THE GUN SHOW

drdeadlift

Most posters here seem to into sport or martial arts.
So who among us only train to look good for the ladies/lads? Or what other reasons do people train?

AntiVirus

I train just to keep fit and healthy but my girlfriend thinks I'm ripped!

Zamboni

I just train to train.
Training, in and of itself, is a thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Admittedly, the health/looks stuff is handy too.

gymsoldier

1: Because I love it (Gym Addict)
2: Love the results from it
3: The ladies love it
4: And its my job haha

nice_guy80

Gun Show?

with matchstick legs??? I always laugh at those lads.

drdeadlift

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Gun Show?

with matchstick legs??? I always laugh at those lads.

This is the gun show man!

grimloch

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Gun Show?

with matchstick legs??? I always laugh at those lads.

Can't see quads with boardshorts on brah.

nice_guy80

grimloch wrote: »

Can't see quads with boardshorts on brah.

no. but can see the calves - which are usually a good indicator

brianthebard

nice_guy80 wrote: »

no. but can see the calves - which are usually a good indicator

lol what?

Remmy

nice_guy80 wrote: »

no. but can see the calves - which are usually a good indicator

eh no not really.

pachey100

For the fun and the challenge also it pays of with the lady's:D

MarkY91

why do all you gym addicts mock people who dont care about their legs as much as the rest of their body seriously it makes you seem retarted

grimloch

MarkY91 wrote: »

why do all you gym addicts mock people who dont care about their legs as much as the rest of their body seriously it makes you seem retarted

Remember the old "annoying gym behaviour" thread? Every second post was smug snobby posters looking down their noses at people not spending 50% of their gym time squatting.

Alot of people in gyms don't give a drizzling sh*t about what their legs look like and for some reason that irks people on the internet something fierce.

Davei141

MarkY91 wrote: »

why do all you gym addicts mock people who dont care about their legs as much as the rest of their body seriously it makes you seem retarted

:pac:

Cole

grimloch wrote: »

Remember the old "annoying gym behaviour" thread? Every second post was smug snobby posters looking down their noses at people not spending 50% of their gym time squatting.

They haven't gone away you know.

gymsoldier

MarkY91 wrote: »

why do all you gym addicts mock people who dont care about their legs as much as the rest of their body seriously it makes you seem retarted

This retarted?... :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSjGjzLapgA

TommyKnocker

MarkY91 wrote: »

why do all you gym addicts mock people who dont care about their legs as much as the rest of their body seriously it makes you seem retarted

I don't think it is mocking. Merely pointing out that having a upper body like Arnie with legs like Max Wall (Google him) or Russel Brand looks fairly ridiculous in a lot of folks opinion, mine included.

And to all the folks who think that by the time their legs are revealed, the deal is sealed, what about the beach or lounging by the pool on holidays or just walking around in your wife beater and board shorts in the summer ?

A symmetrical body just looks better IMHO

Cole

^ I agree. I'm always puzzled when I see so many guys in their t-shirt/vest, lifting heavy weight and sweating bullets as a result.....all while wearing the likes of a tracksuit bottoms. It's to hide the skinny legs, isn't it?

d'Oracle

Sometimes I have trouble deciding what curls to do.

howtomake

No no please, you don't want to deny some women if you can have great legs too.

BadCharlie

Keeping op question on track.

I train to keep fit and get in shape.
Used to love it all but gave it all up for about 12 years and only went back to it 7months ago.

Goal
Be able to run fast.
Run a distance of 6 to 8km or row 6 to 8km or cycle 10km with out any problem + be as strong as i can while doing this.
Also went back to GAA.

john t

I just train for fun and too relax, great way too chill out...

El Horseboxo

Some peolpe only train the glamour muscles because they're to show off on a night out. They'll never be wearing shorts while out in a bar here and if you get back to the house of some drunk chica she ain't gonna kick you outta the bed due to the lack of proportion between legs and upper body.

I workout mainly because it's a hobby but it's also the feeling of looking good for the ladies and anyone that lifts weight and says they don't care what anyone thinks of their body they are lying.

