FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Scott,

I apologize in advance if you've answered this question many times in the past, but I'm wondering about the muscle groups written in your program.

Specifically, I'm wondering about the distinction between "thigh" exercises and "quad" exercises. In the past, many people believed that the squat was a great exercise for working the entire thigh, but recent EMG studies are suggesting that the squat is primarily a quad exercise with glute assistance and almost no hamstring involvement. As for exercises that actually do hit both the quads and hamstrings well, I can't really think of that much other than leg presses (using a high foot placement) and maybe sumo deadlifts.

I haven't based my definition of "thigh" on the consensus of EMG studies. It's an anatomical distinction based upon the muscles that make up the thigh - simply "thigh" refers to the muscles of the thigh: Knee extensors, knee flexors, add and abductors and the glutei are generally included there b/c they are hit in these compound movements.

Change bar position on a squat or ask different people and you'll find the hamstring activation varies greatly.

The reason I'm asking is that if I choose squat variations as my thigh exercise and then isolate quads as well, it seems like I'll end up with a LOT more quad work than hamstring work on this program. For example, volume tier 2's loading day says to do two thigh exercises, one quad exercise, and one hamstring exercise. But with squat as your thigh movement, that ends up being more like 3 quad exercises and 1 hamstring exercise (or maybe 1.5 at best). What are your thoughts on this?

Simply pick compound exercises for the thigh that suit your needs and perform them with the bar / foot placement to balance the activation over the thigh musculature in the way you desire.

Seems to me as if you're placing EMG studies before your own personal experience or simply know how in exercise selection and variation to create the stimulus you like.

You can also pre-fatigue the hamstrings by doing that loading set isolation exercise first. Do a hamstring curl, and use a low bar squat or a high / wide stance leg press (ham presses) for your loading sets and I suspect you'll get plenty of ham stimulus.

Maybe just using a hamstring dominant thigh movement like a deadlift in your exercise rotation would be enough to balance this?

Thanks,

Dan

Maybe - that would depend on how you choose all the other exercises in your program, as well as your neurological proclivities for the compound exercises you select.

When I free bar squat, it becomes VERY much a posterior chain exercise for me - I gave it a go for well over a decade and found back squats (barbell) got me great glute and ham development, even if not squatting deep. But, that's just me.

-S