouts.
For instance, while the squat does involve the hamstrings, the quads do the lion’s share of the work.6 A good rule of thumb, then, is to always include exercises in your routine that target your hamstrings in addition to your squatting (and other quads-dominant exercises).
•••
Gaining muscle and strength doesn’t require that you constantly “challenge” your body with new and exotic exercises.
In fact, this is a rather poor strategy because the more often you make changes to the exercises you do, the harder it is to become proficient at any of them. This slows down your progress.7
A much better approach is sticking with a relatively small number of highly effective exercises that allow you to safely overload your muscles with heavier and heavier weights over time, and then doing just that.
I’ve just laid out those exercises for you, and in the next chapter, we’re going to drill down into three that are the most important ones you can do.
Key Takeaways
Of the hundreds of resistance training exercises that you can do, a minority stand head and shoulders above the rest, and of those, a handful are the absolute breadwinners.
Most of the exercises I recommend are compound exercises, which are those that involve multiple joints and muscles.
Isolation exercises—those that involve just one joint and a limited number of muscles—are included to help develop smaller, stubborn muscle groups like the shoulders and arms and to support the growth of larger muscle groups.
The six major muscle groups that you’ll be training in my Bigger Leaner Stronger program are chest, shoulders, back, arms, core, and legs (including calves).
The main muscle of your chest is the pectoralis major.
Certain exercises, like the flat and decline bench press, emphasize the larger sternocostal head of the pecs, while others, like the incline and reverse-grip bench press, emphasize the smaller clavicular head.
You want to dedicate some of your chest training to focusing on the clavicular head for two reasons:
It’s a small, stubborn part of the pec that takes its sweet time to grow.
The exercises that are best for developing it also happen to be great for developing the sternal head.
Your shoulders consist of several muscles, and the three most prominent are the deltoids: the anterior (front) deltoids, lateral (side) deltoids, and posterior (rear) deltoids.
There are also smaller muscles that enable the ball-shaped head of the arm bone to spin and roll in the socket of the shoulder blade, which are known as the rotator cuff muscles.
If all you do is press, your front deltoids will probably develop faster than your middle and rear deltoids, which is why a good shoulder training routine includes exercises to target each of the three deltoids.
There are a number of muscles that make up the bulk of your back: the trapezius, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, erector spinae, teres major, teres minor, and infraspinatus.
A good rule of thumb is to give your back muscles about as much attention as your chest and shoulder muscles.
The deadlift is not only the single best back exercise you can do, but it’s also one of the best weightlifting exercises ever invented because it trains just about every muscle in your body.
There are two major muscle groups in your arms that we’re most interested in developing: the biceps and triceps.
You’re going to get the most out of triceps exercises that emphasize the lateral and medial heads. You don’t want to neglect exercises that emphasize the long head, though.
Compound exercises, even when performed with heavy loads, don’t involve the “show” muscles of the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and external obliques as much as some people think.
No matter how much you work on your core or how developed it is, it’s not going to look “ripped” until you’re around 10 percent body fat or lower.
Your legs consist of three major muscle groups: the quadriceps (quads), hamstrings, and calves.
The squat is the single best leg exercise you can do, but I also think it’s smart to include other exercises in your lower-body workouts.
A good rule of thumb is to always include exercises in your routine that target your hamstrings in addition to your squatting (and other quads-dominant exercises).
Gaining muscle and strength doesn’t require that you constantly “challenge” your body with new and exotic exercises. A much better approach is sticking with a relatively small number of highly effective exercises that allow you to safely overload your muscles with heavier and heavier weights over time, and then doing just that.
Trebs AA, Brandenburg JP, Pitney WA. An Electromyography Analysis of 3 Muscles Surrounding the Shoulder Joint During the Performance of a Chest Press Exercise at Several Angles. J Strength Cond Res. 2010;24(7):1925-1930. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181ddfae7.
Kleiber T, Kunz L, Disselhorst-Klug C. Muscular coordination of biceps brachii and brachioradialis in elbow flexion with respect to hand position. Front Physiol. 2015;6:215. doi:10.3389/fphys.2015.00215.
