As Meaghan E. Maddigan, Duane C. Button and David G. Behm from the Memorial University of Newfoundland rightly point out, "the back squat is a traditional resistance training exercise." (Maddigan. 2014).
The use of resisted sled exercises, on the other hand, is a relatively new phenomenon of which we don't even know yet how it compares to the classics.
Accordingly, Maddigan et al. set out to compare the muscle activation between squatting and sled pushing on the activity of leg and trunk muscles in ten healthy resistance-trained men in the context of a randomized crossover design study.
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The study consisted of 2 preparation sessions and 2 testing sessions. Electromyographic (EMG) activity of the rectus femoris, biceps femoris, gastrocnemius, lower erector spinae, and the transversus abdominis/ internal obliques (TrA/IO) were monitored during a 20-step maximum push with the weighted sled apparatus and a 10 repetition maximum with a bilateral back squat.
All ten subjects were healthy resistance-trained men (age 24.6 years, mass 84.5 kg, height 178.3cm) who had at least 2 years of resistance training and squat experience and were also familiar with performing the sled exercises (however, the volume of squat experiences exceeded sled training volumes or training durations).
Figure 1: Average root mean square (RMS) EMG recorded in exercise phase 1, 2, and 3 (EMG signal was calculated over a 1-second segment of the concentric contraction phase of each step or repetition) from (A) rectus femoris, (B) biceps Femoris, (C) gastrocnemius, and (D) erector spinae during the concentric portion of the sled and squat exercises. Open circles represent the sled condition, whereas the filled squares represent the squat condition (Maddigan. 2014).
As you can see in Figure 1 there were nonsignificant trends for the rectus femoris ( p = 0.092: 8.6– 16.7%) and biceps femoris ( p = 0.09: 10.5–32.8%) to demonstrate higher activity with the sled and squat exercises, respectively. A result based on which you could conclude that
squatting is better for the quads, while
sled pushing is th better hamstring exercise
Maddigan et al. also observed main effects for condition with 61.2% greater gastrocnemius EMG with the sled exercise ( p = 0.01) and 74.5% greater erector spinae EMG activity with the squat (p = 0.002). For the transversus abdominis/ internal obliques, however, there were no significant differences between the exercises for the.
Building the Jack-of-All-Traits Legs Workout With Squats, Jump Squats and Body Weight Plyometrics? At Least for Physical Education Students that Seems to Work | more
Bottom line: As the authors write in their conclusion, "the sled and squat exercises provided similar EMG activity for the quadriceps, hamstrings, and ransversus abdominis/ internal obliques." In that the squat may be more favorable for developing the quads, while the sled is the better hamstring activator and calf (gastrocnemius) builder.
As Maddigan et al. say, the decision which of the exercises is "best" for you will depend "on the movement-training specificity of the sport" you compete in. "[E]ither exercise may be used in a training program while acknowledging the differences in gastrocnemius and erector spinae activity." (Maddigan. 2014)
One question remains, though. Will the long-term adaptations reflect the different EMG-activation in the study at hand? To a certain extend this will probably be the case, whether and to which extent you would make better progress with one over the other exercise and if it makes sense to do both (maybe in an A-B workout style) will still have to be elucidated | Comment on Facebook!
References:
Maddigan, Meaghan E., Duane C. Button, and David G. Behm. "Lower-Limb and Trunk Muscle Activation With Back Squats and Weighted Sled Apparatus." Journal of strength and conditioning research/National Strength & Conditioning Association 28.12 (2014): 3346-3353.
Flex Wheeler doing BB presses in what vcertainly isn't the ideal position for the lower back - imagine him doing that standing *uhoh*
Don't worry, I am not going to repeat my SuppVersity Facebook news post on the activation of the rectus abdominis, the obliques and the lower back muscles many of you 'liked' on Facebook. I am rather going to expand on it by presenting the data from the unofficial follow-up (Saeterbakken. 2012). Before I do that, I will yet give you the usual preview of today's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up I am doing every Thursday (1PM EST, live!) with my friend Carl Lanore from Super Human Radio (in case you did not notice, the number of real scientists on the show has risen exponentially within the last weeks, so I highly recommend you download a couple of other podcasts as well).
SuppVersity Science Round Up - Preview
Just like today's blogpost the focus of today's Science Round Up is actually going to be on training and exercise and don't worry, we won't just be whimpering that people get way too less of it.
Twin study shows: We all age, but exercise determines the consequences on your health
Hormonally (over-)demanding plyometrics!?
HIIT, light intensity steady state and the thyroid gland
NSAIDs: Go or no go for an athlete interested to build muscle?
Glucose, insulin and their muscle building effects
Could your own sweat protect you from skin cancer?
Chinese medicine strikes again: P. Lobata stops liver fibrosis in its tracks
Non-reactive form of vitamin E could be gold standard for cancer therapy
By now you should know the procedure and will thus be aware that it is unrealistic to assume that Carl and I are going to pack all these, let alone any of the auxiliary items on my list, into one show. My best advise would be to tune in live at 1PM (or downlaod the show ~2h later from the sidebar link, here at the SuppVersity), listen and come back tomorrow, to read about the topics that did not make it into the show in the SuppVersity Science Round Up Seconds.
Back to where we came from: The shoulder press!
