Does a lower body work out matter?

[gymBum]

hello,
i was just browsing forums and i noticed some good responses to questions. i had a real quick question myself.. I have noticed the importance of a lower body workout in terms of gaining weight because the legs are a big muscle group, but aside from their individual weight does training my lower body have an effect on anything else?

i rarely ever train it but I think it could be important for the future and my development

thanks in advance

[gymBum]

ok so i didnt work legs for the longest time when i first started lifting, and i began to get stuck on stuff like weight, and my muscle developement kinda stopped, then once i started hitting legs hard the rest of my body began to make HUGE progress.

Your Leg muscle group is one of the Biggest in the body. To not train it, or slack on training it you can hinder progress on other muscle groups. If you ask Kenisiology Majors if muscles in the leg are attached to muscles in the arms they will tell you that not directly but they do connect through all other muscles. So in turn if your legs are lacking in training then your arm developement or any other body part will slow down dramatically. SO my advice is to Work your entire body so you make the progress you want. Also you want your entire body to grow together rather than just one part.

[gymBum]

For those who don't know, kinesiology is the study of the art/science of human movement. sub sections of the major include motor learning, sport psychology, and sport sociology..

lower body workouts can start to get more fun once you see more development and progress so try not to get discouraged in the beginning, there are big rewards..literally

[gymBum]

Yes, lower body does matter, 1- you dont want to have a big upper body then chicken legs. 2- working out ur legs brings ur testosterone levels higher therefore ur upper body will benifit from it.
-Mike E

[dmoore]

Originally Posted by gymBum

hello,
i was just browsing forums and i noticed some good responses to questions. i had a real quick question myself.. I have noticed the importance of a lower body workout in terms of gaining weight because the legs are a big muscle group, but aside from their individual weight does training my lower body have an effect on anything else?

i rarely ever train it but I think it could be important for the future and my development

thanks in advance

YES! if you do not work out your lower body you might as well quit the game because you will not succeed in anything. without your legs or obviously cant do heavy squats to gain size or deadlifts. and without strong legs you cant do many other excersizes like rows and bench to your full ability.

[TehDarkArchon]

Originally Posted by dmoore

YES! if you do not work out your lower body you might as well quit the game because you will not succeed in anything. without your legs or obviously cant do heavy squats to gain size or deadlifts. and without strong legs you cant do many other excersizes like rows and bench to your full ability.

Exactly. Squats are probably one, if not the best exercise you can do, ESPECIALLY for building overall mass. Plus you don't want to have a huge upper body and fuckin chicken legs.

[Ando55]

Lower body is a prime factor in gaining overall mass. The big 3 excercises: Benchpress, Squat and Deadlift are the biggest mass building excercises. I think the Squat and the Deadlift are way more effective in working more muscles and stabilizers when performing the excercise.

Quoted from Bodybuilding.com: "When it comes to adding upper body mass, you might be surprised to learn you can increase upper body size 10% by doing heavy leg work (squats). In fact, back in the early 80's when Tom Platz was trying so hard to bring his upper body to the same level as his legs, he actually began squatting more than usual upon hearing this. So if you aren't doing heavy squats, start now"

Many other sites and references support the claim that once you start to work on your lower body; your upper body follows up in overall mass. It's also important to work your lower body in order to keep symmetry and proportion. No one wants to have a great upper body with chicken legs. It looks just wrong once that is the case.

[gpowlftr]

If you want to have a balanced look, you definitely want to hit the legs. Guys tend to focus primarily on their upper bodies and neglect the lower body (the term chicken legs come into play). Squats and deadlifts not only hit the legs but also the upper body. For instance, your back and traps into play when doing deadlifts.

Now, I've revised my leg workout to two times a week. One workout centers on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, leg presses) and the other on isolation movements (leg extensions, leg curls).

[USMARINE8152]

Dude train the lower body.Since I got out of the Marines and can focus on training my legs now my other lifts have went up alot including my dead lifts!

[lottalead]

a strong lower body and back will always just make you feel stronger and better for an upper body workout