Reggy

guys who only train 'glamour muscles' (as was so well put in a previous post), clearly dont understand one of the best known 'secrets' (for want of a better word) in strength training. training legs - especially quad and hamstring muscles releases copious amounts of testosterone and HGH during a workout.

so the guys who go in and do 100's of curls and lat pull downs w/ shoulder presses are really only getting a percentage of the results that they could be getting by training legs also. that is why people who do squats feel that they are superior than the top heavy guys who spend their time pouting in front of the mirror. these are the same guys who are needlessly lashing jack3d up to their eyeballs and talking about the awesome results they get because their xtra small pro top feels tighter on their arms (i know, im going off the point).

guys who only train arm and chest are the same guys who probably cant run 50 yards without a lung collapsing. its funny, the greatest strength gains i have made in my upper body have often been as a result of implementing a 'breathing squat' regime at the start of my upper body routine. google it if u havent heard of it.

in short, guys who want the strongest upper body they can get, will probably never fully get there without implementing some sort of leg work. Ignorance is bliss i guess

ferike1

I don't agree with the calf comment because while my legs are quite muscular, my calves have never been anything to shout home about, and I make sure to train them hard.

Sephiroth_dude

Dont play any sports but I am thinking of taking up something up,I go just to be fit and healthy really that and I love doing weights ....cardio on the other hand not a big fan of it but it has to be done I guess.

newby.204

El Horseboxo wrote: »

Some peolpe only train the glamour muscles because they're to show off on a night out. They'll never be wearing shorts while out in a bar here and if you get back to the house of some drunk chica she ain't gonna kick you outta the bed due to the lack of proportion between legs and upper body.

I workout mainly because it's a hobby but it's also the feeling of looking good for the ladies and anyone that lifts weight and says they don't care what anyone thinks of their body they are lying.

Im gona have to so i disagree with you there, while id say some people need others to give them a pat on the back for their hard work, like getting a gold star or somethin, i couldnt give a fook if someone thinks im in a heap because a) im not and b) i love the gym, i hate when i miss a session for any reason and ill try my hardest to move sh!t around to squeeze it backin even if its ten at night!!!

now by my own admission my training has stagnated and im bustin my bollox to get it back to were it should be and further but im not about to start whippin my T off every time an 1/8 of inch of growth appears somewhere on my body, not that i use a tape anyway, different people train for different reasons ive loads of friends who'd do guns n abs monday to sunday if they could, but im trainin for me and my trainin log, paper one, is where i see my results!!!

Tigger

i train to be stronger and feel happier

if i wanted to look good for women i probably shouldnt eat for the next 2 months from what i see in the media

gymsoldier

Reggy wrote: »

guys who only train 'glamour muscles' (as was so well put in a previous post), clearly dont understand one of the best known 'secrets' (for want of a better word) in strength training. training legs - especially quad and hamstring muscles releases copious amounts of testosterone and HGH during a workout.

Dont worry, its not a secert

El Horseboxo wrote: »

Some peolpe only train the glamour muscles because they're to show off on a night out. They'll never be wearing shorts while out in a bar here and if you get back to the house of some drunk chica she ain't gonna kick you outta the bed due to the lack of proportion between legs and upper body.

Yeah it could be lack of proportion somewhere else ha

Cole wrote: »

^ I agree. I'm always puzzled when I see so many guys in their t-shirt/vest, lifting heavy weight and sweating bullets as a result.....all while wearing the likes of a tracksuit bottoms. It's to hide the skinny legs, isn't it?

I only wear shorts on legs day, I just dont want to scare people with my manly sized Vastus Medialis on the other days

blah88

The reason everyone hates on the guys who don't train legs is because much of the time they're jealous that the guy with the skinny legs has a superior upper body compared to their own, so they nitpick and point out that he has skinny legs. It can be frustrating grinding through sets of squats and deadlifts that leave you aching for days afterwards, yet these broski's who only do sit-ups and curls get more attention from the females because of their defined abs and bi's.

