Hey what's up guys, Sean Nalewanyj here, BodyTransformationTruth.com, and in this video I want to go over the issue
of the leg press vs. squats when it comes to building muscle in your lower body.
Both exercises use a very similar movement pattern and they both allow you to effectively
overload your leg muscles, but is one better than the other?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
And which one should you ultimately pick for your leg workouts?
So the problem with the whole “leg press vs. squat” issue is that there’s really
no need to turn it into an “all or nothing” argument in the first place.
In reality, both lifts are simply individual tools that you can use as part of your overall
leg training approach, and each lift has its own unique benefits depending on the situation.
Squats have basically always been considered as the “king” of lower body exercises,
and I would agree that in most situations for most lifters, squats are going to be the
most productive and the most effective overall exercise that you can perform.
They build muscle very effectively, they increase your total body strength, power, flexibility,
your athletic performance and they can even help to prevent injuries when you do them
properly.
So unless there is a specific reason why you can’t perform them, then consistent squatting
probably should be included as part of your overall leg training approach.
Now that said, and I know that a lot of the “hardcore” bodybuilders and powerlifters
out there probably won’t agree with this and they won't want to hear it, but the simple
reality is that, even though squats are an awesome exercise, when it all comes down to
it they’re still not a mandatory lift and you absolutely can build significantly big
and strong legs without them.
Any exercise out there that puts the targeted muscles under tension and that allows you
to consistently increase the weight over time is still going to produce gains in size and
strength, and there are a lot of options available outside of traditional squats that will accomplish
that for you.
So the most popular exercise on the list after squats is going to be the leg press, and even
though it does tend to get a lot of hate within certain, again "hardcore" circles of the bodybuilding
community, it’s actually a perfectly viable lower body exercise, and it actually even
has specific advantages in certain cases.
If you have poor body mechanics for squatting which usually means that you have particularly
long femurs, so long upper legs, that's going to force you to bend forward excessively during
squatting, and leg presses can sometimes be a more productive lift in that case because
it makes sure that your legs reach failure rather than your lower back.
The leg press also doesn’t tax your cardiovascular system or your entire body as a whole in the
same way that squats do since you won’t have to worry about balancing a heavy barbell
on your back throughout the entire lift, and because of that, it makes the leg press a
really good follow-up exercise to the squat because it's going to allow you to perform
additional volume for your legs without burning yourself out or sacrificing your overall muscular
performance.
On top of that it also often works better when you’re training in the higher rep ranges
so maybe 12 or more reps per set, because again, squatting in high rep ranges will cause
a lot of cardiovascular fatigue which can reduce your performance and reduce the overall
amount of muscular overload that you can achieve.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the leg strength that you develop from heavy leg
pressing is also going to have some direct carryover to your squatting strength and even
to your deadlifting strength as well.
And finally, and although this isn’t true in all cases, leg presses are often a good
alternative for those lifters who experience a lot of lower back discomfort during the
squat, especially if you go with a one-legged leg press because that movements is going
to allow you to hit your legs with a high level of intensity while using a relatively
light load.
Now I’m obviously not trying to discourage anyone from squatting, and I’m definitely
not saying that the leg press is “better” somehow or that it should be used as a replacement
for squats, again, all I’m really trying to point out here is that both of these exercises
are viable lifts and there’s really no need to pick one over the other.
If I had to pick one then I would definitely go with a basic barbell squat, but if you’re
like most lifters and you're going to be using a variety of exercises to hit your lower body,
then just use a combination of both.
And on top of that, if you truly can’t perform squats because of some sort of injury, usually
to the lower back, then just know that using leg presses as your main lower body compound
lift is still going to produce significant gains in size and strength as long as you
apply progressive overload over time.
Squats are an awesome exercise, but there’s reallynothing “magical” about them and
you absolutely can still build an impressive lower body without them.
And just as a side note, I know that some people will probably point out that squats
are far and away the better exercise because they boost testosterone and growth hormone
levels in the body, but just keep in mind that this point is more likely than not a
non-issue, because small temporary spikes in these hormones is very unlikely to make
any difference to your bottom line gains, because in order for testosterone and growth
hormone to have any real effects here, the levels of each hormone have to be elevated
to very high levels and maintained over time.
So even if performingsquats does produce a slightly higher increase in testosterone or
growth hormone in comparison to the leg press, the difference is likely small and it's probably
not relevant in the big picture.
So thanks for watching this video lesson, I hope you found the information useful here
today.
If you want to learn a ton of other science-based, no B.S training, nutrition and supplementation
information to maximize your muscle building and your fat burning progress, make sure to
head over to BodyTransformationTruth.com and grab my complete “Body Transformation Blueprint”
System and you can do that by clicking the icon at the top of the video or using the
link in the description box below.
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Talk to you again soon.