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Genus. 1984 Trained since 1999. Trained since 2007. CCM in powerlifting. Champion of Russia and the South of Russia according to AWPC. Champion Krasnodar Territory according to IPF. 1st category in weightlifting. 2-time winner of the championship of the Krasnodar Territory in t / a. Author of over 700 articles on fitness and amateur athleticism. Author and co-author of 5 books.


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The date: 2012-05-29 Views: 1 466 344 Grade: 4.4

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Squats with a barbell on the shoulders - video

Weight and reps for beginners

For men: 8 - 12 repetitions of 20 - 30 kg. 3 - 4 approaches.
For women: 10 - 15 repetitions of 10 - 15 kg. 3 - 4 approaches.

Load on muscle groups

The load is indicated on a 10-point scale (the total load is summed up)

Restrictions for injury/illness/pain

The degree of risk is indicated on a 10-point scale

Description of the exercise

The role of this exercise is difficult to overestimate. It is the basis for the development of the entire lower body. If you want the buttocks to pump well, then you will have to squat a little lower than the parallel of the floor.

Main chips

1. The width of the legs directly affects the distribution of the load. Already legs - more load on the front of the thigh. Wider legs (and, accordingly, knees) - part of the load is shifted to the inner surface of the thigh. 2. If at the bottom point you can’t keep your heels off the floor, then place a stand about 2 cm high under your heels. The easiest option is small pancakes, or a piece of rubber. But this should be done only if there is no way without it. 3. The lower you squat, the more your buttocks will work. I am personally a supporter of the fact that at the bottom point hip joint dropped just below the knee. That is, it is desirable to squat below the parallel. 4. While squatting, your knees should point in the same direction as your toes. And for many beginners, they (knees) fall inward. And the socks should be slightly turned to the sides. Approximately 1/3. 5. If you are not into powerlifting, then I see no reason to put the barbell like a lifter. That is, not on the shoulders, but below. Now the fashion for many coaches to teach beginners to lift squats. I think that this technique is justified only in powerlifting. And if a person is not going to do it, then you need to learn the classical technique.

Day by day they come to our editorial office emails from our novice readers with the same question: how to gain muscle mass? A typical yellow-mouth beginner writes: here I am swinging, swinging, swinging day and night, I even lie down with dumbbells, but there were no high-quality volumes, and there aren’t any ... Well, we’ll tell you what to do ...

If you are a beginner who recently came to the gym and is most likely doing a standing barbell lift (a favorite exercise of all yellowmouths), you should know that you do not need this standing biceps. What then should be done? - and you need to do squats. "How so?" - you ask - “after all, I want, first of all, strong inflated arms. That's why I came to the gym! And you offer me to swing my legs? - exactly! As it is not paradoxical - but it is so! If you want strong arms, then swing your legs! Squats and Base - medicine to set muscle mass! And all because the legs are the foundation of our body. Everything is on the feet. There will be healthy legs, and behind them the rest of the muscles will tighten up.

After all, how does a professional athlete work for mass? - he does not pump biceps - he does not need it. He makes the base! And the base, as you know, is just three exercises:

  • Deadlift with the same projectile,
  • Bench press from a lying position on a horizontal bench.

And pay attention: two of the three exercises are focused specifically on the legs - this is no accident. Generally speaking, the emphasis in these three basic exercises is on the largest muscles of the athlete's body:

  • Legs,
  • back,
  • Breast.

Well, all other muscles are also involved in the work unconditionally. Experts sports medicine it has been proven that performing just these three exercises is quite enough for a qualitative increase in the muscle volume of the entire body of an athlete.

Well, now that you know

Squats - base element any weightlifting workout. Exercise comprehensively develops the figure and the athlete.

Target Muscles

The main load is taken by the quadriceps and buttocks. The extensors of the back, biceps of the thigh, soleus, calf muscles act as stabilizers. The press and deltas are indirectly loaded.