For years I put faith in the belief that squatting+ deadlifting was realeasing ''copious amounts of growth hormone'' and was contributing to my upper body size when really it just gave me a bigger ass/ legs/ thicker midriff.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/squat-versus-leg-press-for-big-legs.html

''As to the hormonal response, who cares. Nobody has ever shown that the small hormonal spikes to training mean a thing and recent research is starting to show that it is simply meaningless. Whether squats or GH raises hormones a little bit more simply isn’t relevant as far as I’m concerned.''

Explains how a lotta guys I know have great physiques despite never doing a tad for their legs in the gym.

Reggy

blah88 wrote: »

The reason everyone hates on the guys who don't train legs is because much of the time they're jealous that the guy with the skinny legs has a superior upper body compared to their own, so they nitpick and point out that he has skinny legs. It can be frustrating grinding through sets of squats and deadlifts that leave you aching for days afterwards, yet these broski's who only do sit-ups and curls get more attention from the females because of their defined abs and bi's.

For years I put faith in the belief that squatting+ deadlifting was realeasing ''copious amounts of growth hormone'' and was contributing to my upper body size when really it just gave me a bigger ass/ legs/ thicker midriff.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/squat-versus-leg-press-for-big-legs.html

''As to the hormonal response, who cares. Nobody has ever shown that the small hormonal spikes to training mean a thing and recent research is starting to show that it is simply meaningless. Whether squats or GH raises hormones a little bit more simply isn’t relevant as far as I’m concerned.''

Explains how a lotta guys I know have great physiques despite never doing a tad for their legs in the gym.

what absolute rubbish. please show us this "recent research" rather than posting a link to some crap website that doesnt even work. the muscles of the legs are the largest muscles in the body, therefore the largest local producer of human growth hormone and testosterone. important ingredients for muscle growth, i think you will agree.

most upper-body-only-guys are in fairness actually admitting that the reason that they do not engage in any leg training - is that it hurts too much and doesnt pay off in a nightclub. each to their own. I used to think the same, I even tried to convince myself that I would loose all of my sprint speed if I increased my deadlifts and leg presses to the point of having a big bulbous arse.

any leg time that used to be in my workout was substituted for more benches, more curls and more core work. training on arms et al an extra 2-4 hours a week did nothing for me. training only upper body means those who go to the gym >5days a week to do upper body are constantly training the same muscles - leaving no time for repair and the utilisation of protein. too much upper body conditioning day after day is just going to impair strength gains and prove counter-productive in the muscle building process through the premature release of cortisol (the muscle DEPLETING hormone).

I understand guys want to get a bigger upper body first and foremost, but why not engage in an endocrinological activity (ie breathing squats) which will assist in upper body growth as a byproduct of advancing stronger legs. its a win-win situation.

El Horseboxo

newby.204 wrote: »

Im gona have to so i disagree with you there, while id say some people need others to give them a pat on the back for their hard work, like getting a gold star or somethin, i couldnt give a fook if someone thinks im in a heap because a) im not and b) i love the gym, i hate when i miss a session for any reason and ill try my hardest to move sh!t around to squeeze it backin even if its ten at night!!!

now by my own admission my training has stagnated and im bustin my bollox to get it back to were it should be and further but im not about to start whippin my T off every time an 1/8 of inch of growth appears somewhere on my body, not that i use a tape anyway, different people train for different reasons ive loads of friends who'd do guns n abs monday to sunday if they could, but im trainin for me and my trainin log, paper one, is where i see my results!!!

You don't have to be whipping the shirt off or standing in the mirror in the gym to be acting like you're doing it for other people. I train for me and it's probably my only real hobby at this stage in my life. From my diet to my workouts i put a lot of dedication and hard work in and i train proportionately. But when you're leaning at the bar and you look to your left and right and see that your arms or chest are 3 times bigger than the dudes next to you. It's a good feeling that compliments the effort you put in. That's all my point was. Not that it was the sole reason behind working out.

compaqlaptop1

Reggy wrote: »

guys who only train 'glamour muscles' (as was so well put in a previous post), clearly dont understand one of the best known 'secrets' (for want of a better word) in strength training. training legs - especially quad and hamstring muscles releases copious amounts of testosterone and HGH during a workout.

