Before I start this brief article – let me throw out the standard pre-emptive caveat/disclaimer/whatever you want to call it. This is not an article about building your squat strength. While strength and hypertrophy-specific training have very broad overlap – they are not necessarily one in the same. I have personal and professional interests in both and some of my articles are geared more towards one than the other and I know this can sometimes confuse the reader.
If you want to squat a heavy weight – then you have to squat heavy weights. Really no way around that. Specificity is king and gains in absolute strength require training absolute strength – which means lots of heavy squatting.
If you want to build a bigger set of quads – squatting heavy weights is a very good way to get there too, potentially. But it isn’t the only way to get there. Especially for a guy that has been training a long time, and even more especially for a guy that has been training a long time and is already pretty strong.
“Already pretty strong” is admittedly the vaguest and least scientific way of defining something. Compared to Dan Green, Ed Coan, and Andrey Malanichev, most of the people reading this article (and the guy writing the article) are not “strong.” We are something less than that – in comparison. Strength has a genetic ceiling. No amount of hard training is likely going to turn you or me into Ed Coan. So there is going to be a limit to how long and how far we can push our strength levels. I’d venture to say most of us don’t hit our genetic potential because we don’t do all of the necessary steps to get there. We don’t train hard enough for long enough, our nutrition isn’t good enough, etc, etc. But that’s an entirely different discussion.
My point in making the statement above is NOT to discourage you from getting stronger. In fact I have quite the opposite mentality. My point is to help you realize that simply pushing your strength up on the squat MIGHT NOT be the best path forward for increasing quad growth – if that is the goal. It’s certainly not the only path.
So back to the “already pretty strong”……..if you’re squatting 225 x 5, continue to focus on building your squat strength. I don’t care what program you use or how you do it, just build it up to 315 x 5 and your quads will grow. Once you get there – build it up to 405×5. Again, I don’t care what program you use or how you get there, just try and get there. This will take more time than going from 225 to 315 in all likelihood – but your quads will have gotten bigger once you arrive. This is where I’m going to get into trouble with a lot of you because I am arbitrarily using 405×5 as a sort of measuring stick of strength. 405×5 is not elite level strength – I know this – but it is pretty strong. A lot of people are going to struggle to get there for quite some time and even more are going to struggle to get themselves out of the 400s and into the 500s for reps of say 5+. So “the 400s” – I think – does become kind of a practical line of demarcation for the average drug free trainee. I have not data for this other than my own observations over the past 20 years. 500+ for reps is a lot more rare across the average weight training population than your Instagram feed would have you believe. But I’m not telling you to stop pushing once you hit 405, or 455, or 495. If you can keep going – keep going. But if you’re at 455 today and you fast forward to 2025 and you’re at 465……..well…….you’ll have to determine for yourself what exactly is being done to advance your hypertrophy goals??
So once you find yourself “already pretty strong” but struggling mightily to get stronger – then at this point – it might be time to consider alternative pathways to more and more muscle growth if you find yourself lacking.
None of the recommendations I’m going to give you below are divorced in any way from the concept of progressive overload. The differences lie in how you are measuring your strength. Going forward – your 1-rep max or 5-rep max on the low-bar back squat (typically our strongest squat) – will receive a decreasing level of your attention and focus. You may have found that that particular path towards more muscle mass has been more or less exhausted.
Here is a list of possible alternative pathways to investigate…
#1: Switch Your Squatting Style. If you have been a low bar squatter for a long period of time, there is a chance that you have built up a fairly large squat, but your quad development may be a bit lacking. This can vary quite a bit by your anthropometry (i.e. your build). But it’s also just built into the nature of the exercise. Low-Bar squats intentionally bias the hips rather than the knees. So the hip extensors – hamstrings, glutes, and adductors are performing a bulk of the work in a low bar squat. Of course the quads are also being trained, but the overall load is being shared by LOTS of big muscle groups. This is a FANTASTIC protocol for strength and general lower body development but perhaps not a great stimulus specifically for the quads. In addition – the quads are not typically taken through their full range of motion in a low bar back squat. Generally stopping right around parallel leaves quite a bit of quad range of motion untrained in a low bar squat. So in this instance – choosing a style of squat that allows for LESS HIP EXTENSOR involvement and MORE QUAD RANGE OF MOTION is generally going to be a better option.
The best example alternative would be below parallel High Bar Back Squats. That’s a fairly easy transition to make for a low-bar squatter. Yes, you will use less weight, but you will use more quadricep – and that is the point. We aren’t just looking at load, we are looking at more STRESS onto the muscle group in question. Load is a part of the overall stress equation – but not the only factor.
Specialty Bars can also be used. The Safety Squat Bar, for most, is mechanically somewhere in between a low-bar and high bar squat. But in general it brings in a more upright posture than a low bar squat which tends to put more stress onto the quads. The 14-inch Rackable Cambered Bar is even better than the Safety Squat Bar in my opinion. This bar is greatly under utilized in most hypertrophy oriented circles but forces a very upright posture, doesn’t allow for a lot of hips, does allow for a very full deep squat, and is just brutal on the quads. If you’ve never done them before….well just try them if you have access to one and we’ll talk later.
