As a Personal Trainer I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to squat. Squatting should be an integral part of your personal training program whether you are a very experienced trainee of 10 years or a novice of 10 weeks!

In order to build muscle you must first build up your strength and the only way of doing that is lifting heavy weights and eating enough food! You will never achieve the big chest, wide v shape taper in your back, strong legs or huge biceps without lifting heavy. I’m guessing you already know this though right?

This might seem the obvious thing to you and me but believe it or not most actually don’t realise that in order to build muscle you must increase the weight you lift but in order to be able to increase the weight you must first get strong at basic muscle building exercises.

Always remember you have to earn the right to isolate!! I see so many people in gyms just doing kurlz and tricep push downs before they have earned the right to do isolation exercises like those. It never ceases to amaze me how many neophyte trainees and even intermediate trainees delve into a series of specialization programs that aren’t even structured and then expect to get those huge arms or that big defined chest. Not gona happen!!

Don’t get me wrong I applaud their effort and willingness but their methods are all wrong! If you cant squat at least one and a half times your own bodyweight for at least 20 reps, lets say you’re 80kgs, so that means you should be able to at least squat 120kgs for 20 reps, if you can’t well you don’t deserve to isolate your arms!

I know you won’t believe me when I say this but the strength and development your whole body needs in order to get through 20 reps of squats at one and a half times your bodyweight will go way further towards building bigger biceps and triceps a lot quicker than a heap of isolation on them. Trust me on this!

Ok now you’re saying how can squatting benefit your arms? You see when you squat you tax your WHOLE body not just your legs. Yes it is primarily a leg exercise but you engage every muscle in your body! It is in very rare circumstances that you will be able to squat one and a half times your own bodyweight and not have a certain amount of upper body muscle.

Don’t get me wrong I am not at all suggesting that by squatting heavy you will suddenly have a greatly developed chest and arms, squatting will definitely help improve your development in those areas and will decrease the time in which it will take to see increases in muscle growth.

You will of course still need to work every body part to see proper growth in those areas but the “big lifts” are extremely important in achieving a “Cover Model Body”. What are the “big lifts” I hear you say .Squats of course is one, Deadlifts and big pulling exercises such as Rows/Chins. Once you start to get stronger at these lifts you will also see this translate into increases in the poundage used in your arm, chest and shoulder exercises.

Too many concentrate on their chest and biceps, the “show” muscles. Did you know that most women are attracted to a big strong back rather than a big chest! That’s not just me saying that, it’s a fact! So start concentrating on the big lifts! Don’t put the cart before the horse so to speak 😉

Trying to stimulate massive growth in single bodyparts without having the main structures of the body in pretty good condition is an insult to bodybuilding! Being a personal trainer I am constantly saying this to my clients.

Unless you go down the route of steroids, as competitive bodybuilders do, you won’t see the gains you are looking for with your arms, chest, shoulders unless you are working hard on your squats, deadlifts and chins!

So just do it! 🙂

Personal Trainer Dublin | Cover Model Body Training

The ABS Gym Personal Training Studio Dublin