What muscles work with squats? How to make squats more effective?

Whatever one may say, the least favorite exercise of all beginners is sit-ups with a barbell. For a beginner this is inconvenient, difficult and causes a lot of other negative emotions. However, squatting makes it possible to achieve serious results in sports. Those who want to lose weight quickly get rid of excess fatty layer. Athletes pursuing a set of mass, notice the growth of the muscles on their legs.

Therefore, this article is fully devoted to squats. The reader will find out which muscles work when squatting, and also get acquainted with the technique for improving the effectiveness of this complex exercise. The recommendations of the athletes will not be superfluous.

Classics of the genre

Start the review best with a classic exercise that can be effectively performed only in the gym. Naturally, it's squats with a barbell. What muscles work and how to correctly pump them with this exercise, the reader will find out only after getting acquainted with the technique of implementation.

In squats, it is important to observe only two rules: always keep your back flat and do not allow the knees to go over the socks. Everything is simple and accessible - at the moment of squatting you just need to take the pelvis back and sit down. After that, having reached a parallel between the line of hips and the floor, it is necessary to return to the starting position.

Now about working muscles. Many professionals often joke that only those muscles that are hurting grow. In fact, this is not exactly true, it's just after the sit-ups that the upper thigh and buttocks ache. These muscles work in this exercise.

The needs of different sexes

Given that the mass media have a lot of questions about what muscles work with squats in women, one can conclude that the load is perceived differently in each gender. However, small knowledge of physiology will destroy this assumption, because in the structure of the skeleton and muscle fibers the body of a man is almost identical to the female body. That's just the feelings of squats at all different.

This is also an explanation. Women want to get a beautiful rounded buttocks as a result, and this part is not needed at all for men. Their task is a powerful torso with strong and beautiful legs. Taking into account such a difference in needs, different training complexes are designed for the development of leg muscles. In fact, the usual squatting with the bar can be performed in different ways.

Features of the displacement of the focus of the load

Having figured out which muscle groups work when squatting and what tasks men and women set for themselves, one can get to know the technique of doing exercises closer. So, men need powerful legs, respectively, the load should focus only on the hips (quadriceps). Here everything is simple - the slightest squatting with the removal of the pelvis back immediately involves the muscles of the legs. The athlete only needs to sit down and then stand up. You can play with the load in different ways: someone puts more weight, and someone is interested in doing the technique exercise, sitting down so that there is a parallel between the hips and the floor.

Women need rounded buttocks, accordingly, it is necessary to get them to get involved in the work. You can do this only by completely sitting down 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 must have strong legs. But you do not need to worry - the buttocks are actually small muscles, they have a small load. In the initial stages, you can generally crouch without a bar.

In the beginning there was a word

Touching the topic of training with its own weight, immediately I would like to draw the attention of the newcomers, that this is an inconclusive case. Yes, you can work the muscles of the legs and buttocks with usual squats in the initial stages, you can even get rid of the fat layer, doing exercises at a pace, but you can not increase the muscle volume without weighting. And if someone assures the reader that this is real, then it can be safely called a theorist. And such a person is far from real sports.

So, what muscles work when squatting without a bar? It is logical to assume that the same as with weighting (we are talking about hips and buttocks). However, it's not so simple. It's all about the balance and technique of doing the exercise. Squatting without a bar, many newcomers are trying to grab for some object ahead of themselves, so as not to fall back. The load immediately shifts towards the knees (the lower part of the thigh). Hypothetically, men will arrange such a focus, but women will have to think about balance.

Accurate load focusing

In the sports hall, the athlete's possibilities are limited only to the simulators, so it's no secret that squats can be performed not only with a bar, but also in a specialized simulator. It's about the "Smith machine." The bar bar in this machine is fixed between two vertical guides. The main advantage here is fixing the angle of the athlete's inclination. In fact, the athlete will not be able to fall back with the bar, nor fall forward.

Naturally, athletes are immediately 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, because of the impossibility of biasing the bar, the athlete has to remove the pelvis strongly, forcing to include both buttocks and hamstrings in the work.

Work without hobbies

That's just not all athletes immediately rush to the car Smitt, trying to quickly pump up the buttocks, performing the exercise "squats." What muscles work, the female sex has learned, but there is one small problem that some trainers keep silent about. We are talking about muscle stabilizers, which are responsible not only for maintaining the balance, but also partially affect the external beauty of the figure.

At the moment of squatting with the bar these little muscles are constantly found under the influence of the load and allow to keep the balance. But you need to go to a fixed bar in the Smith machine, as the muscle stabilizers are immediately turned off. Literally 10-12 sessions in the simulator and squats with a barbell can be forgotten. Equilibrium can be restored, but again, it takes time to develop muscle stabilizers.

Types of squats

Many beginners are sure that crouching with dumbbells or weight is much more convenient than with a barbell. This is part of the truth. The fact is that a clean neck weighs 15-20 kilograms, and dumbbells can be taken with a smaller mass. Chasing a light weight, athletes often overlook the convenience of squats. After all, to keep the right balance and perform a technique exercise with dumbbells is quite inconvenient. It requires skill, experience and help from the outside.

Again, answering the question, which muscles work when squatting with dumbbells, I would like to pay attention to the very technique of doing the exercise. A slope forward shifts the load on the hips and knees, and the backward deflection and the depth of the squat, causes the buttocks to turn into work. It is logical to assume that by moving dumbbells forward or backward, you can control the center of gravity. Yes, in the first training this is possible, but with increasing weight such a procedure will be problematic, since under the load there will be a spine, which will control the mixing of weight.

Myths and Reality

Having understood what muscles work with squats, it's time to discuss the effectiveness of the exercises themselves, as well as to get acquainted with the recommendations of the trainers and the responses of the athletes. There are a lot of articles in the media that describe the advantages of squats. Readers are assured that only this exercise can make the blood circulate properly in the hip joint, and it is impossible to lose weight without squats. It's not true. Any movement makes the blood circulate: running, walking or jumping in place. And, if we talk about effective blood circulation, then it's better to do gymnastic stretching or aerobic exercise, 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 also from excess weight it is possible to get rid, pumping pectoral muscles or a back. The trick is that these are the biggest muscles of the human body and require a lot of calories for their work.

Finally

In this article, readers not only learned about the muscles that work when squatting, but also got acquainted with the real exercises, and also found out that without the technique of performing the result, it simply would not be achieved. It remains only to advise young athletes to be more assertive in their training. The main thing is to overcome yourself in the first 5-6 classes and learn to squat with weighting. And then everything will go like clockwork.