Execution of Leg Sets

[Scott Stevenson]

Thanks for the great answer as always. It seems Ben and others are advocates of continuous tension throughout the maximum range of motion where the majority of tension is on the muscle. This is pretty clear cut for most muscle groups to me, with the trickiest being legs.

In an instance of squats/hacks, the deeper one goes the more likely they are to probably recruit muscles outside the quad once they approach/pass parallel. Likely more hip, glute and hamstring involvement and less direct focus on the quad as you bottom out a squat or hack.

Thoughts?

Couple thoughts:

What makes you think that quad activation decreases with deeper squats with a given weight?... (The trickiness here is that you can't do as deep with heavier weights, but you might get just as much - and increasing quad activation the deeper you go - if you use lighter weights: Joint moments of force and quadriceps muscle activity during squatting exercise - Wretenberg - 2007 - Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports - Wiley Online Library )

This is a nice article: http://www.treinamentoesportivo.com/wp-c...NTO-02.pdf

Ben's big push here is to perform exercises with intentional activation patterns that ensure you're activating the muscles you want to in performing the exercise. What does he say about keeping the quad maximally active (if that's your goal) during the squat?...

-S