Squatting with a high bar squat, with the feet shoulder-width apart, resulted in the muscle growth of all four muscles of the quadriceps. The increases in muscle growth of the vastus lateralis contributed to about 50% of the variance in squat strength. If you want big legs, squat with a traditional bodybuilding style squat.
2 WAYS TO GET BIG QUADS BY SCIENCE SUMMARY
- If you want big quads, squat with a traditional bodybuilding style squat.·
- Squatting with a high bar squat, with the feet shoulder-width apart, resulted in the muscle growth of all four muscles of the quadriceps.
- The increases in muscle growth of the vastus lateralis contributed to about 50% of the variance in squat strength.
- If you want big legs, squat with a traditional bodybuilding style squat.
“Bro, did you skip leg day?” How often have you seen a guy with a massive upper body and weak leg development? The bodybuilding community refers to these guys as lightbulbs (i.e., Big at the top but narrow at the base). Squats have long been advocated as the “king of leg exercises to build big quads,” but not all squats are the same.
As written about previously on Evidence Based Muscle, squats are a poor exercise to grow the hamstrings. Squats are a quad-dominant exercise. There has been debate about whether the squat can effectively grow all four muscles in the quadriceps (i.e., the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius, and vastus medialis) during strength training. See below for the muscle groups if you are unfamiliar with the leg anatomy.
HOW TO GET BIG QUADS
EMG studies that measure which muscles are being activated during exercise have found that squats result in higher activation of the vastus lateralis and medialis than the rectus femoris.(Ema et al., 2016; Stensdotter et al., 2003) Muscle activation thru EMG does not always mean more muscle growth.
Some studies have found that squats result in the muscle growth of the vastus lateralis, intermedius, and medialis femoris but not the rectus femoris (Kojic et al., 2021). Others have suggested that you need to perform leg extensions with squats to grow the rectus femoris muscle effectively. (Kubo et al., 2019; Zabaleta-Korta et al., 2021) The research suggests that squats do not result in muscle growth of the rectus femoris.
Many studies looked at how different squat modalities affect muscle growth. Range of motion (i.e., full ranges of motion vs. partial squats), how fast the squat is performed, and different squat exercises (i.e., smith machine vs. barbell squats, leg press vs. squats) have all been found to affect muscle growth differently. A new study examined the individual muscle growth of all four muscles in the legs with a squat routine to determine if squats increase the size of the rectus femoris.
BIG QUADS: DO SQUATS MAKE YOUR LEGS BIGGER?
The squat protocol was performed with a high bar squat, with the feet shoulder-width apart and the toes pointed forward or slightly outward. The squat protocol targeted the quads. The subjects squatted parallel, and there was an elastic band on the side, so the subjects had to squat down until they touched the elastic band to ensure they were squatting parallel each time.
In the first three weeks, the subjects performed 3 sets at 60% of a 1-RM, then the next 4 weeks, they performed 3 sets at squatted with 70% of a 1-RM. All the sets were performed until muscular failure, and the subjects rested for 2 minutes between sets.
At the study’s end, all the quads’ muscles grew in size! (Kojic et al., 2022) Researchers looked at the effect size, which tells you how meaningful the relationship between variables is. The larger the effect size, the greater association between the two variables being compared. The Vastus lateralis had the greatest effect size (2.11), followed by the vastus medialis (1.50), rectus femoris (1.13), and vastus intermedius (.89).
RESULTS
There were some really interesting findings from this study.
1.) All four muscles of the quads increased in size from doing squats.
2.) The increase in squat strength throughout the study was directly related to the size of the vastus lateralis only.
This study, unlike other studies, found that squats increased all the muscles of the quads, whereas other studies have not always found this. So why did this study find that all the muscles increased compared to other studies? The author suggested 2 main reasons:
a.) The study used a high bar squat in which the bar is placed on the upper traps close to the back of the neck, whereas other studies used a low bar squat in which the bar is placed on the lower traps away from the neck. High bar squats result in greater muscle activation than low bar squats. (Murawa et al., 2020; van den Tillaar et al., 2020)
b.) The subjects used a stance that was shoulder-width apart. A slightly wider stance will result in greater glute activation. (Paoli et al., 2009)
To maximize quad growth, use a high bar squat with the legs shoulder-width apart. Other exercises that have been found to target the quads are front squats, sissy squats, Bulgarian split squats, and single-leg squats. Romanian deadlifts and hamstring exercises are suitable choices if you are looking for exercises for the glutes and hamstring curls.
REFERENCES
Ema, R., Sakaguchi, M., Akagi, R., & Kawakami, Y. (2016). Unique activation of the quadriceps femoris during single- and multi-joint exercises. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 116(5), 1031-1041. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3363-5
Kojic, F., Ðurić, S., Ranisavljev, I., Stojiljkovic, S., & Ilic, V. (2021). Quadriceps femoris cross-sectional area and specific leg strength: relationship between different muscles and squat variations. PeerJ, 9, e12435. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12435
Kojic, F., Ranisavljev, I., Obradovic, M., Mandic, D., Pelemis, V., Paloc, M., & Duric, S. (2022). Does Back Squat Exercise Lead to Regional Hypertrophy among Quadriceps Femoris Muscles? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(23), 16226. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16226
Kubo, K., Ikebukuro, T., & Yata, H. (2019). Effects of squat training with different depths on lower limb muscle volumes. Eur J Appl Physiol, 119(9), 1933-1942. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04181-y
Murawa, M., Fryzowicz, A., Kabacinski, J., Jurga, J., Gorwa, J., Galli, M., & Zago, M. (2020). Muscle activation varies between high-bar and low-bar back squat. PeerJ, 8, e9256-e9256. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9256
REFERENCES
Paoli, A., Marcolin, G., & Petrone, N. (2009). The effect of stance width on the electromyographical activity of eight superficial thigh muscles during back squat with different bar loads. J Strength Cond Res, 23(1), 246-250. https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0b013e3181876811
Stensdotter, A. K., Hodges, P. W., Mellor, R., Sundelin, G., & Häger-Ross, C. (2003). Quadriceps activation in closed and in open kinetic chain exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 35(12), 2043-2047. https://doi.org/10.1249/01.Mss.0000099107.03704.Ae
van den Tillaar, R., Knutli, T. R., & Larsen, S. (2020). The Effects of Barbell Placement on Kinematics and Muscle Activation Around the Sticking Region in Squats. Front Sports Act Living, 2, 604177. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2020.604177
Zabaleta-Korta, A., Fernández-Peña, E., Torres-Unda, J., Garbisu-Hualde, A., & Santos-Concejero, J. (2021). The role of exercise selection in regional Muscle Hypertrophy: A randomized controlled trial. J Sports Sci, 39(20), 2298-2304. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2021.1929736
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