Machine vs Free Bar Squats: Which Is Best For Muscle Growth? - Episode 77

My whole life, I’ve always been fascinated by huge muscles. It’s also taken me YEARS of intense determination, drive, and ass-busting to get them. 

 

As a former skinny yoga teacher, I dreamed of the day I’d have a round, juicy butt and huge legs. But yoga was definitely not the way to do it. So when I decided to get my ass in the gym and start training with my first personal trainer, Curtis, I was on a mission to grow the biggest glutes and legs I could possibly grow.

 

Except I was doing it ALL wrong.

 

I would position myself under the free bar week after week, month after month, trying my hardest to increase the load and increase my size.

 

But my back couldn’t handle it.

 

It hurt like a b*tch to squat under that free bar! All my years of yoga left me with very weak glute muscles because the types of squats you do in yoga don’t require much glute activation. Because of this, my lower back would pick up the slack of what my glutes should have been doing when I would break parallel and go deep (though I didn’t realize this at the time).

 

My efforts were not matching my results. I wasn’t getting bigger! Instead, I was just constantly in pain, and my weak glutes were making it impossible to increase my load in the gym. After loads of researching, I realized what was causing my back pain. I became obsessed with building my glutes so that I could alleviate the pain and push some heavier weight so I could grow. 

As you’ll hear in this week’s episode, a strange turn of events happened with my friend Emma that changed the course of my entire bodybuilding career. Listen to what changes I made in the gym that not only massively strengthened my glutes and my lower back, but turned my quads into melon crushers faster than I ever thought possible.

 

This may shock you!

Love Kim xo

Reference List: 

• Buns & Guns: https://www.thesculptedvegan.com/buns-and-guns/
• Basement Jacked: https://www.thesculptedvegan.com/basementjacked/
• Kim’s IG: @thesculptedvegan 
• Squat Your Way To Relieving Back Pain: Episode 35: https://www.thesculptedvegan.com/podcast/35/

QUOTES USED:

 

“The fastest, most efficient way to build more muscle is simply to add more load.”

 

“It’s hard to train hard enough when using a free bar.”

 

“If your goal is simply bigger legs (and not stronger legs), squat heavy on a machine!”

 

“As long as you can lower with control and then still get back up with a bit of help, your muscles have not yet failed.”

 

“Time does not equate results.”