After the obligatory heads up on the potential topics of today's SuppVersity Science Round Up, let's now get back to the shoulder press. Even if you did miss the facebook post on how it activates the abs, the obliques and the lower back, the other day, you should remember from the SuppVersity EMG Series that different forms of the shoulder press (including behind the neck presses, which are not part of the study at hand) will yield differential activation patters in the musculature of the shoulder girdle.
Chest
Biceps
Back
Core
Legs
Triceps
Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.
In the follow up to their core activation study from last year, Saeterbakken and Fjmland did once again go one step further than Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. Instead of measuring just the usual suspects, i.e. muscles you actually want to train when you do shoulder presses, the researchers expanded their existing data on the activation patters by measuring the activity of biceps and under both, seated and standing exercise conditions with a barbell or dumbbells as well as the 1-RM strength on the individual exercises.
With the auxiliary muscles, the body position, the loading modality (measured during sets of 5 reps at 80%) and the maximal weight the participants were able to press in each of the four 1RM max attempts Saeterbakken and Fjmland's data on the shoulder presses, alone, is therefore about as extensive as Boeckh-Berhens' and Buskies' data on four or five totally different exercises. Plus their subjects, 22y old lifters with on average 5 years of training experience may be a better model for at least some of you.
Figure 1: Activity pattern of the deltoid and auxiliary muscles (* indicated p < 0.05; data based on Saeterbakken. 2012)
Let's get to the results, now. As the data if figure 1 goes to show you, there are a couple of statistically significant differences, which are in some cases (the asterisks on the lowest level, directly above the bar) related to the training equipment (i.e. dumbbell vs. barbell), in other cases, such as the activation of the posterior deltoid, for example due to doing the exercise standing vs. seated (asterisks about the lines connecting the respective bars denote p < 0.05).
For those who missed the original Facebook post on the first Saeterbakken study (Saeterbakken. 2011), here is a brief summary: Using electromyographic activity (EMG) of the superficial core muscles (i.e. rectus abdominis, external oblique and erector spinae) and comparing the data of seated, standing, bilateral and unilateral dumbbell shoulder presses the researchers found that their 15 healthy male study participants had the greatest core activitation, when they performed their five repetitions at 80% of one-repetition maximum...
For some of the muscles the different positioning does not really matter, but in each and every case the standing unilateral dumbbell press had a slight (if insignificant) edge on the rest of the exercises.
Just as in the unofficial prequel to this 2nd study by Saeterbakken and Fimland I discussed on Facebook earlier this week (see box to the right for a summary, if you don't want Facebook and the world to know the color of the boxer shorts you're wearing, today), the overall pattern that emerges from this very recent follow up study is that ...
"[...] the standing dumbbell press exercise, which was the exercise with the greatest stability requirement (standing + dumbbells), demonstrated the highest neuromuscular activity of the deltoid muscles." (Saeterbakken. 2012)
Now what's particularly intriguing to this result is that the superiority of the complex movements became obvious despite the fact that the subjects moved the least weight during this exercise. In the aforementioned study by Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies, for example, the exercises which allowed the greatest leverages, usually produced the highest muscular activity, as well.
How can we explain this difference?
Aside from the training status of the participants, the first thing that comes to mind is the rep range: While the subjects in the study at hand trained at a 5RM rep range (meaning they failed on rep 5), the sports students in the Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies study performed 10-12 reps and would thus necessarily have to use lighter weights. In conseuqence, every lbs more made a greater difference for the students, than for the 15 even-aged healthy men with an average of five years of strength training experience under their belts (they were no competitive powerlifters or o-lifters, though), who participated in the studies by Saeterbakken & Fjimland.
As far as the other parameter, the body position, was concerned the results are not as obvious as they were for the core muscles in the 2011 study by the same authors:
"Further, standing versus seated execution, and to some extent dumbbells versus barbell, both resulted in increased muscle activation of the deltoid muscles. Standing instead of seated presses raises the centre of the mass, and also provides a smaller base of support as the contact points decreases from three to two, particularly when using a bench with a back-rest [comment: the back was set to 75°]. When using a pair of dumbbells instead of a barbell, the main difference is that the dumbbells must be controlled independently of each other. Hence, performing shoulder presses standing and with dumbbells should lead to greater instability." ( Saeterbakken. 2012)
Regardless of the intricate differences, though, the whole picture that emerges from the synopsis of both the 2011 and 2012 data Saeterbakken and Fjimland have collected is actually quite clear: Complex exercises and corresponding muscle activation patterns can make a very valuable tool in the arsenal of the experienced strength trainee.
A final word of caution and the real world difference you can expect
Are you looking for more shoulder exercises? Look no further read them up in the SuppVersity EMG Series and the respective part on the 'best' exercises for M. Deltoideus, M. Infraspinatus, Supraspinatus and Teres Minor (more...)
The lower back and the shoulders itself are however so liable to injury that even somebody with years of training experiences should start out with very light weights and see for 2 or 3 training sessions how his shoulders and lower back react. Against that background it does also appear questionable, whether it is wise to to include a heavily loaded variety (5-8RM) of the standing dumbbell shoulder press in the routine of any beginner or only slightly advanced trainee. The increased injury risk just is not worth it, because the complexity of the movement and the individual (often very) weak links will force a beginner to use very light weights. So light, in fact, that the original target muscle, which is obviously the shoulder, may not receive enough hammering, so that even in the fortunate case that they don't hurt themselves, beginners will probably see way better results with regular seated vs. standing dumbbell presses.
