Like it or not, the most unloved exercise of all novice athletes are squats with a barbell. For a beginner, this is uncomfortable, difficult and causes a lot of other negative emotions. However, it is squatting that allows you to achieve serious results in sports. Those who want to lose weight quickly get rid of excess body fat. Athletes chasing mass gain notice muscle growth in their legs.
Therefore, this article is fully devoted to squats. The reader will find out which muscles work when squatting and will also learn how to improve the effectiveness of this complex exercise. The recommendations of the athletes will not be redundant here either.
Classics of the genre
It’s best to start the review with a classic exercise that can only be effectively performed in the gym. Naturally, these are barbell squats. What muscles work and how to properly pump them with this exercise, the reader learns only after becoming acquainted with the technique of execution.
In squats, it is important to observe only two rules: always keep your back straight and do not allow your knees to go behind your socks. Everything is simple and affordable - at the time of the squat, you just need to take your pelvis back and sit down. After which, having reached the parallel between the line of the hips and the floor, it is necessary to return to its original position.
Now about working muscles. Many professionals often joke that only those muscles that hurt grow. In fact, this is not entirely true, it is just after squats that the upper thigh and buttocks hurt. These are muscles and work in this exercise.
Gender needs
Given the fact that the media have a lot of questions regarding what muscles work when squatting in women, we can conclude that the load is differently perceived by each sex. However, a little knowledge in physiology will destroy this assumption, because the structure of the skeleton and muscle fibers of the man’s body is almost identical to the female body. That's just the feeling of squats is different for everyone.
There is also an explanation for this. Women want to get beautiful rounded buttocks as a result, and men do not need this part at all. Their task is a powerful torso with strong and beautiful legs. Taking into account such a difference in needs, various training complexes are developed for working out the muscles of the legs. In fact, a regular squat with a barbell can be performed in different ways.
Features of focus shift bias
Having figured out what muscle groups work when squatting and what tasks men and women set themselves, you can get acquainted with the technique of performing exercises closer. So, men need powerful legs, respectively, the load should focus only on the hips (quadriceps). Everything is simple here - the slightest squat with the abduction of the pelvis back immediately includes the muscles of the legs. The athlete only needs to sit down a little and immediately get up. You can play with the load in different ways: someone puts more weight, and someone is interested in doing an exercise in technique, sitting down so that there is a parallel between the hips and the floor.
Women need rounded buttocks, respectively, you need to get them to get involved in the work. You can do this only by crouching completely with the barbell. Yes, you need to lower the pelvis below the parallel with the floor. Naturally, beginners may have a fear of squats, because, logically, for such an exercise, girls should have strong legs. But you don’t need to worry - the buttocks are actually small muscles, they have a small load. In the initial stages, you can generally squat without a barbell.
In the beginning was the word
Touching upon the topic of training with your own weight, I would immediately like to draw the attention of beginners that this is an inconclusive task. Yes, you can work out the muscles of the legs and buttocks with regular squats in the initial stages, you can even get rid of the fat layer by performing exercises at a pace, but it is impossible to increase muscle volume without weighting. And if someone assures the reader that this is real, then he can safely be called a theorist. And such a person is far from real sport.
So, what muscles work when squatting without a barbell? It is logical to assume that they are the same as with weighting (we are talking about the hips and buttocks). However, it is not so simple. It's all about the balance and technique of the exercise. Squatting without a barbell, many beginners try to grab hold of an object in front of themselves so as not to fall back. The load immediately moves towards the knees (lower thigh). Hypothetically, such a focus will suit men, but women will have to think about balance.
Accurate load focus
In the gym, the athlete’s capabilities are limited only to simulators, so it’s no secret that squats can be performed not only with the barbell, but also in a specialized simulator. It's about the Smith machine. The bar neck in this simulator is fixed between two vertical guides. The main advantage here is the fixation of the angle of inclination of the athlete. In fact, the athlete will not be able to either fall back with a barbell, or fall forward.
Naturally, athletes will immediately be interested in what muscles work when squatting in Smith? Here the load shifts from the hips to the buttocks. It would seem that the same technique, however, due to the inability to move the bar, the athlete has to pull the pelvis back strongly, forcing both the buttocks and hip biceps to work.
Work without hobbies
Just do not have all the athletes immediately rush to the Smith machine, trying to pump up the buttocks faster, performing the exercise "squats". The female gender has learned which muscles work, but there is one small problem that some trainers are silent about. We are talking about stabilizer muscles, which are responsible not only for maintaining balance, but also partially affect the external beauty of the figure.
At the time of squatting with the barbell, these small muscles are constantly under the influence of the load and allow you to maintain balance. But it’s worth moving on to the fixed bar in Smith’s machine, as the stabilizer muscles immediately turn off. Literally 10-12 lessons in the simulator and squats with a barbell can be forgotten. Equilibrium can be restored, but again, it takes time to develop stabilizer muscles.
Kinds of Squats
Many beginners are sure that squatting with dumbbells or a kettlebell is much more convenient than squatting. This is part of the truth. The fact is that a pure bar weighs 15-20 kilograms, and dumbbells can be taken with less weight. Chasing lightweight, athletes often lose sight of the comfort of squats. After all, it’s rather inconvenient to maintain balance and perform an exercise in technology with dumbbells. It requires skill, experience and outside help.
Again, answering the question, what muscles work when squatting with dumbbells, I would like to pay attention to the technique of the exercise itself. Forward leaning shifts the load on the hips and knees, and leaning back and squatting depth forces the buttocks to work. It is logical to assume that by moving the dumbbells forward or backward, you can control the center of gravity. Yes, in the first trainings this is possible, but with an increase in weight, this procedure will be problematic, since the spine will also be under load, which will control the weight mixing.
Myths and Reality
Having figured out which muscles work when squatting, it's time to discuss the effectiveness of the exercises themselves, as well as get acquainted with the recommendations of trainers and reviews of athletes. There are a lot of articles in the media that describe the virtues of squats. Readers are assured that only this exercise can make blood circulate correctly in the hip joint, and without squats it is impossible to lose weight. This is all not true. Any movement makes the blood circulate: running, walking or jumping in place. And, if we talk about effective blood circulation, it is better to do gymnastic stretching or aerobics, because these exercises do not cause the appearance of a hernia due to improper performance.
With weight loss is even easier. Yes, crouching daily, you can quickly lose weight. But you can also get rid of excess weight by pumping your pectoral muscles or back. The trick is that these are the largest muscles in the human body and require a lot of calories to work.
Finally
In this article, readers not only learned about which muscles work during squats, but also got acquainted with real exercises, and also found out that without a technique for performing the result, one simply cannot achieve it. It remains only to advise novice athletes to be more assertive in their training. The main thing is to overcome yourself in the first 5-6 classes and learn how to squat with weight. And then everything goes like clockwork.