What about Front Squats?? In theory – front squats should perhaps be the pre-eminent quad builder. And I think they can be extremely effective. Here’s the problem – many of you will be severely limited by your ability to support the bar with the musculature of the trunk and upper back. Which means when you hit failure – it isn’t your quads that are failing. It’s something else. This generally makes a poor choice for hypertrophy movements. When we talk about “training to failure” (or training close to failure) we want to be sure the TARGET MUSCLE is failing – not just the lift. So you might fail your heavy front squat at 5 reps because your trunk and/or upper back gave way. But your quads still had another 5 reps left in the tank. This isn’t a good scenario for quad growth. So I’m not against front squats – but if you are going to use them, make sure you can keep the stress on the quads – and if you aren’t strong enough to do this – you need to figure out a way to strengthen the trunk/back so that it is no longer the limiting factor in the lift.
#2: Don’t Be Afraid of Machines. Power lifters and strength athletes often shit on machines. Sometimes for good reason. They aren’t particularly useful for building a big squat in and of themselves. For squatting assistance we’re going to typically do better with free-weight / barbell based exercises. We need to train that full body component that involves balance and the coordination of LOTS of different muscle groups working together. Machines remove that component of balance and stability and they typically don’t involve the coordination of as much muscle mass – which is an EXCELLENT reason to use them for hypertrophy specific training. Again, we are looking for STRESS/FATIGUE on the quads. We don’t care if the abs and low back are getting trained. Machines allow you to push DEEP into a set and bring the quads all the way to failure or right up to failure in a way that is SAFER and less systemically fatiguing than pushing your squats all the way to failure. Machines often allow for us to manipulate the position of our feet to decrease hip activity and put more stress on the quads. For instance, using a Leg Press or Hack Squat Machine we can put our feet low onto the platform, with toes straight ahead and feet only a couple of inches apart. This puts a tremendous amount of tension on the quads with a signifcant load and is hard if not impossible to replicate with a barbell squat. Leg Presses, Hack Squats, Pendulum/Lever Squats, Belt Squats, Leg Extensions, etc all potentially have their place.
#3: Increase Rep Range. Quads respond well to higher rep ranges. If you’ve been predominately training for strength in the 1-5 rep range for many years, watch what happens to your quads when you start pushing more sets in the 10-20 rep range. Growth will likely be quick and dramatic. It’s hard and it’ll take some getting used to, but if growth is the goal – make a commitment to get stronger in that 10-20 rep range on a couple of different exercises. You can do this with your barbell based squatting and even easier to implement with machine-based exercises. Like I said earlier in the article – this concept is not divorced from progressive overload. Within this range you are still trying to get stronger. If you start with a High Bar Squat of 225 x 10, work to increase to 315 x 10 over time. Just “doing higher reps” isn’t enough. You have to get stronger doing higher reps.
#4: Pre-Exhaust Techniques. In practice, pre-exhaust typically involves performing an isolation movement before a compound movement. This can be done in “super set” fashion or just by manipulating the exercise order of your workout. It’s most common and probably most useful for people to begin their sessions with a heavy compound movement that allows for the most load to be moved and then progress to exercises that are more isolated in nature and use lighter weights as the session moves along. So for quads it would be common to start the session with heavier squats, then move into some leg presses or hack squats and perhaps finish with a few sets of high rep leg extensions. But it can be extremely useful to occasionally reverse this set up. Perhaps starting with higher rep leg extensions (allowing for more weight than normal), then move into some leg presses, and then finishing the session with “heavy” squats for lower reps, higher reps, or a combo of both. This can be useful for a variety of purposes.
First, by pre-fatiguing the target muscle in question with an isolation movement first, we can more easily ensure that that target muscle is the limiting factor (i.e. receiving the most of amount of the stress) in our compound exercise(s) that follow. When you begin a session with leg extensions and leg presses and then move into high bar squats there will be no question which muscle is approaching failure fastest in your squat. This is important because mechanical tension on the muscle fibers is highest in the reps closest to failure. Pre-exhaustion is a very “easy” mechanism to ensure we are getting closer to failure in the right places with our compound movements.
This will obviously require the use of lighter weights, which also has some potential advantages. First – there is a reduction in overall systemic fatigue. Strength athletes have an advantage of potentially needing less overall exercises in their programming. They can take a generalist approach to training. A handful of big compound movements trained heavy can usually accomplish the goal they want. Bodybuilders can’t take a generalist approach. Building the entire physique necessitates the need to train everything and train everything hard. When you have to have intense focus on the chest, back, quads, shoulders, biceps, triceps, hamstrings, calves, etc it means you have to look at the overall energy expenditure of each muscle group / exercise. In some instances, the lifter may be able to get the same or better effect of squatting pre-fatigued with work sets at 315 rather than 405. This reduces overall systemic fatigue and perhaps allows him to put more focused intense efforts into other areas of his training rather than spending inordinate amounts of resources with a single exercise. It’s a question of balance and priorities in the context of the entire training plan and pre-exhaust can go along way to maintaining that balance.
Dr. Mike Israetel gives an excellent and thorough breakdown of Pre-Exhaust Training here for those of you who want to take a deeper dive on this methodology: (24) Pre-Exhaust Training for Hypertrophy – YouTube
If you want a more detailed protocol of how to put some of these concepts into practice I would thoroughly recommend my 4-day Upper / Lower Split for Hypertrophy.
That particular program gives you the flexibility and structure to intelligently experiment with different styles of squatting, the introduction of some machine based training, the implementation of higher rep ranges, and also the incorporation of pre-exhaustion strategies.
Pick it up here: 4-Day Upper Lower Hypertrophy Plan