Bressel E, Willardson JM, Thompson B, Fontana FE. Effect of instruction, surface stability, and load intensity on trunk muscle activity. J Electromyogr Kinesiol. 2009;19(6):e500-e504. doi:10.1016/j.jelekin.2008.10.006.
Grob K, Ackland T, Kuster MS, Manestar M, Filgueira L. A newly discovered muscle: The tensor of the vastus intermedius. Clin Anat. 2016;29(2):256-263. doi:10.1002/ca.22680.
Holcomb WR, Rubley MD, Lee HJ, Guadagnoli MA. Effect of Hamstring-Emphasized Resistance Training on Hamstring:Quadriceps Strength Ratios. J Strength Cond Res. 2007;21(1):41. doi:10.1519/R-18795.1; Arendt E, Dick R. Knee Injury Patterns Among Men and Women in Collegiate Basketball and Soccer. Am J Sports Med. 1995;23(6):694-701. doi:10.1177/036354659502300611.
Yavuz HU, Erdağ D, Amca AM, Aritan S. Kinematic and EMG activities during front and back squat variations in maximum loads. J Sports Sci. 2015;33(10):1058-1066. doi:10.1080/02640414.2014.984240.
Chilibeck PD, Calder AW, Sale DG, Webber CE. A comparison of strength and muscle mass increases during resistance training in young women. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1998;77(1-2):170-175.
24
The Definitive Guide to the “Big Three”
Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I will try again tomorrow.”
—MARY ANNE RADMACHER
Out of all the exercises I recommend, three are particularly special.
They’re also particularly challenging, which is why many people neglect or avoid them altogether.
They’re known as the “Big Three,” and they are as follows:
Barbell squat
Barbell deadlift
Barbell bench press
These exercises have been the staples of strength and bodybuilding programs for over a century now because they involve the most whole-body muscle and safely allow for maximum progressive overload.
The stronger you are on these three exercises, the better you’re going to look and feel. It’s really that simple. That’s why one of your primary goals on my Bigger Leaner Stronger program is going to be improving your numbers on these key exercises.
You’re also going to learn how to perform them flawlessly, because improper form can dramatically reduce their effectiveness and open the door to injury.
Heavy half reps, for instance, might look neat and feel more difficult than lighter loads moved through full ranges of motion, but research shows they produce less muscle and strength gain.1
Heavy partial reps also put much more strain on your joints, tendons, and ligaments—often more than they can safely handle.
Bad form is why these three exercises have been so maligned over the years as harmful to your shoulders, back, and knees. While some people’s anatomies don’t play well with these exercises, studies show that when performed correctly, they’re perfectly safe for most people and maybe even protective against joint pain.2
For example, a study conducted by scientists at the Oklahoma Center for Athletes found that powerlifters who were squatting 1.6 times their body weight had better joint stability than college basketball players and recreational runners.3
Learning proper form can be difficult, however, because there are many professional opinions as to what a proper squat, deadlift, and bench press look like.
For instance, some well-respected coaches say that your knees should never go past your toes when you squat, that rounding your spine on a deadlift is okay, and that touching the bar to your chest on a bench press is bad for your shoulders.
Others say that it’s natural for your knees to push past the toes, that rounding your back while deadlifting is dangerous, and that touching the bar to your chest is perfectly fine and even recommended.
Who’s right? How can we know? And why should you listen to me?
Well, I’m going to defer to authority here and cite the methods of the man whose work taught me—and hundreds of thousands of others—how to squat, bench, and deadlift: Mark Rippetoe.
“Rip,” as he’s known, has been in the strength-training game for nearly four decades now and is the author of the classic bestselling books Starting Strength and Practical Programming.
Furthermore, while elite athletes of all stripes use Rip’s methods, he specializes in helping normal people like you and me who just want to get strong and fit.
In other words, his experience isn’t mostly limited to genetic freaks who can do things in the weight room that most of us could only dream of.
So, let’s review Rip’s techniques for pushing, pulling, and squatting because they’ve withstood the test of time and proven themselves safe and effective for new and experienced weightlifters alike.
The Barbell Squat
There’s a reason the barbell squat reigns supreme among weightlifting purists.
It requires over 200 muscles in the body to work together to generate a tremendous amount of force, as well as near-perfect form if you’re going to ever put up impressive numbers.4
And this is why the barbell squat is one of the single best exercises for developing every major muscle group in your body, from snout to tail.