I thought that the general consensus these days was that squats/deadlifts producing magic growth juice was just airy fairy stuff....so which is it, do squats/deadlifts provide significant additional indirect benefits to overall size/strength, not just to the muscles they are working?

I did the SS program a few years ago, with its heavy emphasis on squats and deads, and started eating loads, and I put on at least 2 1/2 stone. And 75% of that was on the lower body and core. And I have read of many other people who had the same result. I had read all this crap about how squats&deads release so much magic juice that they will increase arm size more pound for pound than direct arm work. That turned out to be a load of rubbish for me.

so the guys who go in and do 100's of curls and lat pull downs w/ shoulder presses are really only getting a percentage of the results that they could be getting by training legs also. that is why people who do squats feel that they are superior than the top heavy guys who spend their time pouting in front of the mirror. these are the same guys who are needlessly lashing jack3d up to their eyeballs and talking about the awesome results they get because their xtra small pro top feels tighter on their arms (i know, im going off the point).

Getting the extra calories is just as important as the work in the gym if you want to increase size/strength. If you spend 90%+ of your time working the uppper body, well that is where those calories will go (and with it, size/strength). If however you are spending most of your time squatting & deadlift well then it is pretty natural that most of the growth will be on your lower body. Guys who only care about upper body and are only training that will get results much more to their liking than if they added in alot of legwork which is gonna cut into the calories they could be used for upper body growth.

And the guys who only train upper body to get women are correct in what they do. Legs dont count for sh*t in a pub/nightclub. Alot of guys train only to look good while out on the pull and there is nothing wrong with that.

Doug Cartel

compaqlaptop1 wrote: »

I thought that the general consensus these days was that squats/deadlifts producing magic growth juice was just airy fairy stuff....so which is it, do squats/deadlifts provide significant additional indirect benefits to overall size/strength, not just to the muscles they are working?

There's a difference between perceived size and actual size. Doing things like squats and deads are going to make you look generally bigger.

And the guys who only train upper body to get women are correct in what they do. Legs dont count for sh*t in a pub/nightclub. Alot of guys train only to look good while out on the pull and there is nothing wrong with that.

Thing is, there have been studies that show that kind of look is good for intimidating other men, not for actually attracting women. OK, I guess you could say if you scare off all the competition, you'll have better chances - but I feel a bit stupid even writing that.

drdeadlift

Reggy wrote: »

guys who only train 'glamour muscles' (as was so well put in a previous post), clearly dont understand one of the best known 'secrets' (for want of a better word) in strength training. training legs - especially quad and hamstring muscles releases copious amounts of testosterone and HGH during a workout.

so the guys who go in and do 100's of curls and lat pull downs w/ shoulder presses are really only getting a percentage of the results that they could be getting by training legs also. that is why people who do squats feel that they are superior than the top heavy guys who spend their time pouting in front of the mirror. these are the same guys who are needlessly lashing jack3d up to their eyeballs and talking about the awesome results they get because their xtra small pro top feels tighter on their arms (i know, im going off the point).

guys who only train arm and chest are the same guys who probably cant run 50 yards without a lung collapsing. its funny, the greatest strength gains i have made in my upper body have often been as a result of implementing a 'breathing squat' regime at the start of my upper body routine. google it if u havent heard of it.

in short, guys who want the strongest upper body they can get, will probably never fully get there without implementing some sort of leg work. Ignorance is bliss i guess

Copious amounts of hgh&test.The amount your body will every throw out isnt worth measuring.

d'Oracle

There is a lot of very odd and confusing stuff going on in this thread.

gymsoldier

All this talk of HGH and Test *yawn*, stop whinging, just get under the bar, and SQUAT!

jaggiebunnet

all i know is that squatting and deadlifting makes me stronger, thus enabling me to bench/press/curl more. It has not given me a fat arse or huge legs. However the missus does like the legs!

on topic..