Benefits of exercise

Power squats have many benefits for the athlete:

  • Increase in overall body weight and muscle strength.
  • Improving mobility and coordination by strengthening ligaments, joints and stabilizing muscles.
  • Maintaining the health of the male reproductive system by stimulating the production of testosterone and increasing blood circulation in the pelvic organs.
  • Getting rid of subcutaneous fat, due to the inclusion of large muscle groups in the work.
  • Formation of tightened hips and rounded buttocks in women.

For beginners, squats with light weight on the shoulders are also useful. Moderate loads in combination with a basic multi-joint exercise help to form a muscular corset, strengthen ligaments and tendons.

Squat technique

Before starting, you should prepare psychologically. Try to focus on the exercise as much as possible. Concentrating on the weight being lifted helps complete the approach:

  1. Approach the bar, located at the level of the collarbones, grab the bar with a direct closed grip. The width of the setting of the palms is selected individually. As a rule, the hands are slightly wider than the shoulders. This is necessary so that the shoulder blades remain flattened and the back is level throughout the approach. If the shoulder joints are stiff, you can spread your arms wide, but with such a grip, the likelihood of losing balance increases.
  2. Squeeze the bar tightly with your palms, sit down slightly on your feet and step forward. After passing under the bar, substitute the second foot and rise. In this case, the shoulder blades should come together, and the bar should rest against the upper back. If everything is done correctly, the weight will lie on the trapezius muscle and be supported by the rear deltas. If you feel strong pressure on the vertebrae, step back and repeat the approach to the bar.
  3. Tighten your leg muscles, straighten your knees and take the weight off the supports. Take a step back, then bring your other foot forward. No need to go far from the racks. Look up at an angle. This will help keep the lower back arched and reduce the risk of losing balance. Spread your feet wider than your shoulders and turn your socks slightly to the sides. Fix this position and concentrate as much as possible before squatting.
  4. With a deep breath, begin to move the pelvis back and spread the knees to the sides. Don't lean forward. The natural tilt resulting from abduction of the pelvis will suffice. Your squat should resemble lowering your buttocks into an imaginary chair. Having descended to the lowest point, immediately begin to rise, powerfully exhaling air from the lungs. At the same time, lift by straightening your legs, and not straightening your back.

We figured out the basic technique, now let's look at some important nuances:

  • Bar position. If you lower the neck below the rear deltoids, then the load will shift to the buttocks. Girls use this method of holding with light squats. In strength training, this position of the bar is not recommended, as the forward lean increases and the risk of losing balance increases.
  • Squat depth. Affects the involvement in the work of the buttocks and lower back. The deeper the athlete goes down, the more these areas are loaded. We also note that a lower squat increases the range of motion, which has a positive effect on the growth of strength indicators. If your goal is to gain muscle mass, go just below the horizontal position of the hips. If you are a weightlifter, squat to the end.
  • The position of the knees. One of the basic rules of safe squatting: knee joints should not go beyond the socks. If this happens, then you are not retracting the pelvic region enough. With this performance, the traumatic load on the ligaments of the knees increases. We recommend to postpone the power squats and work with the technique.
  • Stop position. Selected individually. The wider the feet are spread, the greater the load on the gluteal muscles. In power squats, we recommend placing your legs at shoulder level or slightly wider. Make sure that the socks are turned in the same direction as the knees.

Before squatting, be sure to warm up your entire body with cardio and do a few low-weight pull-up sets.

How to choose the weight

Remember: in order for the muscles to grow, you need to perform 6 to 12 repetitions in each working approach. With a smaller amount, strength indicators will increase, with a larger amount, endurance will increase. In this case, failure should occur on the last two repetitions.

Let's analyze an approximate weight selection algorithm for beginners:

  1. Let's say you decide to work "for the masses." For beginners, we recommend limiting yourself to 10 repetitions per set.
  2. Throw a couple of 10 kg plates on the bar and fix them with locks to get an average weight for an unprepared athlete (40–50 kg).
  3. Try doing 10 squats with proper technique.
  4. If you did 8-9, and there was a refusal, then the weight was chosen correctly. If all 10 repetitions were easy for you, add 5 kg on each side and repeat the approach.
  5. Add weight until you reach failure on the 8th squat.

