My own observation at the gym...

[BigAl22]

I purposely work out only my legs and totally ignore my upper body so I can have the opposite look, seems to impress the ladies

 

[jay_steel]

i use to all ways miss leg days because it would fall on a friday, no i hit them on tuesdays and chest on friday. This makes it so I never miss a leg day and I am a glory hog. Some people build motivation for prework out, but I have a ego trip in the gym that every one is watching me and cheering me on so it motivates me to push heavy weight and there is nothing more bad ass then racking 500 lbs on your back and busting out a few reps.

 

[Gorm]

I haven't seen anybody with great upper bodies an no legs. From my own experience I have the greatest mass gains when I do squats at the beginning of the week and deadlifts at the end (doing the 5x5 routine). Those are intense lifts that recruit more muscles than any other lift, which in turn stimulates GH/Test production and bone growth.

 

[robono]

reminds me of a light bulb!!

...a light bulb w/ a wife beater on!!

 

[JT.]

The gym is a quite a fasinating place.





That post was courtesy of a pathological liar.

 

[Gissurjon]

Focusing on just upper body is cool if one wants to look retarded but you guys might be missing the most important point of all. The fact that you are able to train at all is because you have your health. Go ahead and skip training legs if you want but if you want to still look good, move around easily, play sports with your kids/grand kids, at 50, then you might want to consider the "health" of your lower body.

 

[Synde]

Focusing on just upper body is cool if one wants to look retarded .

Totally disagree.

 

[cck99352]

I am now training at a commercial gym (close to my house) and frankly, I am appalled at how few people in that gym actually train legs.

Gym has one cage, one squat rack, one hack squat, two leg presses, and two smiths and they are almost always empty.. except for the two guys who chalk up their backs, wrap up their knees, etc to squat 275...

 

[LAM]

Maybe its just me... and this has been on my mind for a while now so please bare with me... the guys that I see at the gym that don't work out their legs have AWESOME upper body. I'm thinking this is because whatever nutrition they put in their mouth goes to rebuilding their upper body. Since legs don't really need it, their body ONLY needs to repair half their physique. So the result they get is achieved in half the time.

This being said, this should also work vise versa. If I want an awesome looking legs, I should stop working the upper body and do legs twice, three times a week.

there is no micro-trauma induced in the legs when they are not exercised, no progressive resistance so no reason for them to adapt and grow stronger/larger.

overall growth is maximized when the entire body is exercised. anabolic hormones like free test, GH, etc. circulate through the entire body their effects will only be maximized where they are utilized the most efficiently in areas that are being exercised. overall strength and muscle growth occurs when the entire body is stimulated and feed properly.

 

[Booby]

Squats will add mass to your entire body...They will also strengthen your core which will only make you stronger in every other lift...If your goal is to build as much muscle mass as you can squats are a must, so are deadlifts...Everytime my squat max goes up so does my benchpress max...Heavy squats have gotten my other body parts over plateaus many many times...This is all from a guy who really isnt crazy about leg day, but i never skip it!

 

[Spaullba]

I would say there is likely some merit to the OPs observation, however there are obviously benefits to lower body lifts that would work the other direction (help upper body). Large, multi-joint structural lifts like the squat, deadlift etc increase acute hormone levels much more than you could by just working upper body alone (if you are taking exogenous t then this may not be as big of a factor). Hormones facilitate muscular growth, thus one of the huge benefits of large "lower body" compound lifts (not to mention all the synergistic & stabilizing muscles activated in these lifts that are not in most upper body lifts). Also, as someone else pointed out above, you need to think about your general health and well being. Lower body strength is much more functional and vital to every day life and thus important to train. Also, think about the strain on your lower back, knees and hips from not training them at all, while adding 20,30 40 lbs of muscle to your upper body.. Your lower body has to support that weight, but you are not helping it to do so at all.. Just my $0.02.

 

[sassy69]

The older I get, the more I appreciate the elegance of the human body in its design - it is an amazing work of push/pull balance. When you intentionally create or genetically have an imbalance, it will eventually start to propagate and create basic functional issues for you. I think it looks silly to see guys in the gym all beefed up on top and then scrawny little sticks coming out of the baggy shorts. But now I see it more as people who are going to have issues w/ flexibility, strength in the lower back, and general ability to get around as they get older. Seriously, shit starts to fall apart after 45 and all those imbalances will start to show up as hip pain, knee pain, ankles, plantar fasciitis, etc. And equivalently if all they ever did was train upper body, probably rotator, elbow & wrist issues from overtraining & repetitive motion damage.

I'm working hard to bring myself to make yoga a regular part of my training these days... I'm as flexible as I've ever been, once I"ve warmed up for 20 minutes.. w/o the warmup I'm actually worried to move too fast, get up too fast, attempt to squat and just get stuck, etc. THAT is something I"d like to change..