Pumpatron

I've never really understood how the fact that training legs helps the rest of your body grow, other than the fact that leg training releases growth hormone (and I've been reading that this doesn't even affect growth that much because of the little amount that is released).

I've been really considering over the past few weeks of not training legs at all and just concentrating on building up my upper body but people say without leg training you'll never maximise your upper body gains.

Please don't just say "if you dont train legs you'll have a massive upper body but stick legs" because that's not what I'm worried about, I'll never have 'stick legs' anyway.

Anyway, I'd just like to be explained properly why I should keep my leg training in my routine, thanks!


HK

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"2 Mice Fell Into A Bucket Of Cream. The 1st Mouse Gave Up Trying To Get Out And Drowned. The 2nd Mouse Was Determined Not To Give In And So Struggled And Struggled For A Good 10 Minutes. All This Struggling Churned The Cream Into Butter Which Allowed The Mouse To Escape From The Bucket"

Now Ask Yourself... Which Mouse Are YOU?

W8isGR8

Because the body won't let itself get to far out of proportion. This is to prevent itself from injury. By training everything equally, you ensure even growth throughout the body.

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Vegeto

I believe that is true as well. You can grow your upperbody without growing legs only so much, but then your natural genetic purportional blueprint will prevent you from going any furthure untill you go back and bring those legs up to stay within your body's genreral shape.

Also, I beleive that most of your stabilization that you need to issue power through your upper body is dependant on the strength of your structure in your lower body. Strong squats help to develope strength and skill that can aid in leg drive for the bench press, for example.

Your body is meant to work as a unit, so it is only natural that it grows best that way.

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DJSTARER

The above posts hit it mostly.

The same reason you see idiots burning their arms 2X a week and see no results. As we see time and time again, the human body is AMAZING. It has countless checks and balances to make sure we arn't starving, wasting, dehydating, fainting, getting poisioned, or... growing out of proportion.

A lot of people say that chemical release (HGH and T mostly) has a lot to do with it due to the great size of the muscle group and multiple joint stim. I feel that is overated... but true to some extent.


Don't forget your multi

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My philosophies on training:

"Extreme training yields extreme results"

"Just because you can, does not mean you should"

"The best program is the one you are not doing"





Penn State Powerlifting-181 lb weightclass

PGA Professional of America


Current Stats:
474 Squat
601 Deadlift
320 Bench


Goals for next training cycle:

500lbs squat and a total over 1400 in competition

Trick D

Also the fact that doing squats and deadlifts for instance use much more than just one bodypart. You must have strong stabelizers and it trains more than just one bodypart...

The checks and balances thing is true too!

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htxred

you build a house from the ground up. if the house has a weak foundation, the big bad wolf is gonna eat your pigs.

madman911

Bottom line is: work your legs or you'll look like a light bulb. It looks ridiculous when a guy has a good size to his upper body and he's walking around on flamingo legs.

skelooth

:bigthumbu i like that analogy

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DJSTARER

mmmmmmmmmm...... bacon

__________________
My philosophies on training:

"Extreme training yields extreme results"

"Just because you can, does not mean you should"

"The best program is the one you are not doing"





Penn State Powerlifting-181 lb weightclass

PGA Professional of America


Current Stats:
474 Squat
601 Deadlift
320 Bench


Goals for next training cycle:

500lbs squat and a total over 1400 in competition

htxred

that rarely happens naturally, and when it does, its mostly genetics.

i'll take it back to elementary, "you're only cheating yourself"

htxred

i was gonna make it sexual but i forgot theres a few youngins around here.. *cough* skeloooth *cough*

:p

A_N_91

There's lots of reasons to do them. First, hormones, most importantly (to me). Second, being functional. Imagine you weigh with your massive upper body at a large 230 lbs but your legs can only handle 200, and your legs getting tired after a 5 minute jog.

Hormone release and support for whole body, plus I'm not on any sport teams for school and I don't play competitive, but when I play some basketball or football on weekends sometimes, haveing strong legs helps a lot.

A.FreeRadical

Combating aging, optimizing health, and improving one's physique are good reasons to do compound movement exercises. The reason for this is hormones (Growth Hormone and Testosterone) are stimulated by doing these exercises.

Some excellent compound exercises are the Squat, Deadlift, Chin ups, Dips, Bench press, Barbell Press, Lunges, Bent-Over Barbell Row and Bent Arm Pullover. Every workout should include at least one compound movement exercise.

*

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"Is it going to be the red pill or the blue pill, Neo? The red pill will answer the question 'What is the Matrix?'

Choose carefully. Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."

Ron Paul for President, 2008

A.FreeRadical ...the Epicurean bodybuilder

Height: 5'9", Age: 62,
My last high on 2/1/2006 was 196 lbs.
My last low on 8/08/2006 was 167.5 lbs.

Cutting until I am lean
Starting weight: 190 lbs. bodyfat: 19.7%
November 27th: 183 lbs. bodyfat: 18.3% bodyfat
Goal Weight: 176 lbs with no more than 10% bodyfat

My recipe collection

A_N_91

I think you forgot kickbacks in there

DJSTARER

at least. good post.


Beginnners especially should have routines consisting of all compound moves.

__________________
My philosophies on training:

"Extreme training yields extreme results"

"Just because you can, does not mean you should"

"The best program is the one you are not doing"





Penn State Powerlifting-181 lb weightclass

PGA Professional of America


Current Stats:
474 Squat
601 Deadlift
320 Bench


Goals for next training cycle:

500lbs squat and a total over 1400 in competition

dukebrown

If you want to grow but dont like how squats make you feel how are you going to push your upper body to its limits?

Only punes dont squat.

And people wonder why they throw out their backs when picking up household items.

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If you aint hurting you aint growin

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