I train to destress, stay fit, strong and hopefully healthy. To fit into my clothes and be attractive to my wife, and to set an example to my kids that being fit and eating healthy (ish!) is better than a couch lounger scoffing crisps every day.

Tigger

gymsoldier wrote: »

All this talk of HGH and Test *yawn*, stop whinging, just get under the bar, and SQUAT!

can't my legs hurt

Sundy

Tigger wrote: »

can't my legs hurt

You might joke but its a bloody reality for me, hurt my knee playing rugby. Left knee gives way under weight.

Luckily i have quite chunky legs anyway.

Tigger

my legs hurt from squatting tho
i'm not joking they do

RobAMerc

mine is a mid life crisis brought on by the birth of my son

I don't apologies for wanting to look better, I want him to be proud of me as I am of him.
There are also plenty of upsides, MrsAMerc has been inspired too ! Oh yea !

blah88

Reggy wrote: »

what absolute rubbish. please show us this "recent research" rather than posting a link to some crap website that doesnt even work. the muscles of the legs are the largest muscles in the body, therefore the largest local producer of human growth hormone and testosterone. important ingredients for muscle growth, i think you will agree.

West et. al. Elevations in ostensibly anabolic hormones with resistance exercise enhance neither training-induced muscle hypertrophy nor strength of the elbow flexors. J Appl Physiol. 2009 Nov 12

2009 recent enough?

This is Lyle McDonalds review of the research. He has no reason to give a biased argument either against or in favour of squatting for upper body size. He just tells it like it is.

-It’s not uncommon to see people recommending things like “If you want big arms, squat/train legs.” for example. Essentially, heavy leg work is touted as being the key to overall growth.

- In what they called the low-hormone condition, the biceps were trained all by themselves; no other exercise was done. In the other called the high-hormone condition, the biceps were trained and then a large-volume of leg training was done to elevate the supposedly anabolic hormones.

- Despite vast differences in hormone availability in the immediate post- exercise period, we found no differences in the increases in strength or hypertrophy in muscle exercised under low or high hormone conditions after 15 weeks of resistance training. These findings are in agreement with our hypothesis and previous work showing that exercise-induced hormone elevations do not stimulate myofibrillar protein synthesis (36) and are not necessary for hypertrophy (37).


-I don’t think it gets any clearer than that and I’d note that another recent study titled “Resistance exercise-induced increases in putative anabolic hormones do not enhance muscle protein synthesis or intracellular signalling in young men.” by the same group found the exact same thing.
Summing Up: Leg training has no magic impact on overall growth, most of which is determined locally (through mechanisms of tension and fatigue mediated by changes in local muscular metabolism). If you want big arms, train arms. If you want big legs, train legs.
And if folks are wondering why empirically ‘folks who train legs hard’ seem to get big compared to those who don’t, I’d offer the following explanation: folks willing to toil on heavy leg work work hard. Folks too lazy to train legs hard often don’t. And it’s the overall intensity of the training that is causing the difference, not the presence or absence of squats per se. Which is why guys who only hammer pecs and guns get big pecs and guns even if they couldn’t find the squat rack in the gym: the small acute hormonal responses to training are simply irrelevant to overall growth.

But if you want to squat for big arms go ahead...

nice_guy80

board shorts - don't even own a pair. I've nothing to hide...

blah88

nice_guy80 wrote: »

board shorts - don't even own a pair. I've nothing to hide...

Well when I go beaches in America and wear rugby shorts I get slagged for wearing short shorts. I deadlift almost 2.5 times my bodyweight so my legs aren't tiny either. There's no winning really.

Reggy

blah88 wrote: »

West et. al. Elevations in ostensibly anabolic hormones with resistance exercise enhance neither training-induced muscle hypertrophy nor strength of the elbow flexors. J Appl Physiol. 2009 Nov 12

ok thanks for the info, but you seem to think that I am suggesting to guys to do squats until they cant walk to get bigger arms? i understand it does not work like that!!

My argument is: many guys tend to overtrain the upper body, going in to the gym spending too long exercising the same muscles that they enjoy working out each day without actually seeing concrete results.

