Squats vs. Leg Press

<From my perspective I don't see the squat and leg press as being interchangeable or even remotely equal. The leg press is far less taxing. And there is, or seems to be, far less transference from the leg press to the squat than I thought. I thought there would be more since I viewed them both as primarily quad exercises. What's everyone else think?>

I think it all depends on what the overall goal is. Squats work out considerably more muscle groups and also help develop coordination. Leg press isolates the legs and removes all extraneous factors such as balance and allows one to push the leg muscles much harder than you ever could in a squat.

For instance, my wife cannot do squats do to spino-cerebellar ataxia and the coordination required for that exercise (she walks with a cane for balance). She can however make that leg press machine bleed. By eliminating much of the coordination from the exercise she can continue to keep her muscles in shape. I agree that this is an extreme example but it is one that is close to the heart.

James R

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I've noticed that as my squat poundage's increase so do my leg press weights but this doesn't seem to hold vice versa. If I train exclusively on the squat to up the weights, when I go back to leg presses they too have gone up. But if I train exclusively on the leg press and up the weight when I get back to squatting my max is usually less for a couple workouts. It probably has to do with more hip and lower back strength in the squat.

Guy

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It seems to me that the squat involves the back and balance in a very big way. The leg press machine only involves the legs. Yes you have your added upper body weight to lift but I believe the bigger difference has to do with balancing that weight on you shoulders, using back muscles and other groups that are not involved in any way on the leg press. This added muscle involvement requires oxygen, gycogen and so forth. More energy used to do the work, less work performed.

Gary

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Actually, I like them both. I know that at my age, I need to be careful of the lower back. Some days, squats induce more pain than I'm comfortable with, so I switch to leg presses. I find that I can definitely do more weight on leg presses (don't know what the proportions are but my best squat has been 270 for 6 reps and best leg press 1000 for 6). I frequently superset leg press and squats and today did a modification of Hugo's tri-set: squats, standing leg curls, and leg press. And just to make things interesting, I tried to increase the weight on each tri-set. Afterward, while showering, I bent over and almost blacked out, so I guess the combination was intense enough.

Bruce

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Chuck's comment also got me thinking about the form and order of exercise in deadlifts and squats. First, if you find squatting too "tight," use lighter weights to get the form right: butt in, back straight, head up, bar low on your trap. As soon as those four things go badly, you are in for troubles (back, neck, etc.). A good warm up with light weights for two to three sets may serve to loosen things up. There are so many muscles involved that you SHOULD feel tight at the beginning. Most of your body is involved in squats which demands a complete warmup. This and a little stretching afterwards will eventually get you off the tightness.

The leg press is not as much of a multi-joint movement and you may find using the leg press helpful to building legs but for the whole body work, squats are king.

Sam

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This shorter more muscular guy who was leg pressing 450 asked me why I was only using 135 for my squats. I challenged him to try just one set with 135. (He was all warmed up from his leg presses, so I was pretty sure he wouldn't get hurt.) He said, "Heh-heh, no sweat, man." I pointed out to him that I was using the light weight because I had just changed my form to go "in the hole" and then challenged him to try it. He did. He went down too fast and without enough tension or control. He didn't get hurt, but he couldn't get out of the hole! And there's a simple reason why: He didn't have the hip flexors to do so. Leg presses, leg extensions and leg curls do not work the hip flexors like squats and deadlifts do. The man was truly embarrassed, apologized profusely and later shook my hand in the locker room and said, "you're a strong dude, man." Well, I'm not, I just have highly developed hip flexors.

Pumping Iron,
John O.

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