You may have heard, though, that it’s also one of the single best ways to destroy your knees.
Specifically, it’s often said that heavy squatting damages the tendons, ligaments, and cartilage in the knees, and the more often you squat, the worse it gets.
This is rubbish. Research shows that not only is the squat safe for your knees—it may even improve knee health and reduce your risk of knee injury.5
A good example of this comes from a study conducted by scientists at the University of Massachusetts that looked at the forces placed on the knee joints of 12 experienced male powerlifters who squatted between 375 and 650 pounds.6
Each of the men performed heavy squats and the researchers measured how much stress it placed on their knees.
The result? Their knee tendons and ligaments never even came close to their breaking points, and in most cases were only pushed to about 50 percent of their maximum strength.
In other words, even when squatting 2.5 times their body weight, the forces placed on the powerlifters’ knees were well within healthy levels.
So, you have nothing to fear from the squat if you do it correctly, that is, which is exactly what you’re about to learn.
The Setup
The best place to squat is in a power rack or squat rack with the safety bars or arms set to about six inches beneath your knees.
Position the bar on the rack so it cuts across the upper half of your chest. This might feel a bit low, but it’s better to be on the low side than tippy-toeing the weight off the rack.
There are two ways to perform the barbell squat:
High-bar
Low-bar
A high-bar squat has the bar resting directly on the upper traps, whereas a low-bar position has the bar resting between the upper traps and rear deltoids.
Here’s how they look:
As you can see, your torso remains more upright in the high-bar squat.
Both methods are correct, but most people will find themselves stronger in the low-bar position because it allows you to better leverage your large leg muscles. That said, some people find the low-bar position very uncomfortable for their shoulders or wrists and naturally prefer the high-bar position.
If you’re new to the barbell squat, I recommend you start with the low-bar position and only go high bar if it’s too uncomfortable.
The barbell squat starts with approaching the weight and getting into position.
To do this, face the bar so you can walk it out backward. Don’t ever walk the bar out forward, as trying to rerack it by walking backward is dangerous.
Get under the bar, get it into your preferred position, and place your feet about shoulder width apart, with the toes rotated out by about 20 to 25 degrees (your right foot should be at about 1 o’clock and your left at about 11 o’clock).
Next, place your thumbs on top of the bar and adjust your grip position. A narrow grip is preferable because it helps you maintain upper-back tightness, so get your hands as close together as you can, making sure your shoulder blades are pinched and the
weight is solidly on your back muscles, not in your hands or resting on your spine.
Then, unrack the bar, take one or two steps back, and get back into the proper squatting position I’ve outlined (feet shoulder width apart, toes pointed out), and you’re ready to descend.
The Descent
Stand tall with your chest out and take a deep breath of air, pulling it into the bottom of your stomach (as opposed to your chest). Brace your abs as if you were about to get punched.
Pick a spot on the floor about six feet away and stare at it during the entire set. Don’t look at the ceiling, as this makes it harder to reach the proper depth, can throw off proper hip movement and chest positioning, and can even cause a neck injury.
Begin the descent by simultaneously pushing your hips back and bending your knees. Don’t consciously do one or the other first. You should feel backward motion in your hips and the sensation that you’re sitting down between your heels.
Then, sit your butt straight down while keeping your chest up and back straight and tight. Your knees should point at your toes the whole way down (no bowing in!) and move forward for the first third or half of the movement, but no further than just in front of your toes.
Many people tend to want to slide their knees too far forward as they descend, which further loads the quads and puts the knees in a compromised position.
Descending too quickly increases the amount of force placed on your knees, so don’t just drop your hips down as quickly as you can.7 Make sure your descent is controlled.
The bottom of the squat is the point where your thighs are parallel to the ground or slightly lower. Your knees should still be pointing at your toes and over or slightly in front of them, and your back should be straight and at an angle that places the bar over the middle of your feet.
Here’s how the bottom position looks:
You’re now ready to ascend.
The Ascent
The key to starting a good ascent is driving through your heels and the middle of your feet, and ensuring that your shoulders move upward at the same rate as your hips.
Bigger Leaner Stronger Page 34
