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Would like some advice please? On leg workout day for my quads I do 3x back squats followed by 3x front squats, but I feel I could handle more weight for front squats if I did leg curls before front squats to give my quads a little time to recover is this a good idea. I ask the question because a guy in the gym said it would be best to do front squats straight after back squats as your quads will be full of blood in those muscles and will give a better chance to grow is this true?

stickupkid wrote:Would like some advice please? On leg workout day for my quads I do 3x back squats followed by 3x front squats, but I feel I could handle more weight for front squats if I did leg curls before front squats to give my quads a little time to recover is this a good idea. I ask the question because a guy in the gym said it would be best to do front squats straight after back squats as your quads will be full of blood in those muscles and will give a better chance to grow is this true?

I doubt it. Anyway, I think part of the purpose of front squats is an ego check. What would be the purpose of doing more weight? If you're doing as much as you can handle, then you're getting the benefit. If you do the front squats when your legs are fresh and you can do more weight, you're still doing as much as you can handle. It's a wash in the long run.

I've known my husband to do some front squats followed by back squats, but I don't know if there's a rationale for that. Maybe he got sick of getting choked by the bar and decided to switch to back squats.

i dunno if it speeds muscle growth or anything... i do know that if i do front squats right after back squats, my quads are usually pretty toasted, so my front squats tend to be crappy... i like to alternate between a quad dominated exercise (or mostly anyway) and a ham dominated exercise (ex: back squats to stiff leg deadlifts) and then go back to something like a front squat or leg press... that way my quads have a little recovery time.

The theory for bigger advantage for muscle building due to blood still in the muscle is where possibly super setting first originated which is one way to increase intensity or you can minimise your rest period to create intensity. Doing front squats between hamstring exercises is ok, if your form is crap because you have not fully recovered by heavy squats then this sounds like a good idea, try giving it a go and see how you feel. Remember full movement and good form should always take priority than weight lifted as you are a natural bodybuilder and cannot afford the widow for muscle building being smashed by poor form.

Gidday stickupkid, maybe you are intuitively sensing something. There's a school of thought, and some evidence suggests that alternating sets of antagonistic muscles, ie quad/hamstring, bicep/tricep, allows the muscles to work harder. The suggestion is that when you do a set of squats, the hamstrings are limiting the amount the quads can work, as they are contracting/opposing hard as well. So, when you work hamstrings next, quads are noticeably tired, and have much less braking/limiting effect on hamstring contraction. Then, when you next alternate to quads, hamstrings are tired, and thus dont limit quad contraction as much. As I said, there is evidence to support it, and a fair mount of interest in the idea, although some think it is only usefull in higher rep ranges, ie 10 - 12 reps. The best thing is try it for a couple of months, see how it goes for you.

Thanks for all feed back will give this idea a go thanks