References:
Boeckh-Behrens WU, Buskies W. Fitness-Krafttraining. Rohwolt. 2010.
Saeterbakken AH, Fimland MS. Muscle activity of the core during bilateral, unilateral, seated and standing resistance exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2012 May;112(5):1671-8. Epub 2011 Aug 30.
Saeterbakken AH, Fimland MS. Effects of body position and loading modality on muscle activity and strength in shoulder presses. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Oct 23.
Image 1: The muscles of the deltoids (red) on the front (left) and back (right) of the body and the rotator cuff (violett), the group of muscles and tendons that stabilize the shoulder.
I don't know about you, but somehow I feel sad that this is already the last installment of the SuppVersity EMG Series. While it certainly was a hell lot of work to compile all the information, I am very pleased that (a few exceptions aside) you, the 'students' of the SuppVersity; appreciate and put into practice some of the information, I am putting out here. That being said, it is actually quite fitting that the series ends on a body part, even bodybuilders hardly ever stop fine-tuning: the complex musculature of the shoulder,
the anterior, lateral and posterior part of the m. deltoideus,also known as the pars clavicularis, which attaches to the clavicle, the pars acromialis attaching to the acromion and the pars spinalis that is directly attached to the spina scapulae,
the rotator cuffs, which comprise the m. infraspinatus, which arises from beneith the scapula at the fossa infraspinata scapulae and facilitates internal rotation, the m. supraspinatus, which is situated right above the former and is involved in the lateral adduction of the arm, and the m. teres minor, which is attached laterally to the scapula at the margo lateralis scapulae and figures in the abduction of the arm; the m subscapalaris, which completes this commonly overlooked muscular quartet attaches to the inner part of the scapula and facilitates internal rotation, abduction and adduction of the shoulder.
Of the two muscle groups the former, i.e. the "delts", is the one that will give your that broad-shouldered look, everyone is striving for, while the latter constitute a necessary yet commonly overlooked prerequisite to build it. Eventually the muscles of the rotator cuff provide the stability which is necessary to properly execute those front presses, lateral rises, reverse flys and all the other common exercises for round, muscular shoulders! It is vitally important to keep this synergism in mind, when designing a routine - and if the risk of shoulder injuries due to underdeveloped stabilizer muscles does not shock you, maybe the information that a strong foundation in form of properly trained rotator cuff muscles will help you with "increasing your bench", so that the next time a bro asks you "Hey bro, how much ya bench!" you may well impress him with a new personal best (in case that is what you're training for ;-)
Chest
Biceps
Back
Core
Legs
Triceps
Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.
But enough of the mourning and mocking, let's get some meat on your shoulders, or rather, let's get to the meat and potatoes of shoulder training - the SuppVersity proudly presents: The most effective exercises, as measured by electromyography (10 male resistance-trained subjects, mean age 22y, mean body-fat 13%; data from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000) for building massive delts and a powerful rotator cuff...
I. The Best Exercises for the Anterior, Lateral and Posterior Parts of the Delts
Image 2: Turns out the injury-prone neck press is the most versatile delt-exercise as it hits both the anterior, as well as the lateral part of the delts about as hard (image from sportkrachtfitness.nl)
I probably will never get tired of telling you that complete isolation, as in "petri-dish" experiments, is nothing you will be able to achieve in the gym - not even if you use one of those fancy new devices, the name of which would suggest that they would facilitate exactly that ;-) In the real world (and, believe it or not, the gym is part of it) your muscles will always work synergistically to move the weight from point A to point B. It is however very well possible to influence which muscle group and even which individual muscle takes the lion's share of the workload by selecting the right exercises and / or manipulating the way you perform a given exercise.Always remember this, when you take a look at the following list of the "most effective exercises" (correctly I should say the exercises with the highest EMG activity).
Figure 1: EMG activity of anterior, lateral and posterior part of the m. deltoideus during selected exercises relative to the military press (anterior), the DB lateral raise (lateral) and the DB reverse fly (posterior); calculated based on data from from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies (2000)
The EMG data in figure 1 confirms what trainers all over the world have been propagating for decades. A pressing movement for the front delt (anterior part), some lateral raises for the lateral part and a few reverse flys for the posterior delts is all it really takes to built "cannon-ball delts". Another common wisdom, which says that front raises were among the most effective exercises for the anterior deltoid, on the other hand, gets busted. Even done with your ams externally rotated, the DB front raise is 41% less effective than the "gold standard", the barbell military press. A possible reason (and major drawback of all EMG data) for the "inferior" activation of front delt by the DB front raise are significantly lighter loads compared to the BB military press. If the subjects had used 120lbs for the military press, but only 25pounds per DB for front raises, for example, the muscle activity per pound of weight for the DB front raise would in fact have been roughly tree times higher - 929µV/120lbs=7.71 for the BB military press vs. 548µV/25lbs=21.92 for the DB front raise. That being said it stands out of question that, within a volume program, there certainly is a place for an isolation exercise such as the DB front raise, even if it is not a classic "mass building" exercise, the outstanding characteristic of which is maximal muscular overload, after all.
Image 3: With its naturally arched movement, the DB shoulder press may be a viable, if not preferable alternative to the BB military and BB neck press (image everkineti.com)
Exercise tip: While the respective EMG values for dumbbell exercises have not been measured in the study, it is very likely that exercises such as the DB overhead press provide an extra stimulus over their barbell equivalent that is related to the more natural arch of motion, where you get a good stretch at the bottom and can really squeeze the muscles in the contracted position, when the dumbbells approach (they do not cling!) each other at the top of the movement.
