silly question

B

butcher

New Member
i have a silly question i want to ask and i really appreciate your answers

i does not include any lower body training in my schedule does it affect my upper upper body gains and if it does can you explain it to me because

i really wonder how does as example squat affect my arm and shoulder gains
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on scientific base

i know that ia must train my legs but i wonder if i did not
does it affect my upper body

thnx for your help
 
I can't give you the science behind it...but it I can give you 100% the correct answer.

Squatting and any lower body work does not and I repeat DOES NOT have anything to do with your upper body growth.

If you want upper body growth and thats it just train your upper body.
 
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(Joe.Muscle @ Oct. 28 2008,8:44)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If you want upper body growth and thats it just train your upper body.</div>
Yup, but squats and deadlifts really help to add mass. These powerful compound exercises work nearly ever muscle in your body.

I might skip my bench presses or chins from time to time, but I would never skip squats or deads. Of course, that's just me...
 
Deads are a great back exercise and if you want a large upper body, I think that leaving them out would be a mistake. At least do rack pulls if you don't want to do the whole deadlift...
 
Well, while I think while Joe is correct in the sense that upper-body muscles are not being worked dynamically when squatting, there is definitely a case for upper-body isometric contractions during a heavy squat being powerful enough to elicit a growth response, even if it's not very large.

If you got yourself to the point where you could get under a 400lb bar and squat with it for 5 reps, I can't imagine that your upper body would be the same size as it was when you could only squat with 200lb. I don't suppose your arms would grow much, if at all, but your core muscles, traps and back have to do a lot of work supporting a heavy weight.

Same goes for for deads, plus your arms are heavily involved too. In fact, which muscles do deads not train in some way? Even my eyeballs get a workout when deadlifting!

Deads will have a great effect on your traps and spinal erectors. For me, well developed traps are an important part of a well developed physique.
 
Lol as usual is right on track, the only thing I will add besides vehemently emphasizing that it is a huge mistake not to train lower body, is that the release of testosterone is greater when heavy squats ansd deadlifts are included in your training kinda like a natural steroid!
 
I don't see why you shouldn't train lower body, unless you have VERY specific needs, like if you are a gymnast that need small light legs but strong upper body. Even if your upper body is lagging and you want to bring it up to par with your lower body, just work them both and if you want use more volume on upper body stuff. Your body will eventually seek some symmetry. Not only that but you will keep your lower body muscles conditioned and avoid atrophy (ARG, not that word!!).
Not only that but as others have said both squats and deadlifts are great at building strength and mass at core and stabilizing muscles that are fundamental to many upper body exercises like presses, shrugs, rows...
 
No doubt everyone here is spot on.

But if you don't want to deadlift or squat then you don't have to.

You can build a hell of a physique upper body wise without ever touching a deadlift or squat.

But they are very awesome exercises to have in your arsenal.

Should you do them...if you want to yes!

Do you have to I would say no...but it may not be optimal in the long run to not do them.

Lots of guys who don't know what they are doing especially in college just do curls and curls and curls ( in the squat rack to get big arms).

It works but its not optimal.

The only problem I see is if you are trying to do bring up a lagging bodypart then squats and deads can drain you before you get to your specialization workout.

But if you are not concerned with a lagging bodypart then I would include them like the others have said.

This is all my humble opinon of course!
 
Also you could always ease into them...like Totentanz recommended.

Like I said if above if you had to go with a one size fits all advice...I would definatly include them before I excluded them.
 
I would definitely include some lower body work. If you are worried about over developing your legs (how many of us would love that problem?!!) maybe just keep it to 1 working set through out.

I believe one of the major benefits of a full body workout is the extra stimulus it provides via means of increased testosterone levels etc. Your lower body muscles are by far the biggest muscles in your body and so will have a bigger impact on the release of test etc. The more test you have in your system the better as it will circulate to all areas. You can of course build an upper body with no lower body work, but I think your upper body will grow faster if you include lower body, as all the guys above have implied (I think).
 
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(Lol @ Oct. 28 2008,10:29)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Same goes for for deads, plus your arms are heavily involved too. In fact, which muscles do deads not train in some way? Even my eyeballs get a workout when deadlifting!</div>
LOL
Guess that explains the eyes on your avatar!!
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Just one little point - the release of hormones is not systemic when you are lifting...

Big compounds are still a good idea though, but obviously we all know that you can get a big upper body without training the lower body.
 
Some great points- here are two more...
You really short change yourself by not doing deads - and I'll tell you why. Firstly, EVERYTHING will go up a lot quicker as just holding the poundages involved in deadlift(a heck of a lot more than you'll likely be doing in any &quot;upper body lift&quot;, if not at first as you haven't been doing them; but ; VERY soon) in your hands during the pull sends a powerfull signal to your CNS that this much weight is ok - and this &quot;turns off&quot; the built in safety inhibition and allows the same amount of muscle to fire more fibers, contract more powerfully (however you choose to describe it the end result is the same- your other lifts will go up).
Secondly, there is a mental component that operates the same way , someone who may be with out even being aware of it &quot;afraid&quot; to REALLY push hard on say bench , will &quot;learn&quot; that it's ok to do so - nothing will rip or break (knock on wood), after &quot;learning&quot; this on deads which can be the most intense lift , yet safe in terms of failure doesn't result in weight crushing down on to you.
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That's a really great point Russ.

One of the things I've found about only lifting heavy once a week while on my current UD2 cut is that my CNS gets lazy; come heavy day, it's a real shock to get under a heavy bar again. I'm now trying to add in some heavy singles on other training days so that I keep my CNS firing at those levels more often.

A while back, I found that when I squatted heavy I could do much better with my CoC grippers if I used them between sets of squats. Evidently, my CNS was geared up to a much higher output at that time. This is another reason why I now always try to hit my biggest lifts first in a workout; I just find it sets me up for better lifting in my other lighter exercises.
 
you don't need to train your legs for upper body growth but what is your reason for not doing so?

I figure you'll get a huge upper body and then look down at your legs and be like &quot;ahh man!&quot;.

I know I don't want to wear pants at the beach!
 
Well, correlation between upper and lower growth aside... you need to have some balance between upper and lower body. If not, your center of weight will be higher and you literally will have to struggle more to keep your balance.
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Another thing to consider: Lack of training one body part will make this body part more prone to give away protein to the areas that are being trained, thus depriving the untrained part of more mass. Maybe not much, but seriously not good. The body is searching for the most economic way out. Muscle mass is expensive and if it isn't used, then what need does the body have of it? Recycle it.

And that is maybe part of the answer you seek. Focus on your upper body and chances are that more resourses can be called upon to elicit gains there, at the expense of other body parts. But, as said before, the testosterone and GH might not be high enough to make any big difference. That might be why split programs work so well? One day lower - recover and grow; One day upper - recover and grow; rinse and repeat.

End rant.
 
One of the biggest natural lifters i have known over the years was a paraplegic lifter. But, for some reason, I never saw him squat or deadlift.
 
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(Aaron_F @ Nov. 09 2008,1:22)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">One of the biggest natural lifters i have known over the years was a paraplegic lifter. But, for some reason, I never saw him squat or deadlift.</div>
Must have been steroids then man.
 
FWIW I get the 'sickest pumps' from dead lifting in my upper body, and to a lesser extent squats

Of course that doesn't mean jack for hypertrophy, but it does say that the old upper body is being activated like a motha
 
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