I am speaking from experience when i say that, when I implemented 3-4 sets of a single compound (without superset) leg exercise (for eg: leg press, deadlift, squat - even lunge!) i found that i got a bigger 'pump' at the beginning of my workout, and this actually benefitted me when I went on to do an upper-body routine. this part of the workout (incl warm up/stretch) would take me 15mins max, leaving the rest of my time to do core and upper body strengthening exercises.

on certain days I could isolate legs when my upper body felt ripped and sore from the previous day, instead of p1ssing in the wind doing the same upper body routine as the day before. this, going back to the subject of the original post is exactly the reason why I think training upper body muscles only can for some, prove futile.

however if u are going to the gym <4 days per week, then fair enough, you can probably fit in sufficient rest in between training days to go back and do exercises for the same muscles again and again and again....

on the other hand, there is alot to be said for not implementing legs into the start of your workout. if we are to consider the production of cortisol which begins to occur (person dependant) anywhere between 45 - 60 mins into a workout, then spending 20 mins doing legs is not going to give you a hugely comfortable amount of time to get say, a full chest and upper back workout in. this is where length of recovery comes in, and some may need to rest for longer between sets.

on leg only days I would combine say, heavy squats with a set of light pullovers, meaning I am creating the demand for the utilisation of amino acids in my upper body without actually tearing myself apart 2 days in a row.

to scoff at testosterone and hgh as 'magic juice' as if it plays no part in the overall strength building process is perhaps foolish. if anything the increased production of test from proper leg training can allow a guy to feel energised and full of strength, which can be used to ones advantage when changing over to do upper body (a natural alternative to highly caffeinated pre workout supps). sure, i totally agree that guys who train upper body only will no doubt be able to make some pretty good strength gains in their arms, shoulders etc, but there is alot to be said for implementing even the smallest amount of leg exercises - even if the only result is to allow a rest period in for the upper body.

again it is all person specific and depends on an individuals dedication to lifting weights and on how many days they train. so i guess for some guys, the priority is impressive biceps and they probably will do enough to get them as is.

gymsoldier

Sure everyone knows the real reason why squats produce more testosterone is because when your squatting, the internal gooch pressure and underwear squeeze exerted on the testes forces raw testosterone straight into the blood stream. The only way to produce the same effects when performing curls, leading to bigger arms, is too tightly squeeze and hold your legs together really hard.

Reggy

gymsoldier wrote: »

Sure everyone knows the real reason why squats produce more testosterone is because when your squatting, the internal gooch pressure and underwear squeeze exerted on the testes forces raw testosterone straight into the blood stream. The only way to produce the same effects when performing curls, leading to bigger arms, is too tightly squeeze and hold your legs together really hard.

blah88

I think the reason most people think squats and deads make their upper bodies grow is because they usually start doing those exercises as part of a properly structured program, such as Starting Strength. I know that my upper body exploded in size after my first couple of weeks on that program and I thought it was because of the extra GH/ Test production, but it was really because I had started training with a sensible amount of volume/frequency, which allowed my body to recover and grow properly.

There is something to be said for the natural buzz you get from a set of heavy deadlifts at the beginning of your session though. Really wakes you up.

Brian?

blah88 wrote: »

I think the reason most people think squats and deads make their upper bodies grow is because they usually start doing those exercises as part of a properly structured program, such as Starting Strength. I know that my upper body exploded in size after my first couple of weeks on that program and I thought it was because of the extra GH/ Test production, but it was really because I had started training with a sensible amount of volume/frequency, which allowed my body to recover and grow properly.

There is something to be said for the natural buzz you get from a set of heavy deadlifts at the beginning of your session though. Really wakes you up.

You might not be far from the truth there. Picking a decent program and putting in the hard work is what really gets the results.

Sangre

Like a lot of people I train for a number of reasons, all of which have been stated above.

However, my progress is solely measure in strength terms. Far more objective and easier to measure. None of this, 'I think my pants feel looser!'. Also easier to keep track of minor progressions.