That being said, the DB overhead press is also a viable alternative for the BB neck press as the position center of gravity is more in line with your head throughout the movement. It may thus be assumed that the the stimulus shifts away from the front and towards the lateral deltoid, as it is the case with the neck vs. the military press.
Form, I cannot emphasize that enough, becomes more and more important with lighter weights, and as your shoulder is peculiarly prone to injury and generally much weaker than your legs, for example, it is not only advisable, but simply a matter of physical limitations to use lighter weights. That being said, the previously cited example of the DB front raise shows that lighter weights do not equal inferior muscle stimulation, as - done properly - respective isolation exercises generate way more torque per pound of weight you are handling than their mass building counterparts.
Figure 2: Reduction in EMG activity of selected variants of the DB lateral raise and the reverse fly relative to lateral raises with external rotation, DB raises with 90° arm/torso angle and internally rotated machine reverse flys; calculated based on data from from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies (2000)
Form does yet not only determine overall intensity, the way you are doing your shoulder exercises also has a profound influence on the degree to which the three parts of your deltoids are activated. Doing DB lateral raisesinternally rotated, for example, reduced the activation of the lateral part of your delts by -16%, using a neutral, i.e. a hammer grip (thumbs facing up) was associated with a -12% reduction in EMG activity. In the case of the DB reverse fly the use of an arm to torso angle of 45°, instead of 90°, reduces the load on the lateral part of the deltoids by -29% and gripping the handles of the reverse fly machine from the out- instead of the inside (external vs. internal rotation of the arm), takes away -20% of the stimulus (cf. figure 2).
Dessicating the Lateral Raise
If you make good use of what you have learned at the end of the previous paragraph, you can improve the load on the target muscle, while handling lighter weights and decreasing your risk of injury - I know, the big weights are more impressive, but after all what's the use of using the biggest weights, if you are not making progress, both strength- and size-wise, because of improper form? I mean, it is one thing to cheat on the last 1-2 reps of a set in order to squeeze out the very last drops of gasoline from your muscular tanks, it is however something completely different to compromise form, just to be "the guy who lifts the heavy weights". There is hardly any movement, where this becomes so obvious as with the DB lateral raise. If you do not do it yourself, you certainly know someone who grabs the 50lbs dumbbells, holds them vertically before his groin and then powers, or I should say, "rips" them up to his sides, lets them bang down and starts all over again until, after he eventually racked the weights, he grabs his shoulder or wrist in agony, yet not without the pride of having used a heavier weight than the guy next to him.
Note: The following analysis is based on a VERY simple mechanical model and does not consider factors such as increased load per square area of muscle fiber in the stretched position, effects of static or complete contraction etc... Notwithstanding, if you like the following part of this write-up, please spread the word (via Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and let me know (in the comment section or the SuppVersity Facebook page) that it would be worth the effort to do similar and even more depth analysis in the future!
You already know from the previous paragraphs and the EMG data in figure 2, that it is imperative to keep the arms externally rotated, i.e. to pretend you were trying to pour out an imaginary liquid from the dumbbell at the top of the movement, if you do not want to lose 16% of the muscle tension in the first place... Well, but what about the aforementioned guy who does not even get the chance to think about pouring out any liquid other than that in his shaker bottle, when he is performing his ballistic weight exercises? Which of his mistakes, do you think compromises the effectiveness of the lateral raise most?
Flexing the elbow too much (often up to 90°) and thus reducing the lever? Or,
Not raising the dumbbells to shoulder height, i.e. keeping the angle between arm and torso <<90° (often <<70°)
Well, from a physical perspective, which always provides a very selective and (over-)simplified view of reality, the answer would be "1. flexing the elbow too much". Surprised?
Figure 3: Effects of arm/torso angle and elbow flexion on torque during the DB lateral raise (data calculated based on a very basic physical model)
While raising the dumbbells to 75°, takes away less than 5% of the torque (cf. figure 3), flexing the elbow to 90° reduces the torque on the lateral parts of your deltaoids have to overcome by a whopping -50%! Think about that, when you look at the guy with the 50lbs dumbbells the next time you are at the gym. Chances are that you, with your 30lbs DBs are way stronger than he is, as long as you do not give in and reduce your elbow flexion more than those 15% that relieve some of the stress on the joint, but only minimally reduce the torque on the muscle.
II. The Best Exercises for the Rotator Cuff
I hope that, over all that you have learned about delt-training by now, you did not forget, what I mentioned at the very beginning of this installment of the SuppVersity EMG Series: Rotator cuff training equals active injury prevention. While most trainees do not even feel them working, the muscles of the rotator cuff are crucial for the stability of the most flexible and volatile joint in your whole body, your shoulder. It is imperative for these largely overlooked and often undertrained muscles to hold the ligaments and bones of your shoulder in position so that your other muscles such as the deltoids or thepectoralis can do their job. To build a strong m. infraspinatus, m. supraspinatus and m. teres minor, is thus also the foundation of building a "bigger bench" to impress your bros at the gym. If you don't believe that, you may listen to strength coach Charles Poliquin, who has the following anecdote to tell:
One of my pro hockey players, Jim McKenzie, improved his 14-inch, close-grip bench by 51 pounds in 12 weeks, from 280 to 331 pounds, by focusing on rotator cuff strength.
