By incorporating legs into your workout, you will see more gains in 6 weeks then most people do in 3 months!
Believe it or not, squats produce the most GH or Growth Hormone out of any movement you might do. It also serves to increase your bench and all other lifts.
It Has Been Shown That Testosterone Increases with Large Muscle Mass Exercises (Squat, Deadlifts, and to some extent – bench press).
Testosterone levels are influenced by the amount of muscle mass activated in response to exercise. Olympic lifts, jump squats, and dead lifts have all been shown to produce large increases in testosterone in the body. As much as bench is considered a power movement is does not involve as much muscle mass as squats and dead lifts which means that eventhough most people would rather perform a bench press than squats, the bench press is not going to increase testosterone production like a squats will.
A recent research study investigated the effects of 5 sets of 10 repetitions of bench press versus 5 sets of 10 repetition jump squats, with 2 minutes rest between sets in 12 resistance trained men. Testosterone was raised higher following the jump squat (15 %) then the bench press (7%). This suggests that exercises which recruit the most substantial amounts of muscle tissue will cause the greatest increases in testosterone. Even though the subject was lifting more weight on the bench press, fewer muscle fibers were recruited which resulted in less testosterone being produced.
Ok, this is great information, but how does this translate to my workout at the gym??
Due to the fact that squats and dead lifts release such high levels of testosterone, you should perform these types of exercises BEFORE your isolation exercises (leg extensions, lat pull downs, pec flyes) as you want to release the testosterone into your body so it’s available for muscle growth and recovery during your isolation exercises. So, if you don’t squat too often and rarely do dead lifts, you are potentially limiting your results by not letting your body naturally release the most potent of all anabolic supplements – TESTOSTERONE!
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