With this method, you can learn how to select the initial weight in all strength exercises. The number of sets in basic squats for beginners should not exceed 5-6. At the same time, the first 2 are warm-up, with an empty neck, the rest are workers.

The effect of exercise on the lower back and knees

With strict adherence to technique, squats do not harm the musculoskeletal system. On the contrary, they strengthen muscles and ligaments, which makes the athlete more mobile and faster. Beginners often make the following critical mistakes:

  • bringing the knee beyond the line of the fingers;
  • "rounding" of the spine;
  • lack of deflection in the lower back;
  • bringing the knees inward;
  • transfer of body weight to socks and separation of heels;
  • lifting the barbell with your back, not with your legs.

Try to eliminate these errors, as they can cause not only pain, but also serious injury.

If pain still occurs during squats, stop exercising and try to assess your condition.

Dull pain in one place usually indicates a slight sprain. In such a situation, we recommend using analgesic ointments and refraining from physical activity for several days.

If pain- sharp, interfering with normal movement, seek medical help. Self-treatment can only aggravate the injury.

Squats in the Smith Machine

The simulator is a power frame with guides to which a sliding bar is attached. We briefly list the advantages of squats in this machine:

  • accentuated effect on the muscles of the thighs and buttocks;
  • safe mastering of squat technique;
  • no risk of loss of balance and falling;
  • the ability to squat for people with sore knees.

Since the bar moves in one plane, the stabilizer muscles are excluded from work. On the one hand, this reduces the overall effectiveness of the exercise, on the other hand, on the contrary, it allows beginner athletes to strengthen the muscles and ligaments of the legs without fear of injury.

Squats for girls

Girls are often afraid to “swing” their hips a lot and therefore avoid power squats. In fact, this should not be afraid. To pump up large voluminous thighs, you need impressive weights and increased production of growth hormones. In women by nature hormonal background low, so muscular legs like men do not threaten them.

Women's fitness programs, as a rule, are aimed at losing weight and "drawing" the relief. Therefore, all exercises in them are designed to be performed with small weights and for a large number of repetitions (15–20). Therefore, squats will not increase the muscle mass of the girl, but will only give the buttocks a rounded, toned look.

We offer an example of a fitness program for working out the gluteal muscles and thighs:

  1. Warm-up: orbitrek or treadmill - 5-7 minutes at an easy pace.
  2. Squats in the Smith frame - 3x15.
  3. Lunges with dumbbells in hands - 3x15.
  4. Leg press in an inclined simulator - 3x15.
  5. Reverse lunges - 3x15.
  6. Romanian deadlift - 3x15.
  7. in the machine for calf - 3x20.

Rest between sets - 1 minute. At the end of the workout, you can perform 1-2 elements on the press, for example, twisting on the floor (3x20) and plank (3x40 seconds).

Varieties

You can perform the exercise not only in the classical technique. Let's analyze other, equally effective variations of squats.

sumo squats

Feature - a wide setting of the feet. Due to this, the buttocks are more actively included in the work, which allows you to lift more weight than with the standard technique. Light bar sumo squats are great for girls who want to work their inner thighs and glutes.

Front Squats

They are performed with the barbell held on the upper chest and deltas. In such squats, the body moves vertically, without tilt, which allows you to almost completely eliminate the buttocks and shift the load on the quadriceps. Not recommended for beginners due to complex technique.

Narrow stance

The technique is the same as in the classic squats, only the feet are already shoulder-length. Used by professional bodybuilders for an accentuated study of the outer and lateral surfaces of the thigh. Not suitable for beginners due to the risk of losing balance.

Lunge Squats

The athlete puts a barbell on his shoulders, puts one leg forward, and takes the other back. Then, while inhaling, lowers the pelvis to the parallel of the thigh with the floor, with an exhalation it returns to a vertical position. Exercise qualitatively loads the muscles of the thigh and buttocks. Suitable for girls and beginners.