And though I doubt the universality of Poliquin's "research", as far as the non-athletic regular gym-goer is concerned, it is certainly noteworthy that his years of experience in working with athletes have told him that "rotator cuff strength should be about 9.8 percent of what you can lift in the bench press [for] pain free bench pressing". That means, if you are benching 200lbs you should not wonder if your shoulder begins to hurt, if you are not able to use 20lbs dumbbells when doing external rotations lying on a mat on the floor ...
Figure 4: EMG activity of the major muscles of the rotator cuff during selected exercises relative to the DB external rotations done lying sideways on the floor; calculated based on data from from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies (2000)
A pros pos external rotations as the data in figure 4 goes to show this is by far the best isolation exercise for the muscles of the rotator cuff. In essence, it does not really matter if you want to do them with a dumbbell standing, lying on the floor or with an elbow on a bench, or if you prefer doing them using a cable pulley. The differences are negligible, in view of the huge difference improper exercise execution would make - so you better do an exercise you like with light weights and feel the muscle working than an exercise that has been shown in study XYZ to be the most effective with a weight you can hardly handle and where you do not feel the target muscles working. This, by the way applies to the static doorway pushback, which is basically an "inverted pectoral stretch" where you push with the backside of your arm (angle arms/torso 90°) backwards against an immobile object like a doorway, as well. If you do not feel like this static exercise is working for you chose a different one.
Image 4: DB lateral raise with arms 30° horiz. adducted for the m. supraspinatus (Jobe. 1986)
Isolating the m. supraspinatuswith lateral raises: According to Jobe & Moynes (1986) the DB lateral raises performed with a 30° horizontal adduction of the arms fully isolates the m. supraspinatus if you rotate your shoulders so that your palms are facing the floor (the good old "emptying the bottle" technique). Doing 1-2 sets of lateral raises this way certainly is a time efficient way of incorporating a strengthening exercise for the upper part of the rotator cuff into your routine. You will have to use much lighter weights than on regular lateral raises, though.
III. Conclusion- Three Plus One Equals Injury-Free Strength and Size
An imperative prerequisite for building impressive deltoids and thus broad, rounded shoulders is a stable foundation in form of strong rotator cuff muscles, if you neglect the latter you will either plateau or - even worse - injure yourself sooner or later. That being said, especially your front delts are hit very hard during pretty much all pressing movements for chest and triceps, it is thus neither really necessary nor advisable to do more than one (if any) "isolation" exercise in the form of a compound movement like the barbell or dumbbell military press, a movement, which by the way will also greatly help to bring up "the upper chest" many bodybuilders feel they are lacking. If you complement this basic "mass builder" with some lateral raises and reverse flys, the one and only thing that is really left to do on "delt day" is a rotator cuff exercise of your choice and you are ready for some highly anabolic rest and recovery ;-)
An EMG-Optimized Routine
Image 5: You can rotate in some Arnold Presses, if you feel you did not hammer your front delts heavy enough with the military press
There is of course a myriad of ways of combining the individual exercises, my personal recommendation for overall deltoid development and rotator cuff strength (based on EMG measures) would yet be as follows...
Military Press - BB or DB seated, 6-8 reps
Lateral raise - DB elbow-flexion <15°(!), 10-12 reps
Reverse fly - machine or DB, internal rotation, 10-12 reps
External DB rotations - lying on the floor, 12-15 reps
You may notice that I do not make volume (i.e. set) recommendations. This is due to the fact that I found that everyone has to find what works best for him / her in terms of optimal volume, training frequency and body part splits. This may also change over time / according to lifestyle factors / nutrition and supplementation.
Actually, it would make as much sense to split this part of the SuppVersity EMG Series in two, if not three individual analyses, as it would to split your leg workout over two if not three days. In practice, however, most trainees go through the grueling torture of the dreaded "leg day", just once a week and thus I will mirror this practice by writing a similarly gruelingly long blogpost on the best exercises for the major
Image 1: The major muscle groups of your legs. Quadriceps, adductors, abductors, gluteus, hamstrings, gastrocnemius & soleus
the quadriceps (red) - powerful extensors of the knee joint;crucial in walking, running, jumping and squatting; strongest and leanest muscle in the human body
the gluteus (yellow) - three muscles that make up the buttocks: the gluteus maximus muscle, gluteus medius muscle and gluteus minimus muscle;
the hamstrings (blue) - comprises the semitendinosus, semimembranosusand the short and long head of the biceps femoris, of which the former extend the hip when the trunk is fixed, flex the knee and medially (inwardly) rotate the lower leg, when the knee is bent, while the latter extend the hip (e.g when we begin to walk), flex the knee and laterally (outwardly) rotate the lower leg when the knee is bent
as well as the "minor" muscle groups of your legs
the adductors (cyan) & abductors (magenta) at the inside and outside of the tighs, and
the gastromenicus (light green) & soleus (highlighter green), the major muscles of your calves
In the end it is the the muscular development of all of them that eventually distinguishes the men from the boys. And by the way, playing football or, here in Germany, soccer, is no excuse for not training your legs!
Chest
Biceps
Back
Core
Legs
Triceps
Shoulders
Navigate the SuppVersity EMG Series - Click on the desired body part to see the optimal exercises.
