Squats ARE overrated.

[jaykay]

Fixedddd

LOL. I guess I forgot the "you knows".

[powergraham]

Ronnie Coleman is laughing somewhere.

To be fair, Ronnie Coleman's flow in the last couple of years was quite awful, cos his glutes got out of hand, which could be put down to squatting.

[F.K.M.]

To be fair, Ronnie Coleman's flow in the last couple of years was quite awful, cos his glutes got out of hand, which could be put down to squatting.

what?

this is the first time I've heard this...are you from the future?

[TPT]

everyone with a back injury says squats are overrated. : )

[Jon Bodin]

Being 'challenged' in the quads I used to come up with every excuse why I didn't squat (too tall at 6'3", didn't feel it in my quads etc...). I used leg press & hacks with little success. After building my home gym, I didn't have a leg press nor hack so I had to squat, front squat, & smith-machine squats for my legs. Funny, my quads finally started to grow! Everyone is different and responds differently but squats work for me.

[thesamewords]

Leg press over squats? never. The glutes get activated very intensely and the quads starts screaming for mercy. I think leg presses de activate the glutes too much and most people lift thier butt far too much to have solid leg movement. I feel quite the opposite about squats YG. The leg presses are out the door for me.

[DannyG]

Squats, if done properly, are primarily a posterior chain exercise. I don't see why anyone wouldn't do at least some variation for overall leg and hip development.

To quote the great Kirk Karwoski: "What's wrong with squatting? What are you afraid?

And to quote Vince Gironda, "All you will get from the regular back squat is a big fat ass, and who needs that!" lol. Seriously though it really depends on the individual like most have said on this thread. You have to experiment for yourself to see if the squat works for you or not. For me I have to say they build my glutes more than my quads and personally I don't like that type of look. I remember when I cut out squats from my routine a few years ago my jeans started fitting loser around the ass.

[joe d]

i think atg squats should be the base of any weight training program prviding your healthy and able

[whatdayaknow]

I love squats, personally.

You have to remember though, ALL pros are genetic freaks. I rarely take advice from pros on anything training related. Those guys could probably look at a weight and grow.

Great point.

[slayer66]

everyone is scared to disagree with dorian..I laughed when he said no need for squats,squats and standing military press are the 2 biggest builders,people cry about injury this and that they just need to suck it up and get to work...leg press is worthless compared to squats.

[Skeletor]

I once saw a sign in a gym that declared, "If you ain't squattin, you ain't nothin!".

Needless to say I took heed and so should everyone else!

[whatdayaknow]

I do leg presses right after 6 sets of 6 reps of squats. It is amazing how many people do not perform squats anymore. I literally have maybe seen only 5 or 6 other people performing squats. This excludes of course smith machine squats and any other forms other regular squats. I go to LA Fitness so there are a lot of people there. They just don't do them.

[powergraham]

what?

this is the first time I've heard this...are you from the future?

His glutes spoil the flow coming down from his lower back, maybes you don't share the same opinion. That's from 06.

[BigJD69]

You gotta squat come on!!!

[DAVIDHARDY]

Like TBS said, I also have to take a really wide stance with my toes pointed outward to get deep enough. I feel like I'm going to fall forward if I do them any other way. I like doing them, but I like to put them later in my workout to really feel them working my quads better. If I do them earlier on, I get more glutes than anything else, which seems to be a problem with a lot of people. It doesn't matter if I do fronts first or last, they always fry my quads which is why I prefer them over backs. I like the hack as well, but we only have a half ass hack machine with the pad at the lower back that you can really load the weight up on and it really doesn't do as good as the ones where you get in and the pads are at the shoulders. I also like to do smith machine squats with my feet way out in front of me; that really kills the quads like a hack does without a ton of weight, so there is less stress on the lower back when doing these. Squats are a very versatile exercise like deads, so you can find a way to do them that suits you no matter what.