Squat Hackenschmidt

The athlete lowers the bar to the floor and turns his back to it. Then he lowers his pelvis, grabs the bar and stands up. The arms and back are straight, the chest is slightly turned forward, the gaze is directed at an angle upwards. From this position, slow squats are performed.

At the bottom point, the pancakes touch the floor, but without a “beat”. The technique allows you to work out the quadriceps, calf muscles well. Beginners can do hack squats in a power rack from stands.

Zercher Squats

The bar is located on the racks of the power frame, approximately at the level of the lower back. It is recommended to throw a soft towel over the bar. The athlete presses the elbows to the bar, squeezes the palms into the lock, removes the weight from the stops and takes a step back. The legs are slightly wider than the shoulders, the back is straight. From this position, squats are performed.

This exercise allows you to qualitatively work out the quadriceps. In this case, the load from the lower back is almost completely removed.

Equipment

Power squats, even with the right technique, put pressure on the lower back and knee joints. Therefore, to protect these places from injury, we recommend using sports accessories. Use a weightlifting belt for the lower back, and special elastic bandages for the knees.

You can strengthen your grip with wrist loops. Such straps will be needed, for example, when doing Hackenschmidt squats, when you need to hold the barbell in your hands.

If you want to squat with more weight, get heeled weights. Such shoes will help you perform the exercise correctly, without tearing off your heels and shifting weight onto your toes.

Contraindications

Weighted squats cannot be performed with the following diseases and conditions:

  • radiculitis;
  • scoliosis;
  • dorsal and abdominal hernias;
  • phlebeurysm;
  • knee or spine injuries;
  • recovery period after operations;
  • pregnancy;
  • exacerbation of chronic diseases;
  • vestibular disorder.

If you doubt the safety of squats for you, be sure to visit a doctor. Otherwise, you can harm yourself and aggravate any disease.

An athletic body starts with basic exercises. Such training contributes to the recruitment of muscle mass and the creation of a foundation, which is then polished to get a muscular skeleton, like the best bodybuilders.

In this article you will find a lot of tips and useful information about basic exercises gym for muscle building.

Base for mass gain

To start the growth of muscle tissue volumes, they are complexly loaded. For this, basic exercises are intended, which are also called multi-joint, since two or more joints are involved. They are aimed at the tension of not one muscle, but the whole group. Training is carried out with large weights.

Action of basic exercises:

  1. Increases muscle mass and burns fat.
  2. Increases appetite, which is useful for ectomorphs - people with a lean physique and thin bones.
  3. Improved muscle symmetry.
  4. The connection between the muscles and the brain is strengthened.

In a scientific experiment involving forty men, it was found that muscle mass gain comes from hormones, in particular, testosterone, and not from physical effort. At physical activity hormonal release occurs. The more muscles are loaded at a time, the more hormones are produced. The effect is enhanced by the inclusion in the work of the respiratory and central nervous system.

The proportion of back and leg muscles reaches 80% of the total mass. Therefore, those who want to pump up the body pay attention, first of all, to these groups. By developing them, the athlete develops other muscles.

Main basic exercises

Here is a list of basic basic exercises that a beginner needs to create a muscular “foundation”. After a year, the relief of the body can be improved by isolated exercises.- those that work out one muscle group.

From the video you will learn how to properly perform the bench press, squats and deadlift, as well as how to get the maximum result from them:

Deadlift classic


never deadlift without an athletic belt

This exercise is better than others to develop the muscles of the body, because it involves the most muscles in the work:

  • the main ones are the quadriceps femoral, gluteus maximus, extensors of the back;
  • additional - femoral biceps, semimembranosus, trapezius, semitendinosus.

Deadlift is performed in 3-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions. Approximately the initial weight for men is up to 40 kg, for women - up to 20 kg. “Your” weight is calculated so that the athlete lifts it with a straight back. If there is a curvature, roundness, then in the future there will be diseases of the spine.