In view of the sheer amount of information this part of the EMG Series is going to contain, I will, without further elaborations, go right into an analysis of the most effective exercises, as measured by electromyography (10 male resistance-trained subjects, mean age 22y, mean body-fat 13%; data from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000) for all the major and supposedly minor muscle groups of your legs. I. The best exercises for the four heads of the quadriceps Those of you who have read any of the previous parts of this series will already be familiar with the idea of "isolation" being more of a shift in which part of a muscle takes the greatest hit and not so much about training a single strain of a complex muscle such as the quadriceps with its (who would have guessed) four heads. If I am talking about "best exercises for the inner, outer or whatever part" of any given muscle - and this goes for the whole EMG series - what is meant by that is a relative increase in intensity in a given part of a muscle over the rest. Always keep that in mind.
Image 2: Turns out the hack squat is the most effective exercise. In that, going deep (50° knee angle) is only slightly more taxing on the quads than the standard and much safer 90° knee angle.
The most effective exercises with standard equipment:
Hack squats, lying on machine, 50° knee angle
Hack squats, lying on machine, 90° knee angle
Squats, barbell, 70° knee angle
45° leg press, 90° knee angle
Squats, barbell, 90° knee angle
Squats, barbell, 40° knee angle
If you take a look at the results in detail (figure 1), you will notice that the differences between the most (hack squats down to a knee angle of 50°) and the least effective exercise (leg extensions) are far from being earth-shattering.
Figure 1: Relative EMG activity of all four heads of the quadriceps during hack squat, leg press, squat and leg extension variations in comparison to barbell squatting to parallel (knee angle 75°); data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
What I consider of particular importance is that both in the case of the hack- as well as in the case of the "standard" barbell squat, going beyond parallel (knee angle <70°) is not worth the increased risk of injury (cf. figure 2).
Figure 2: Shear and compressive forces during squat exercise measured at different knee angles; expressed as percentage of the sum of body weight + load (data adapted from a compilation in Escamilla. 2000)
While the EMG activity of the quads may be marginally improved in the case of the hack squat (+0.38%), doing one's squats "ass to the ground", as some people like to call it, actually reduces the quad activity by -10.34%.
Image 3: 45° leg press with a hip angle of 85°; the smaller hip angle (compared to the hack squat) translates into a -16% lower activity of the quadriceps femoris (image everkinetic.com)
Did you know that the smaller the angle of your hip joint (this is in most cases equivalent to the more upright you are sitting or lying on a machine), the smaller is the EMG activity of the quadriceps femoris. During the hack squat exercise, for example the angle of your hip joint is ~100°, the 45° leg press facilitates an angle of ~85° and on the seated leg press the angle is only ~50°. While this does not lead to an 1:1 reduction in EMG activity, the latter is in fact, -16% and -22,5% smaller for the 85° and 50° hip joint angles on the respective exercises.
Training the inner and outer part of the quads Now, if you are a bodybuilder, you will probably be trying to build those "teardrops" (for all real experts who have no clue what those gym-bros refer to as "teardrops", this is the m. vastus medialis, cf. image 3), which actually does not so much look like a tear drop, as it sometimes takes shedding a few tears to get it growing. With respect to the m. vastus medialis Boeckh-Behrens and Buskies have to say that
[the inner part of the quadriceps] is maximally activated via variants of the horizontal leg presses / hack squats - either deep [knee angle <70°] with less weight or not deep [knee angle >70°] with more weight - variations in weight and knee angle tend to be equivalent.
So after all, even your "tear drops" benefits most if you just keep doing those exercises that hammer the quads, i.e. all four heads, as a whole. A slightly narrower stance, however, may be advantageous, while the positioning of the feet, i.e. parallel or with your feet pointing outward at a 30° angle seems to be negligible (+/- 0.25%).
Figure 3: Relative EMG activity of the outer part of the quadriceps (m. vastus lateralis) during barbell squat and single legged squat variations in comparison to barbell squatting to 90° knee angle; data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
Image 4: Inner (vastus medialis), medial (vastus intermedius & rectus femoris) and outer (vastus lateralis) parts of the "quads"
As you can see in figure 3, things are quite different, when it comes to the outer part of the "quads". Whereas the standard squat with high loads provides maximal muscle stimulation of the m. vastus lateralis, even if you do not even go down parallel to the floor (knee angle 70°), doing the "full squat" down to 40° with an appropriately lighter weight takes away -18% of the stimulus. Similar results can be seen for the isolation exercise single legged squats, where likewise the principle for maximal muscle stimulation reads more weight, greater knee angles (not going past parallel) - a principle, which can also help you keep injury free, as long as you do not wrench it as long as it say more weight and a smaller knee angle, in which case it is a safe bet that you would hurt yourself - probably sooner, than later. Training the medial part of the quads In view of what has been said before with regards to the maximal activation of the fashionable "teardrop" muscle, it is not really surprising that the usual suspects, i.e. the hack squat and the leg press are among the most effective exercises for the medial part of the quads, i.e. the m. vastus intermedius and the m. rectus femoris, as well.
