Are Squats Enough to Build Your Hips

Muscles of the back of the thigh

Squats are believed to be effective for the quadriceps, adductor, and gluteus maximus muscles, but not nearly as beneficial for the hamstrings. Scientific evidence supports this.

Study. muscle activity in different exercises showed that during squats there is a weak interaction of the extensor muscles of the back, hamstrings and calf muscles and a strong interaction of the gluteus maximus muscles and the vastus medialis muscle.

Another study. showed that increasing the depth of the squat with the same barbell weight does not increase the load on the hamstrings, but more activates the quadriceps and gluteus maximus muscles.

Let's see why this is happening.

Why the hamstrings don't work on squats

The muscles of the back of the thigh are not tense enough due to the peculiarities of biomechanics. These muscles pass through two joints - the hip and knee - and act as hip extensors and knee flexors.

When you go into the squat, the hip and knee bend at the same time. The hamstrings try to contract at the knee and lengthen at the thigh, and ultimately maintain their length. During the lift, both the hip and the knee are extended at the same time, so that the muscles lengthen at the knee and shorten at the hip, so as a result they do not change their length again.

Despite the fact that the muscles of the back of the thigh barely work in the squat, you may feel tension in this area. This is due to the adductor major muscle.

In addition to adducting the hip, she also extends it during squats and at the same time is located close to the back of the thigh. You feel how this muscle is tense.

How to load the back of the thigh

To better load the muscles of the back of the thigh, add to your program exercises that do not include simultaneous movements in the hip and knee: deadlift on straight legs and Romanian deadlift, lifting the hips with legs on a dais.

You will find other exercises for the back of the thigh with a photo and analysis of the technique in this article.

The muscles of the front of the thigh

On the front of the thigh is the quadriceps, or quadriceps muscle of the thigh, which consists of four heads:

broad medial femoris muscle;
lateral broad muscle of the thigh;
the intermediate broad muscle of the thigh;
rectus femoris muscle.

The first three attach to one joint and are responsible for knee extension. The rectus femoris, like the hamstrings, attaches to two joints and performs the function of hip flexion and knee extension.

As mentioned above, squatting is considered the best exercise for pumping the quadriceps, however, this is true only for three of its heads. Due to the structural features, the rectus femoris muscle is not loaded strongly enough.

This is confirmed by the results of the study. 2014 comparing the effectiveness of squats and other exercises.

During the study, some participants performed only squats, while others performed a variety of exercises, including squats, leg presses, and lunges. As a result, participants who performed only squats increased three heads of the quadriceps, excluding the rectus femoris, and those who performed a lot of exercises increased all four.

Insufficient load on the rectus femoris, again, is explained by biomechanics. When you squat - bending your hip and knee - the rectus femoris muscle tries to lengthen at the knee and become shorter at the hip. As a result, it remains the same length. When you go up - unbend the knee and hip - the rectus muscle tries to become shorter at the knee and lengthen at the hip, which also does not change its length.

How to load the rectus femoris

To work out the rectus femoris, you need to choose an exercise that does not need to bend the hip and knee at the same time: for example, the leg extension on the machine.

In research. 2009 proved that machine leg extension works better on the rectus femoris than squats.

Another study. confirmed that in an isolated single-joint exercise on a simulator, the rectus femoris muscle is loaded better than the other three heads of the quadriceps.

So, if you want to properly load all the muscles of the hips, simple squats are not enough. You will also need to add hamstring exercises and isolated rectus thigh exercises.