With injuries or back pain, deadlifts are not included in the program immediately. The first two months are fulfilled. The same exercise in 3 sets is performed before the deadlift.

Squats


barbell squats will help build extra pounds in the biceps

This exercise is popular not only in bodybuilding, but also in other sports, rehabilitation programs and in preparing an athlete for competitions. Stretches when combined with pullovers chest, increases the volume and ventilation of the lungs.

Working muscles:

  • the main ones are quadriceps, large gluteal, soleus;
  • additionally - biceps femoris, calves, extensors.

If the technique is poorly mastered or the inventory is not set up, the exercise is traumatic, the knees and spine suffer.

When working with large weights, elastic bandages are used on the knees and wrist joints, and a belt.

By changing the width of the grip, the athlete shifts the emphasis to the desired muscle group.

When performing a bench press, observe the following rules:

  • at big weight use only a closed grip;
  • the bar from the racks must be served by an assistant;
  • do not allow the lower back to bend upward.

Pull-ups on a tunic


chin raised during exercise

They make the body more embossed, drier. Muscles work:

  • the main ones are the widest backs, trapezoidal,;
  • additionally - flexors, extensors of the forearms, middle part of the body, deltoid.

Depending on the width and direction of the grip, the following muscle groups are worked out:

  • straight-, extensors of the forearm;
  • middle reverse- biceps, wide dorsal (preferable for beginners);
  • straight narrow- serrated, broadest dorsal in the lower part, shoulders;
  • narrow reverse- biceps, latissimus dorsi;
  • wide- the broadest dorsal in the upper part, paired round, trapezoidal;
  • wide for the head- paired round, middle section of the widest, trapezoidal.

The last two options are for experienced athletes only.

Standing barbell press


do not relax the muscles of the back and the press, otherwise there is a high risk of injury

This bench press is also called army and is among the best for,. Previously included in the program Olympic Games in weightlifting to test upper body strength. The main working muscles are deltoid, upper part, triceps.

With a change in grip width, the load moves:

  • narrow- anterior deltoid, clavicular part of the pectoral muscle, long head of the triceps;
  • wide- front and middle parts of the deltoid muscles, the upper part of the pectorals.

Army bench press is also performed with dumbbells.

The optimal frequency of training is 3-4 times a week, the duration is up to 60-90 minutes. Break between sets - 2-3 minutes.

In the first year of training, the training program does not contain isolated exercises - they master the "base". Begin classes with minimal loads, increase the intensity gradually. In the early stages, correct technique is important, not weight.

So that the body does not get used, the loads are periodically increased- change the working weight, the number of repetitions, reduce the break between sets.

The correct diet, adherence to the diet, water balance is important. Overeating is not allowed.

Rules for gaining muscle mass:

It seems like an unattainable dream to get a body like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lee Priest, other bodybuilders. But once you study the success story of Martin Ford, the obvious will be revealed: the goal will be achieved if efforts are made to achieve it.

The first question that beginner athletes often ask, in one way or another, as a rule, concerns one thing - how to confidently gain the first ten to twenty kilograms of functional muscle mass.

For a beginner - as soon as he started more or less serious exercises with a barbell - an avalanche of new information falls upon him. This is an endless arsenal of athletic exercises, and nuances that are incomprehensible at first sports nutrition, and many many others. Even after passing his first test, a novice bodybuilder spends a lot of time and effort on fruitless experiments. Of course, after some time, having shown due patience and endurance, our hero will get to understand the basic laws of pumping. Moreover, this understanding will not be bookish, but gained through suffering personal experience. But time is a serious adversary, especially when it is not valued.

The practice of athleticism, sports physiology and psychology are guaranteed to confirm the effectiveness of squats in gaining muscle mass.

In order to turn such a serious enemy as time into an ally and faithful assistant, it is necessary that it work for us. And for this, only one thing is needed - that the training time, and with it the wasted mental strength, is constantly accompanied by positive changes, clearly noticeable results of bodybuilding training. It can be assumed with certainty, and this happens all the time, that, without seeing the results of one’s activity for a long time, a person will most likely abandon it as unpromising, and will be right in his own way.