Figure 4: Relative EMG activity of the medial part of the quadriceps (vastus intermedius & rectus femoris) during selected exercises in comparison to hack squats to a 50° knee angle; data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
Figure 4 does yet go to show you that there is one relatively unknown "special exercise" for soccer players, as Boeckh-Behrens and Buskies like to call it, that outperforms even the hack squat. It's basically the leg kick you see the ladies do with those straps attached to their ankles in order to build one of those J'Lo-ish behinds, but in this case you do it the other way around, or, as the authors suggest, "think of kicking a ball". The +19% higher EMG activity compared to the hack squat (similar results have been found for the standard leg extensions vs. squats by scientists from the Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Ebben, 2009), suddenly makes, what you probably regarded as one of those ridicolously girly exercises, look like a worthwile addition to your regimen... well, at least, in case you are one of those rare exceptions who have an underdeveloped rectus femoris ;-)
Speaking of girly exercises... while it certainly is manly to squat 500lbs, it is not advisable to do so on a daily base. Even the strongest men in the world regard their training sessions asexactly that, the "process of developing the bodily vigour and endurance by systematic diet and exercise, so as to fit for some athletic feat" (Oxford English Dictionary, "training"), or, in other words, as the means to an end. Remember: King-size egos rarely built king-size quads.
II. The Best Exercises for The Gluteus maximus
Image 5: Atlantic Fitness' interpretation of what Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies call a "hip pendulum"
If you have already taken a look at the data in figure 5, you are probably now asking yourself what this strange leg curl variety that is supposed to activate the glutes ~2.3x as effective as a deadlift is all about. Those of you who read the core-episode of this series and the information about the best exercises for the erector spinae, in particular, will be familiar with its name, however. In essence, this is a standard leg curl, but instead of pushing your ties into the pad you are lying on, you try to lift them up, i.e. to curl your hips back, and forcefully contract the muscles of your lower back, your gluteus maximus and your hamstrings. If that's too complicated for you or just doesn't feel right, you can still look out for what Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies call a "hip pendulum" (cf. image 5) and use that instead.
Figure 5: Relative EMG activity of the m. gluteus maximus during selected exercises in comparison to deadlifts using a weight that matches your own body weight; data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
Of the exercises without additional weight, only leg kick variations, particularly if they are done with peak contractions and/or ankle weights, provide appreciable muscle stimuli, the intensity of which is about equal to to the leg kicks on the hip pendulum (cf. figure 4). III. The Best Exercises for the Hamstrings For the hamstrings the good old lying leg curls are what biceps curl are for the two-headed muscle of your upper arm. And, in fact, the results of the EMG measurements by Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies confirm that generations of trainees cannot be wrong. Similar to the concentration curls in the case of the biceps, only the use of intensity techniques, i.e. partials in the stretch position or peak contractions elevates the already phenomenal EMG values of the standard variety of the lying leg curls to 134% and 112% of the activity measured on the reference exercise (cf. figure 5)
Figure 6: Relative EMG activity of the muscles of the hamstrings during selected exercises in comparison to standard lying leg cursl; data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
Done correctly, i.e. with a leg angle of 100°, the leg or hip lift is the only body-weight exercise that can compete. With <50% of the muscle activity of the standard lying leg curls, hyperextensions, on the other hand, will do little for your hamstring development.
Did you know that doing partials and peak contractions is particularly effective eccentric exercises? On concentric exercises such as the squat, on the other hand, they increase your chance of getting injured and contribute little to the efficiacy of your training. Tip: If you are talking to your gym partner or, god-behold, your clients about these intensity techniques, you better not call them "X-reps "- otherwise you could be charged by some clever business men who know how to relable training techniques that have been around ever since the early days of physical culture in order to monetize on these "revolutionary new training techniques".
Image 6: An adductor machine, as you probably know it from your gym, as well.
IV. The Best Exercises for Adductors and Abductors
As you probably have expected, the adductor and abductor machines that are mostly operated by the female gym members, are the reference exercises to train the muscles on the inner and outer sides of your tighs. Unfortunately the build of these machines varies from one manufacturer to another, so that you can hardly be sure whether or not your adductor machine will produce the same muscular activation as the ones used in the study. The same holds true for the funky hip pendulum machine, the use of which as an adductor or abductor trainer is pretty tricky, anyways.
Figure 7: Relative EMG activity of the adductors and abductors during selected exercises in comparison to the respective machines (since the exact value for the abductor machine was not given by the authors, the latter is an estimation based on the rank of the exercise); data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
Viable alternatives for these machine based exercises are the cable adduction(moving leg pulled in before the stabilizing leg) and, probably to the surprise of those among you who refrain from doing body weight exercises completely, the side bridge with hip abduction.When you are squatting, on the other hand, only the adductors are significantly involved in stabilizing the movement. To further increase their activity, you can do your hack squats with a wider stance and your toes facing slightly outward (30°), which will increase the load on your adductors and intensify the exercise by +3%. V. The Best Exercises for the Calves While chicken legs are no exception especially in many of the fitness oriented gyms, toothpick calves are becoming more and more the rule, especially among those trainees who love to do their endless cardio sessions on an elliptical. At the same time few people want to spend an adequate amount of time in training their calves. It is thus all the more important to know which exercises are effective and which are not.
Figure 8: Relative EMG activity of the calf muscles during selected exercises in comparison to the standing calf raises; data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
As you can see, you cannot avoid doing any variety of calf raises unless you are satisfied with a >65% reduction in muscle activity of the calves when you are doing your lying leg curls for your hamstrings. That being said, there are a few tweaks that make the exercises even more effective. The first, thing you can always incorporate are peak contractions and forced contractions in the stretched position. Moreover, it is imperative that you do not actively bend the knees during the seated calf raise (no bouncing!), if you do not want to reduce the muscle activity by -11%. And in a similar vein, you also do not want to mess with foot position, because (surprisingly?) the parallel foot position is the one that activates the inner, as well as the outer part of the m. gastrocnemius maximally (cf. figure 8)!
