Blog 49 - Best for Growth - Squatting! If you want to grow you need to squat. 3 sets of ten reps done twice a week could pack and inch of muscle on your thighs and add 10 pounds of bodyweight. Try to keep you upper body erect with arched back and not leaning forward. Keep knees aligned with toes and lower yourself until thighs are a little lower than illustrated by the photo. Go a little lower than parallel. Barbell squats add strength and development to thigh, butt, and lower back muscles. Thick spinal erectors come from heavy squatting and so does a big butt. Leaning forward brings the butt and lower back into play and takes away from the thighs. Growing Thighs takes energy and can result in fast bodyweight gains. I was able to gain 10 pounds of relatively solid bodyweight in one month by squatting and gaining one inch on my thighs. But big thighs can easily make the rest of your body look smaller. In glancing at your silhouette no one part of the body should jump out, you should perceive the body as a whole. That's what's called symmetry in bodybuilding I found my lumbars got thicker from squatting. The forward bending of the body caused by the bar resting on the back of my shoulders really built these muscles especially when squatting below parallel. I did lots of it, for many years doing sets of 10 with over 300 pounds. If I had it to do all over again I would not train as heavy and make lighter weights feel heavier by doing slower negatives and stricter posi- tives. The strictness limits the amount of weight but what is gained is good form enabling muscle isolation. This is how you build good shaped muscles - with good form. When you use heavier weight your bring extra muscles usually adjacent muscles into play and spread out the effect of the set. You can develop specific parts of muscle if your have the focus enabling the movement.
