heavy ass squats don't build bigger quads as much as 20 rep sets of heavy legpresess...that is a fact for most people.You can do 5x5 ,westside,it dosnt matter it will not help you reach your full peak.Body building has nothing to do with strength training at all.
Respectfully, I disagree.
Progressive overloading weight overtime is probably the single most effective and important factor in any lifters long term development. You don't have to do any of the 'big 3 lifts', you can do leg press for instance instead of squats, but if you aren't progressive overloading the weight, what is there to overload? Rest time, volume, intensity ? These are all important factors but they can never replace the role of getting stronger in your lifts.
Coincidentally, many bodybuilding programs are poorly programmed and are based around a single factor approach to recovery and training when such a method is very impractical for guys who are far along in their development strength wise.
Time under tension is the goal for fiber stimulation to achieve hypertrophy and there are many protocols available to achieve this...a 6-10 second set will not yield you max hypertrophy-sure you will get strong as an ox.
Tension isn't the only factor in hypertrophy, and increasing the effort of a set and making it a high effort/tension set doesn't promote more hypertrophy in and of it self, it actually promotes quicker strength adaptations.
Why do you think guys who train in the low rep range are able to get so strong so fast, its not a mystery really, its because you are training with near maximal loads the whole time and the TENSION/EFFORT needed to complete the set is high.
Look at it this way, a lot of bodybuilding oriented guys agree that lower rep ranges are impractical for hypertrophy and that moderate rep maxes in the 8-12 range are superior.
This isn't because your body can tell the difference between the 2, it doesn't go into a 'strength mode' when you train with low rep ranges and it certainly does not go into a 'bodybuilding mode' when you train with moderate - high rep ranges, it can not tell the difference between the two.
Low rep ranges are HIGH EFFORT / TENSION and LOW FATIGUE, where as moderate rep ranges are MEDIUM EFFORT / TENSION and MEDIUM FATIGUE.
This is why moderate rep ranges are better suited for bb'ing, because TENSION isn't the only factor, fatigue is important too.
Tension is actually the reason why low rep ranges get you so strong so fast, because the effort needed to complete the set in that rep range is so damn high.
When you increase 'tension' or intensity in your sets this isn't really building more muscle, its increasing the effort needed to complete the set which promotes quicker improvements in STRENGTH. You will get stronger quicker doing the time under tension style of set, not the 6-10 second set. Neither will promote more hypertrophy over the other directly, but the increased tension set will allow you to get stronger faster and promote more growth in the long term.
With heavy weight.And again you will not build show stopping wheels with 5x5 squats.
Double the volume on the 5x5 squats and tell me you can't build a terrific quad sweep with squats alone. 90 percent of my own leg development comes from doing 2 lifts, Romanian dead lifts and front squats. I do a lot of volume for both of these and nothing could possibly replace the role these play in my development.
Some size..Great for newbies but honestly freaky?No...not really.When I was 18 years old I could do a 5x5 block with 375Lbs flat bench
You have to keep in mind that a lot of the popular 5x5 routines by the well known strength coaches are not meant for bodybuilding strictly, they are meant for strength athletes and people who play contact sports looking to getting stronger and faster on the field. If your goal is to get as swole as you possibly can then there might be more efficient ways to go about it.
But any rep range, even the low rep range can be effective for bodybuilding. Shit you can even get swole off heavy triples, you just have to do enough volume to make sure fatigue and other factors are higher and at a point where you can get decent gains / growth. Most guys are not willing to do that though, thats why the 8-12 moderate rep range is ideal for bb'ing, but its very possible for any rep range to work optimally.
Strength is still very important though and I firmly believe that progressive overloading the weight is probably the most important factor in your long term development. Is there a single competitor on the olympia stage who isn't disgustingly strong?