Figure 9: Relative EMG activity of the m. gastrocnemius with different foot positions; data adapted from Boeckh-Behrens & Buskies. 2000
In that, it is worth mentioning that the overall activation of the calves is maximized during standing and bent-over (donkey) calf raises, while the m. soleus activity is highest when you do seated calf raises.
A rule of thumb with regards to the activation of m. gastrocnemius vs. m. soleus is "maximize knee angle (as in standing calf raises or donkey calf raises) to maximize gastrocnemius, minimize knee angle (as in seated calf raises) to maximize soleus activity". Note: It is nonetheless imperative (especially if you are using higher loads) not to forcefully lockout your knees, in order to avoid injury.
Image 7: "Real men" ain't ashamed of doing donkey calf-raises like Dave Draper and Arnold used to do it ;o)
Last but not least, a short note on the "high reps for calves"-myth. While I do not question that many trainees just don't feel their calves working, if they do not go into the 50+ rep range, this is not due to the anatomy, the fiber type or whatever crazy anomaly of the calf muscle, but simply due to a faulty execution of the respective exercises. Bouncing, not utilizing the full range of motion and insufficient time under tension (1 sec up, 1-2 sec hold, 3 sec down, would be an appropriate way to go), the by far commonest mistake I see in the gym is turning your calf into a toe exercise by not pushing from the balls of your feet, but from the toes. Now guess what, it takes some time until your toes are finally fatigued and your calves get some work to do ... what would you say, maybe 20-30 reps? Hmm... that would mean that of your 50 reps of calf raises 30 are toe raises and the last 20 actually train your calves - does not sound particularly effective, does it? V. Conclusion: Too Much Work for a Single Day! Now, that you have arrived at the end of this concise and yet super-long write-up on leg training, you should actually ask yourself how and why you have hitherto packed all that stuff into a single workout. Well, I guess, after all, this is a very reasonable question. Nevertheless, fitness competitors and body builders alike have demonstrated time and again that a single "leg day" per week can suffice to build spectacular legs. Is this all genetics or are those guys (and, of course girls) spending the whole day in the gym?
Video 1: Arnold leg training compilation; only the strong will survive ;-)
Did you know that Arnold Schwarzenegger, as a teenager took a barbell into the woods, where he and his friends squatted till they couldn't stand. This does not go to say that this would be the way to go for anyone - especially not the drug free weekend warrior who just wants to keep in shape, but leg-day or not, whenever you train your legs you should take a look at your toothsticks and ask yourself "How many sets have I done for chest, biceps and triceps this week?" If you did more for those than your did for your legs, you better add another set of squats.
Well, I guess some of the "pros" actually spend the whole day in the gym, but a lot of dedication aside, most of them also use an array of "special equipment" to make those workouts extra productive. My personal experience, on the other hand, tells me that legs can in fact sustain much more volume than many trainees claim from themselves (cf. "Did you know...", above). Yet, while I would think that it was possible to do at least a single working set of all "optimal" exercises, the "EMG-optimized routine" I am going to suggest below deliberately shifts the focus from those "optimal" isolation exercises to the optimal varieties of those compound movements that have built such incredible powerful 38"+ tighs on which Tom Platz and some other old school bodybuilders were walking through the gym.
Did you know that compound exercises such as squats and deadlifts have been found to increase the hormonal response to strength training? Well, I guess you did. What may however be news to you is that these temporary increments are hardly going to exhibit those steroid-like effects some trainees seem to be expecting. This does not mean that the value of these exercises is overrated (on the contrary!), but rather that the increase in GH or testosterone after an intense squatting workout is corollary to, not causative of the efficiacy of these exercises.
The reason for that is quite simple: While a set of barbell squats may not activate your glutes like the strange hip pendulum, your quads like the Beckham-ish leg kicks and your adductors like the girly adductor machine, it will nevertheless build adequate power and mass in all three of these muscles, fortify your core, your calves, your upper back and even help with conditioning and fat loss. In other word, as gruelling as they may seem compared to some of the machine based isolation stuff, compound exercises will still give you the most bang, in this case muscle and strength gains, for your bucks, i.e. the time you spent and the energy you invest in the gym.
Image 8: As long as you are injury free, there is noo way to get around squatting - one way or another (image everkinetic)
If you cannot do squats use leg press machines instead.
As a beginner always have a qualified trainer show you how to squat.
An EMG-optimized routine There is of course a myriad of ways of combining the individual exercises, my personal recommendation for overall leg development (based on EMG measures) would yet be as follows*:
Squats - to parallel (70°), 6-10 reps
Hack squats - to 90°, 8-12 reps
Leg curls - peak contract. or partials, 10-12 reps Superset:
Donkey calf raise - peak contract., 12 reps
Seated calf raise - partials, 12 reps Optional
Adductor machine - 12-15 reps
Abductor machine - 12-15 reps
You may notice that I do not make volume (i.e. set) recommendations. This is due to the fact that I found that everyone has to find what works best for him / her in terms of optimal volume and training frequency. This may also change over time / according to lifestyle factors / nutrition and supplementation.
