Go Beyond The Squat To Build A Powerful Lower Body

If you’re a guy and have never had your ass grabbed by a complete stranger at the bar you’re doing something wrong.

It’s a depressing situation that no man should face.

Legs the size of popsicle sticks and a butt that resembles a pancake, are no way to go through life.

 

We no longer live in world where tiny lower bodies and huge upper bodies aren’t so cool — unless you want to end up a meme on Instagram.

Women love a bulging set of biceps to grasp and a full chest to lay their loving heads. But they want a man who can fill out his jeans the right way.

Stick around and I’ll help you fill out those jeans once and for all.

You’ll’ be carrying a fly swatter for all the hands reaching your ‘buns of steel.’

It Ain’t Just Back Squats

Women are more attracted to a man with a lower body that matches the upper.

Nothing says “I lift and am your knight in shining armour’ like jacked quads and glutes that stretch the legs of your jeans.

Before you throw your phone against the wall and start squatting until the sun comes up, keep reading.

Building a great lower body calls for the perfect cocktail of multi-joint and single joint exercises.It ain’t just back squats bro. Sure they’re a big part of it, but there’s more to the puzzle.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a powerlifter so I love the back squat. But I also believe you need to be doing more than just squatting.

The rest of this article will give you a few ways to build a jacked lower body to compliment your handsome upper body.

Build Your Backside

Having good lat and glute development will make your shoulders look broader and your waist look smaller.

So if you are going for the V-taper look that many men are after, you’re going to want to build a strong posterior chain.

Women judge the strength of a man first on the width of his shoulders, then by the appearance of his posterior chain — traps, lats, glutes and legs.

For a strong posterior chain: Deadlifts, Snatch grip RDL’s, Hip thrusts, Pullups/Chinups, Row variations, lat pulldowns, farmers carry.

To build a great posterior chain make sure you follow the next few rules.

Use ‘The Muscle Building Trifecta’

There are 3 main factors that must be present to make a muscle grow like a weed.

Your muscles don’t just respond to tension or the amount of weight, they respond to a combination of these three things:

1. mechanical tension — the amount of tension put on the muscle.
2. metabolic stress — the pump.
3. muscle damage — soreness.

Just like you’re not going to use a hammer to screw a screw into the wall. You’re going to need to pick the right tool for the job.

Some exercises are better suited for creating tension, while others are better for getting a great pump or causing the most muscle damage.

Compound lifts (bench press, chin up, deadlift, squat, row) are great for creating high amounts of mechanical tension. These are best performed for lower  reps 1-6 rep range with longer rest periods to ensure recovery between sets.

For loads of metabolic stress that will get your legs pumped more than Arnold, use exercises that put loads tension on the muscle in the shortened position ie. barbell curls, lateral raise and leg extensions.

These are best done for moderate to high reps 8-20+ with short rest periods to maximize the pump. Yea, it’s going to burn.

To create the most muscle damage look for exercises that put the most tension on the muscle when it’s in a lengthened position ie. incline dumbbell curls, lunges and RDL’s.

Do these for moderate to high reps 8-20+ with moderate to short rest periods. Don’t worry, these will burn too. You didn’t think you would get off that easy did you?

To give you the best fighting chance to putting on muscle in the right places, make sure you are doing a program that is properly designed to target all of these.

Here are 3 different training techniques you can use to up the intensity of your leg day:

1. Paused reps: perform the movement but add in a 3-6 second pause in the fully stretched position. For example: in the bottom of a hack squat or at the bottom of a lying leg curl.
2. Slow eccentrics: change the speed of eccentric phase of the movement (lowering) to 3-6 seconds. This feels like an eternity.
3. 1.5 reps: for 1.5 reps you add in a ‘pulse’ at top half of the movement. For example: perform a squat and when coming up from the bottom, stop half way and slowly lower yourself back into the bottom of the squat, then push up and return to the top position. That is one rep.

Guaranteed Growth

To keep your lower body growing you must do things that are getting you better over time. This is known as the principle of progressive overload.

I know, the word principle gives me the chills too.

The general idea is to do something better than you did it last time — it’s that simple.

When it comes to strength training most guys try to add weight to the bar or add a few extra reps, but there are actually 12 different ways to utilize progressive overload.

12 ways to use progressive overload:

1. Perform the movement with better form
2. Increase the range of motion
3. Increase the amount of reps
4. Increase the amount of sets
5. Increase the weight used
6. Perform the same load and volume but with less rest (increase density)
7. Do more work in the same amount of time (increase density)
8. Do the same amount of work in less time (increase density)
9. Increase how often you train (frequency)
10. Increase the speed or effort of the exercise
11. Decrease your body mass (increase in relative strength)
12. Intensity techniques to go beyond technical failure (drop sets, rest-pause, etc.)

You don’t have to hit them all and I encourage you to explore more options that just trying to add weight to the bar.

One of my personal favorites with my clients is #1: performing the movement with better form.

It’s so often overlooked and a huge cause for injuries with lifting. You can’t get jacked if you injure yourself from using poor form.

Feed The Gains

The most important factor of getting jacked is eating more calories than you burn coupled with resistance training.

It’s an ass kickin combo — like Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee.

The more experienced you are the less likely it becomes you’ll be able to add muscle in a calorie deficit.

The next step is to make sure you’re eating enough protein.

For a jacked lower body I recommend 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight.

If you want to add muscle there’s a good chance you’ll add some fat. The size of the surplus will depend how much of the new weight will be from lean muscle, compared to fat.

I recommend a 5-15% calorie surplus over your maintenance calories. The higher percentage will increase the chances of adding fat but the scale will move quicker and vice versa.

When you’re eating it’s wise to follow the 80/10/10 rule:

• 80% unprocessed whole foods that are good for you and you enjoy.
• 10% foods you don’t love but that are good for you
• 10% the fun stuff that you love but isn’t considered ‘healthy’

Let The Growth Begin

You won’t get through a week of adding in some lower body training following these principles and waking up with legs like Arnold.

But your chances of growing are much better now.

Be consistent and follow the guidelines above.

Once you get your first official butt grab from a total stranger make sure you email joey@joeypercia.com and let me know about your success story.

I can’t wait to hear from you.

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