Squats boost other workouts?

I've read on this forum and from other sources that there is a lot of speculation about whether or not squats help your other workouts that have non-related muscle groups. The reason for this being ( And I'm completely paraphrasing so cut me some slack ) that squats can lead to increased testosterone levels because of the amount and size of the muscles involved with the lift.

I was wondering if any studies have been done on this or if anyone has any non-anecdotal evidence to back this up. The theory seems sound to me, and honestly I've found it to be true for myself, but I just want to investigate a little more.

 

Personally I haven't noticed that much, but if you're training right, you're squatting, and if you're training right, your other lifts go up.

 

Yes squats will make your other lifts better.

It's pretty obvious.

Heavy squats build lower back strength and endurance which carries over to just about every other lift, most importantly, the deadlift/variants.

Squats also help develop mental fortitude which is mostly what lifting is all about.

They also help develop balance and improve speed and flexibility.

Squats and lifts like it (compound: deadlift, cleans, overhead presses, etc...) will help other lifts simply because of the many muscle groups recruited in addition to the balance and focus required to properly perform them.

And, by the way, I'm a noob when it comes to body chemistry, but I've heard many pro bodybuilders claim that the best and first lift you can do for hypertrophy is the squat.

And if you do overhead squats, there simply isn't such a thing as "non-related muscle groups".

 

squats are king

 

According to my limited experience, squats do seem to help everything else out. As my squat has gone up, I've just felt stronger overall, and my lifts have all pretty much gone up.

 

I would like to know who many days should i rest my legs. I have weights at home that max at 100lbs and i do 21 reps 5-9 times depending on how much energy i have of squats, i want to know who much do u guys thnk i should rest my legs before going again.

 

I can't recall any studies right now, but I believe the whole squatting leads to a mini burst of test and HGH release in body effect has been proven to be negligible. But squats will make you stronger everywhere.

 

Get more weight

 

from: Full Squats for Strength and Development


Squats and Systemic Growth

You may be wondering, "Just exactly how do squats promote growth throughout the body?" To begin with, the squat involves multiple joints and muscles which in turn increase the level at which the nervous system must coordinate movement in conjunction with the lifter's muscle-skeletal system. In the squat there are numerous muscles of the body working simultaneously to provide the stability and mobility needed for this exercise. It has been estimated that there are up to 200 muscles involved in the squat.

The hormonal or endocrine system combined with the nervous system makes up what is known as "neuroendocrinology". This term describes the relationship of chemical substances that have both neural and hormonal functions. The endocrine glands are stimulated to release hormones by a chemical signal received by the receptors on the gland or by neural stimulation, which is what occurs during weight training. Ever wonder why you feel particularly upbeat and euphoric after a hard workout, even if you are physically drained? Its because of the increased presence of hormones in your body, hormones that also influence our moods. This is similar to the runners high experienced by long distance runners.

The increase in anabolic hormone levels observed after a hard workout can increase hormonal interactions with various cellular mechanisms and enhance the development of muscle protein contractile units. On neural stimulation from an alpha motor neuron to initiate a muscle action, various signals (electrical, chemical, and hormonal) are sent from the brain and from activated muscles to a number of endocrine glands. Hormones are secreted during and after the workout in response to the physiological stress of resistance exercise. This simply means that the nervous, muscle-skeletal, and hormonal systems are responsible for the effects promoted by exercises like the squat.
There are various hormones, which produce this effect, and the one that most people are familiar with is testosterone. It's been demonstrated that testosterone serum concentrations can increase with exercises such as the squat.

Squats can increase growth throughout the entire body because they use numerous muscles and this means they stimulate more muscle fibers than say an exercise such as a leg extension or a leg press. The greater the fiber recruitment, the greater the process for potential growth and development in the muscle. Only muscle fibers that are recruited by resistance training are subject to adaptation and the more muscles used in an exercise like the squat the more the muscle fibers are stimulated.


Keith Wassung

 

Good read.

 

except for your deadlift...

 

awesome, thanks

 

Squat is the Uberlift. Your body says: Oh shite I musts stop living girly life. musts produce testosterone and be strong.

 

Squatting improved my bench. True story.

 

Squats and milk

 

Trying to add to what everyone else has said, squats build your base for every exercise and movement; your legs plus abs and lower back. When those get stronger, especially for people like me for whom those are weak points, you can handle more weight in everything else. Kindof like getting a stronger grip makes you lift more on everything.

 

Thanks Keith.

 

Thanks for the post Keith!

Yeah, I think this part of it sums up what I was asking about.

" It's been demonstrated that testosterone serum concentrations can increase with exercises such as the squat. "

So I guess there is evidence that this happens.

 

Deadlifts will increase your bench, squat, powerclean, etc. Deadlifts are more synergistic then squats, but yeah, squats do strengthen you're entire body to an extent helping with other lifts. If nothing else, squatting heavy makes you crap lightening bolts (to quote mick) haha

 

There are alot of good deadlifters, who deadlift rarely but squat alot. Also the carryover can depend alot from the style you squat and deadlift. If you squat widestance and do sumo deads the carryover will be greater. But in the end they are both awesome, they both kill me and, I fear them both.

Hence I will do high volume deadlifts on monday and 20rep squats at thursday or friday. Give me the most irrelevant lift that would fit here and I test my max on it tomorrow and then test it again after the month and well see how good those two increase the max in the months time without training it directly... I have to say that this is not completely scientific cos Ill be grappling doing no-gym training too, but consider it as a test drive...