training legs myth but true or nonsense?

[dane3206]

hi all a myth which ive heard for so long i cant remember now but came up yesterday in the gym so just wondered if anyone who really no's there stuff could shed something on this i personally train legs because i enjoy them but theres some people in our gym who dont but one of the trainers told him if he doesnt train them hes missing out because they can spur your top half on is this true? cheers

[Walnutz]

Squats make you bigger. Do your squats!

[GS4]

I train legs twice a week just because I believe that legs will make you grow.

[cherrydrpepper]

hi all a myth which ive heard for so long i cant remember now but came up yesterday in the gym so just wondered if anyone who really no's there stuff could shed something on this i personally train legs because i enjoy them but theres some people in our gym who dont but one of the trainers told him if he doesnt train them hes missing out because they can spur your top half on is this true? cheers

There are studies that show that people who train their legs have greater upper body strength.

Here is one where the author focuses on stating that training large muscle groups results in more testosterone released for recovery
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Traini...ody&id=1447433

Heres another article the guy gets more in depth
"How does your body do this? Because with this intense stress comes increased secretion of important muscle-building hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone. These hormones play a big part in determining how much muscle mass someone can physically gain."
http://www.building-muscle-guide.com/leg-workouts.html

I personally think there may be some psychological reasons not mentioned. I.e. if you have been squatting a few months and made it to 300+ for reps, are you really going to pick up a 20 lb dumbbell and girl curl it or are you going to whoop some ass?

[BigBuck6]

There are studies that show that people who train their legs have greater upper body strength.

Here is one where the author focuses on stating that training large muscle groups results in more testosterone released for recovery
http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Traini...ody&id=1447433

Heres another article the guy gets more in depth
"How does your body do this? Because with this intense stress comes increased secretion of important muscle-building hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone. These hormones play a big part in determining how much muscle mass someone can physically gain."
http://www.building-muscle-guide.com/leg-workouts.html

I personally think there may be some psychological reasons not mentioned. I.e. if you have been squatting a few months and made it to 300+ for reps, are you really going to pick up a 20 lb dumbbell and girl curl it or are you going to whoop some ass?

exactly!

[Narkissos]

one of the trainers told him if he doesnt train them hes missing out because they can spur your top half on is this true? cheers

I don't honestly believe that.

A lot of people spout references to short-term changed in hormonal output due to exercise as if this is the end-all and be-all... but the body doesn't actually work like that.

Many people don't point out that throwing in a PWO feeding cuts spikes in test and GH as a result of exercise... A lot of people know this, but no one would suggest not eating PWO.

How is one set of information more important than the other? Plainly put... it isn't.

Will training legs positively improve body composition? Possibly.

Will it improve aesthetics? Yes.

Is it a 'must'? No.

Will not training 'em shortchange your upperbody growth? Nope.

BTW... here's a study I think each of you should read:

The recent study was the final nail in the coffin for one of the greatest theories of muscle growth-the hormone theory - proposed by the prominent researcher William J Kramer.

What is the hormone theory of muscle growth?
Growth & Development: Hormones like testosterone, growth hormone, & IGF-1 are important for growth & development.

Injection of hormones: Injection of hormone,s especially testosterone has shown increase strength and muscle mass while suppression of testosterone has shown to decrease in muscle mass & strength.

Acute Increase after exercise: These same hormones are elevated acutely after resistance training. The magnitude of increase depends on rest times between sets, the weight used and so on.

For example, the large rises in these hormones are observed after high intensity exercises with short rest periods using big muscle groups (multi-joint exercises).

Based on the above hormone hypothesis , it is assumed that

1. Exercise induced muscle growth is primarily due to an acute increase in these hormones.
2. Hence workouts should mainly use multi joint exercises with short rest periods to raise the hormone levels.
3. Small exercising muscle groups (e.g., biceps), which are incapable of causing large increases in anabolic hormones when used in isolation, should be trained concurrently with large exercising muscle masses like squats or leg press that can elevate testosterone and GH.

The fall of the hormone hypothesis
Local factors in muscle growth: The recent discovery of local factors like MGF,muscle IGF-1 showed that it is local factors that are mainly responsible for muscle growth and not systemic hormones.

The discovery of these local factors, which are found inside the muscle, showed why muscle growth is specific to the exercised muscle. If systemic hormone were indeed responsible, you would have seen an increase in muscle growth in the non-exercised muscle too.

No effect of GH administration: Injection of high doses growth hormone to raise resting levels resulted in little increase in muscle growth or strength.

So the benefits of these tiny spikes in GH after exercise which do not even change the resting levels are questionable.

Unilateral exercises: Increase in muscle growth has been observed with unilateral exercises like biceps curl without any increases in systemic hormones.

For example, unilateral exercise like biceps curl and leg extensions which do not cause a spike in systemic hormones have shown to increase muscle growth and strength.

No Increase in protein synthesis: There was no significant increase in protein synthesis due to an acute increase in systemic hormones after the workout.

BUT the question can these spikes in systemic hormones play a small role if not a major role in muscle growth which might have been overlooked in the above studies . All the above were indirect studies until the recent study.

What was the study design?
Twelve healthy untrained young men trained their biceps independently for 15 wk on separate days.
In one training condition, participants performed isolated biceps curl exercise designed to maintain basal hormone levels.
In the other training condition, participants performed identical biceps curls followed immediately by a high volume of leg resistance exercise to elicit a large increase in these hormones .
If the hormone hypothesis were true, the biceps curl plus leg pres group should see greater muscle growth & strength, right.

What were the results of the study
Unfortunately, at the end of 15 weeks there was no significant difference between groups in strength, muscle cross sectional area, & Type 1 or Type 2 fiber area.

Simply put, the increase in testosterone, growth hormone or IGF-1after your workout do not help in muscle growth/strength.This study was the final nail in the coffin and clearly drops the curtain on one of the best known theories of muscle growth .

Practical Applications
Don’t perform multi-joint exercise like deadlifts, squats, 20 resp squats or leg press for the sake of increasing hormones.
Don’t keep rest times short or perform high intensity workouts for the purpose of raising

Full article: http://www.exercisebiology.com/index...muscle_growth/

So, in summary, train legs if you want... and because you want... not because some gym-rat tries to guilt-trip you into training 'em.

Secondarily, unless 30 inch thighs are your ultimate goal, there are a lot of lifts which'll stimulate a shitload of aesthetic growth without one ever having to have a conventional leg day.

Deadlifts, full cleans and snatches being 3 such lifts.

Me personally? I train legs because I love training 'em.

[rocheey]

hi all a myth which ive heard for so long i cant remember now but came up yesterday in the gym so just wondered if anyone who really no's there stuff could shed something on this i personally train legs because i enjoy them but theres some people in our gym who dont but one of the trainers told him if he doesnt train them hes missing out because they can spur your top half on is this true? cheers

Squats make you bigger! Squats make you stronger! Squats make you use punctuation!