To avoid such a possible development of the training scenario, you need to protect yourself by arming yourself with win-win techniques. There is no need to be surprised here. Insofar as we are talking about the first steps in training - specialists usually take the first two or three years for them - the statistics collected over the past half century confirm the validity of this approach. During this period, gaining muscle weight of several tens of kilograms is not a “cosmic” task, but rather a methodical one. Let's put it simply: "You need to know what to take on in the first place and not waste time on useless things."

Due to the fact that muscle growth on a whim is usually understood as hypertrophy of the muscles of the chest and biceps, most beginners are not selected for mass growth, real growth. Usually everything ends successfully with an arm growth of two, maybe five centimeters. Then everything returns to normal. But, having as its task - an increase of 15-20 kilograms, it is necessary to act differently - thoroughly.

Like everything in nature, everything in the human body is interconnected and the laws of muscle growth once again speak of this. More than one generation of athletes, adherents of iron sports has grown up on effective methods, the meaning of which is quite simple in its formulation, but it is difficult to perceive in real life, especially among young people. This is understandable - it is much easier to believe in beautiful stories than to begin to understand something, constantly discovering and exploring something new for yourself.

One of these truths of iron sports, and perhaps the most important, is an understanding of the functionality of the exercises performed in the gym. Functionality not in the sense of exercise technique, about which a lot of instructions are written, but in the sense of the effectiveness of this or that exercise. Exercises can be very different from each other. This does not mean that you need to get rid of them all (although a couple of advertised exercises should be done in this way), but rather indicates their skillful use in direct connection with the level of training and current training objectives.

In the first year of training in bodybuilding, it is important to gain overall muscle weight, providing a complex build-up of muscle tissue throughout the body (and not in individual microzones, as rich ladies usually do when they come to a plastic surgeon). This growth will be possible only if the hormonal system is stimulated. It is she who is responsible for the self-regulation of all vital functions in the human body. Infusion of synthetic drugs will not help here. Here you need to act wisely - attracting the natural capabilities of the body, otherwise you risk not living up to your fifth decade (remember the tragically departed Mentzer, Benaziz, Müntzer, Newman and Turchinsky, I'm not talking about those who die in obscurity).

The natural alternative was, and still is, the possibility of bringing tried and tested exercises to your aid. Those that are capable by their nature of causing the highest training stress in the body, which, if proper recovery is followed, will lead to an equally strong return in the form of long-awaited muscle hypertrophy. As a result, it will simultaneously strengthen the cardiovascular system, nervous and mental sphere. Agree, it is difficult to imagine an athlete with a huge muscle mass with a weak heart, shattered nerves and an unstable psyche.

It has been proven that squats and deadlifts are exercises with such a hurricane effect. The movements in them are identical, their only difference is that in the first case the working weight lies on the back, and in the second - in the lowered hands. This difference introduces some shift in the emphasis of the load, but in general, the movements repeat each other. For this reason, further discussion will go without dividing these fundamental exercises in the matter of gaining muscle mass.

The advantage of squats is confirmed not only by the century-old experience of the army of athletes, but also by biochemical blood tests taken at certain intervals after training. These analyzes confidently demonstrate bursts of the level of pituitary hormones, and after them the sex hormones, which are responsible, among other things, for protein synthesis occurring in muscle tissues.

Having at its disposal natural elevated level androgenic hormones, you can start pumping individual muscle groups. In the language of practice, this means that after performing squats with free weights, it becomes possible to transfer the effect achieved with their help to muscle growth throughout the body. And this is not to mention the fact that such stimulation occurs even during the squats themselves - the exercise extremely effectively involves a huge array of muscle groups. In fact, everything works in this exercise, by the way, even the internal pelvic muscles responsible for maintaining abdominal organs. The cumulative effect achieved to this day cannot be compared with anything. Checked! And more than once!