What is with guys not doing compounds (Squat/DL)

[Stanley]

Seriously, I keep running into guys who say they don't squat or deadlift and scoff at the idea of doing so.

Last night I was at a bonfire with about 10 guy in their 20s. Most are athletic and former athletes who all hit the gym. We were shooting the **** and when I asked a bud what he was squatting he said he doesn't, then I asked him what he deadlifts and he doesn't. Turns out most these guys don't do any compound lifts aside from bench and I keep seeing this. Guys that spend years in the gym and do their bro splits and work on machines and they have little to show for. These same guys then tried to lecture me about how compound movements are 'bad' for you and brought up some small study's stat they found through some fitness 'influencer'. They also subscribe to so much 'niche' highly scientific workouts and rarely stick to a routine.

Do most people really not understand the benefits of large compound movements? The test, HGH and associated hormone boosts alongside hitting multiple muscle groups, keeping arthritis at bay, working stabilizing muscles, improving intermuscular coordination dynamic flexibility and overall movement. It seems so many young guys are afraid or have read somewhere that doing Squats/DL is bad for you. I've seen it on this board as well.

It seems to me that people really don't work hard enough in the gym at large. Obviously with some serious weights and years of training compound lifts can be potentially damaging, but for the most part people don't make it to their genetic potential anyways. Most the time when I hear someone whine about compounds they have garbage form and ego lift

what gives?

 

[BackInTheGame78]

It's easy. Those are taxing movements to the body that really wear you out after you are done.

Goes back to what Ronnie Coleman said... everyone wants the results but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights.

They don't want to pay the price they need to pay in terms of exhaustion, muscle soreness and not being able to walk without pain for a few days after.

 

[Stanley]

It's easy. Those are taxing movements to the body that really wear you out after you are done.

Goes back to what Ronnie Coleman said... everyone wants the results but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights.

They don't want to pay the price they need to pay in terms of exhaustion, muscle soreness and not being able to walk without pain for a few days after.

I get that aspect of it, but I wonder why so many guys are adamantly opposed to it. Maybe all these 'reasons' for why it is supposedly bad or ineffective is a justification for not putting in the work, but at the same time why are you hitting the gym and not going at it?

I guess I just described f***arounditis

 

[BackInTheGame78]

I get that aspect of it, but I wonder why so many guys are adamantly opposed to it. Maybe all these 'reasons' for why it is supposedly bad or ineffective is a justification for not putting in the work, but at the same time why are you hitting the gym and not going at it?

I guess I just described f***arounditis

They want to think they are working hard without actually working hard.

 

[EyeBRollin]

Squats and deadlifts hurt. Aka, they are effective.

 

[Stanley]

Squats and deadlifts hurt. Aka, they are effective.

No pain no gain.

Interesting how we live in such a scientific community when it comes to lifting nowadays, yet everyone hops on these fads and feels inclined to juice up. I don't go to a commercial gym and just workout in my garage. Have a rack, pull up bar, dumb bells and some bands. I feel like that is all you need (or less) to really get there. I feel like many nowadays don't understand you need to actually put in effort and they just want these easy way out. I love being able to barely walk up the steps after doing a full body workout and having everything hurt in a good way. Gives me catharsis

 

[FlexpertHamilton]

Yeah in all my years of going to the gym I rarely see guys squatting or deadlifting, but the ones I see doing them (and in proper form) I do are almost always the strongest ones in the gym.

Most men are simps and only workout because they think it'll attract women. Or, they do it purely for ego so they can look big and feel superior to other men.

 

[Stanley]

Most men are simps and only workout because they think it'll attract women. Or, they do it purely for ego so they can look big and feel superior to other men.

I always found that funny, being strong is one thing, but becoming hulk to get girls seems silly. Do it because you want to be strong and healthy, not for poontang. That and many women don't even care about men being massive, most just want a guy that looks good with his shirt off who takes care of himself.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Yeah in all my years of going to the gym I rarely see guys squatting or deadlifting, but the ones I see doing them (and in proper form) I do are almost always the strongest ones in the gym.

Most men are simps and only workout because they think it'll attract women. Or, they do it purely for ego so they can look big and feel superior to other men.

I used to be one of the only ones doing it at my gym and used to have a 60 lb weighted vest on on top of it...

Also used to be the only one doing Turkish Getups with a 60lb weighted vest and 50+lb Kettlebell also...

MFers respected the hell out of me there...young dudes used to try and chat me up all the time and wouldn't believe that I was doing what I was doing at 40+

But ultimately I paid the price for it. Joints wore down from the repeated heavy weights over the years.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

I always found that funny, being strong is one thing, but becoming hulk to get girls seems silly. Do it because you want to be strong and healthy, not for poontang. That and many women don't even care about men being massive, most just want a guy that looks good with his shirt off who takes care of himself.

You always know who is real simply by looking at their sideways profile.

People who lift to look good will look good from the front but be skinny from a side profile because they have no thickness to the muscle. They are frauds. No respect to them from me

People who put that work in have thickness when looking at them from the side, especially in the upper back and shoulders. They will be like double or triple the thickness of the dudes lifting for show. Muscles have 4 sides, if they are worked properly all sides will grow.

That's the type of thickness that once you worked hard enough to get it, it will never go away. Even if they stopped lifting for a year, they would still maintain most of their thickness.

People talk about how they are lifting heavy but most of those MFers have no idea what heavy is.

 

[svencandy]

I used to
I replaced deadlifts with KB swings
This provides the powerful hip hinge, and hip hinge is the most powerful movement, carries over to everything.

And squats with yoga
Aside from extreme hypertrophy, Low bar back squat develops extreme flexibility too. I don't need more mass. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Murk]

The idea of doing 4 sets of heavy Bulgarian split squats today makes me feel a bit sick but its too great of a movement to skip, but I hate it the most. People don’t really like doing difficult or painful things never have never will.

Some people only care about shoulders chest and arms to look good in a tight T-shirt, they might not know the true benefits of working out properly, maybe they didn’t research, maybe they don’t care and they go to the gym for mental health clarity rather than optimisation of their body. Could be anything, as long as it’s not you who cares.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

I used to
I replaced deadlifts with KB swings
This provides the powerful hip hinge, and hip hinge is the most powerful movement, carries over to everything.

And squats with yoga
Aside from extreme hypertrophy, Low bar back squat develops extreme flexibility too. I don't need more mass. Your mileage may vary.

Kettlebell swings are great but they aren't going to build strength or muscle the same way deadlifts or squats will.

 

[BackInTheGame78]

The idea of doing 4 sets of heavy Bulgarian split squats today makes me feel a bit sick but its too great of a movement to skip, but I hate it the most. People don’t really like doing difficult or painful things never have never will.

Some people only care about shoulders chest and arms to look good in a tight T-shirt, they might not know the true benefits of working out properly, maybe they didn’t research, maybe they don’t care and they go to the gym for mental health clarity rather than optimisation of their body. Could be anything, as long as it’s not you who cares.

One of my favorites. When my legs got stuck for a bit, adding these in started them growing like crazy. Although between squats and deadlifts it made buying pants very challenging...literally had to buy pants a size or two too large or the first time I bent down or squatted in them the seam would rip either along the side of my leg or the top of my butt...

Things they never tell you but should before you start working out.

The gym I was at only had DBs that went up to 120 lbs so that was where my progress with them stopped although I would do pump squats at the end of my last set to push harder and try to beat my previous number from the last workout.

 

[Murk]

One of my favorites. When my legs got stuck for a bit, adding these in started them growing like crazy. Although between squats and deadlifts it made buying pants very challenging...literally had to buy pants a size or two too large or the first time I bent down or squatted in them the seam would rip either along the side of my leg or the top of my butt...

Things they never tell you but should before you start working out.

The gym I was at only had DBs that went up to 120 lbs so that was where my progress with them stopped although I would do pump squats at the end of my last set to push harder and try to beat my previous number from the last workout.

I am finding squats make my left knee pop out and I get a bit scared to go too heavy. I'm not talking normal popping sound of air, it feels like my left knee (I'm left sided, so my stronger side) is coming out of place. It doesn't hurt, but it makes me really cautious. I don't get it at all with Bulgarians or lunges so I try to do them more and go heavy.

Did you ever get any thing like that in your long experience? I figure just build up more muscle and it will stop happening?

 

[BackInTheGame78]

I am finding squats make my left knee pop out and I get a bit scared to go too heavy. I'm not talking normal popping sound of air, it feels like my left knee (I'm left sided, so my stronger side) is coming out of place. It doesn't hurt, but it makes me really cautious. I don't get it at all with Bulgarians or lunges so I try to do them more and go heavy.

Did you ever get any thing like that in your long experience? I figure just build up more muscle and it will stop happening?

Be careful man...I had an issue squatting where my knee buckled and I believe I did some serious damage to my patellar tendon(the one that goes straight down the mid knee). Luckily I had the guards up or I would have been seriously hurt or killed.

Ended up resting and rehabbing for 6 months or so and then was warming up squatting way less weight and it happened again...that was the end of my free weight back squats.

There was a free motion squat machine which was really good as it replicated it as close as possible but allowed me to keep more stability so I started doing that and split squats.

Could be a muscle thing or it could be some sort of physiological thing where your body doesn't like it or your body is not moving properly on that side.

Always err on the side of caution with those things, I have enough stories to fill a book, I wish I would have listened to my body more.

 

[Murk]

Be careful man...I had an issue squatting where my knee buckled and I believe I did some serious damage to my patellar tendon(the one that goes straight down the mid knee). Luckily I had the guards up or I would have been seriously hurt or killed.

Ended up resting and rehabbing for 6 months or so and then was warming up squatting way less weight and it happened again...that was the end of my free weight back squats.

There was a free motion squat machine which was really good as it replicated it as close as possible but allowed me to keep more stability so I started doing that and split squats.

Could be a muscle thing or it could be some sort of physiological thing where your body doesn't like it or your body is not moving properly on that side.

Always err on the side of caution with those things, I have enough stories to fill a book, I wish I would have listened to my body more.

Hmm I will speak to my doctor about it on Monday I thought it might be a normal/common thing

 

[BackInTheGame78]

Hmm I will speak to my doctor about it on Monday I thought it might be a normal/common thing

Any type of popping under that context is not good. Just be careful

I'd recommend doing terminal knee extensions a few times a week with a band to help strengthen the area around it. Kind of like a prehab strategy...won't hurt anything and could help quite a bit. Very good for the knee and all the tendons/ligaments in that area...

 

[BackInTheGame78]

What about guys wanting to become hulk for themselves? Something that probably existed since they were children before interest in girls even manifested.

To me it was simply wanting to push further and harder and challenge myself to go past the limits I thought I could. The hulk part was a side effect of that.

 

[Stanley]

What about guys wanting to become hulk for themselves? Something that probably existed since they were children before interest in girls even manifested.

Totally fine! I have my full respect for the hulks of the world that do it for the sport of it and the challenge.

One of my best friends who is 6'6 was bullied for being a rail as a kid and always wanted to get big. He started out doing it for body positivity, then for a minute he debated juicing and being a bodybuilder to "get girls". He got over that phase a couple years ago and now works for a supplement company and is training to be strong man. Guy also looks like a menace, but is a big softy.