Squats making waist thicker

 
Another area I have been working on is my legs, been making a conscious effort to build them up over the past months, squats being my staple exercise however I am finding my waist is putting on bulk also, it appears to be getting thicker around the oblique area and dont really want this... it could also potentially make it harder to pull my abs through with the additional bulk.
 
I am thinking maybe just increase reps and lower weight but still want to bulk my legs up...

If your squat weight is going up then the muscles you use will get bigger. This is likely what is happening to you.

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Yeah I agree... Just dont want this to happen in relation to my stomach/waist.

pt man
 

 
it could also potentially make it harder to pull my abs through with the additional bulk. 

 
that makes no sense!  if its muscle growth, as your suggesting it is, then it wont make any difference to seeing your abs when your lean.  and if its not muscle, and actually fat, well your waist will reduce in size when you loose the fat.
 
either way, it wont have any effect on 'getting your abs through'

Genetically it's possible that it could be thickening the muscle slightly through the core, but this is no bad thing, it will be relative to upper body size and in line with your own body shape.
 
I've ben involved with pro and semi pro sport all my life, as a player, coach, and nowadays via colleagues. I don't know any sportspeople who don't squat - have a look at Mark Cavendish - squatting 6 plates - his waist seems ok.
 
It won't affect the abs, only diet will do that. In fact, with reagrds the whole thickening debate, look at your diet, not your exercises.

hmmm food for thought...
 
My diet is clean though I dont eat any rubbish.

pt man


hmmm food for thought...

My diet is clean though I dont eat any rubbish.

that doesnt mean that you cant be gaining fat though!

What Daz said.
 
Who on earth wouldn't want more muscular abs? Fat is fat. Nothing to do with your muscles. Get lean and you will see your abs. The more muscular your abs are, the easier it will be to see them when you start to lean out.

Your diet may be clean but a bulk is a bulk. If you're in calorie excess you will be buiding muscle and inevitably holding some fat.
 
We all pile muscle on in different places so like I say, you could be bulking through the core region due to genetics, but you will do that regardless if that's how you're stacked up.
 
 

I don't know any sportspeople who don't squat
 
I never squat and I have pretty good legs,. all squats ever did for me was give me a bad back.
Crap exercise as far as Im concerned.

^ That's fair enough. They shouldn't give you a bad back unless there's another underlying problem.
 
The squat is in essence a very natural movement and is functional, done correctly should take the back injury risk out of a leg programme. Leg press  machines are frequently bad for the lower back as they fix the lower back, whilst the squat allows the lower back / hip flexion to find it's natural plane.
 
Squats are regarded by most as the ultimate exercise - they engage the largest amount of muscle of any exercise - even engaging the abs more than waist flexion.
 
I'd not go down the line of wearing a belt for squatting either - I would allow the core to strengthen in line with my progress.
 
As always though - it's different horses for different courses.
 
 

Gotta say I've got a glass back and when I first started squatting it hurt my back I had a lot of sleepless nights.
 
I went away and studied the correct technique very, very hard and recorded every set and reviewed the recordings until I got things bang on. Did the same for Deadlifts, Pendlay Rows, Bench and Military Press which are the ONLY exercises I do at the moment.
 
Now my back is stronger than ever, it never lets me down on any lift anymore and I've not been so pain free for many, many years.
 
In my case my back hurt because I spend too long in a chair at wokr and I drive a lot, I had bad posture and a weak back, hence a lot of pain, now I have a strong back and almost no pain.

Jeff45


I don't know any sportspeople who don't squat

I never squat and I have pretty good legs,. all squats ever did for me was give me a bad back.
Crap exercise as far as Im concerned.

I would bet my house that your technique was sh1t. Squatting doesn't cause injuries, poor technique does, not dissimilar to any other exercise really except that squatting is generally harder to master than most other lifts.

I would bet my house that your technique was sh1t.
 
then you would lose your house.
I used to squat with a belt and used perfect textbook form.
I hurt my back badly warming up with 20 k on a bar once.
I have always felt that the movement didnt really feel right.
Also to stress the legs to an amount to give growth I feel that form is going to suffer and that invites low back injuries.
 
feel free to use squats, Tom Platz got great results, Dorian didnt.
Horses for courses.

You're right as in horses for courses but the glaring elephant in that post is the belt.
 
Using a belt pretty much guarantees bad form.
 
As a functional movement it shouldn't stress the back too much unless there's an underlying issue - it could be form, it could be your physiological set up or more likely some biomechanical issue causing problems. Especially on a 20kg warm up, that pretty much guarantees something somehere in the movement was not right.

As a functional movement putting a heavy weighted bar across the back of your neck and sqatting to the floor isnt really a wise move at all.
my point is the lower back is put under a massive amount of stress during a squat.
Its just as easy to stress the thighs with HIT leg extensions and leg press without that added risk of you discs blowing out of your spine.
 

I'd contest that a led press has a higher risk of lower back damage than the squat, and the leg extension certainly carries a higher risk of knee damage.
 
The heavy weight thing is a very fair point, putting the body under stress with heavy weights IS potentially dangerous in any exercise - the key is totry and train correctly and make good exercise choices to keep risks at a minimum.
 
The squat is less risky than the leg press, although if done with a belt some of that lower risk will be offset, making it more dangerous. It's actually fairly unusual to herniate a disk from activity - the usual cause is inactivity (driving, sitting at a desk all day etc etc). I would say that squatting correctly on a regular basis would actively reduce the risk of slipping a disk.

Squats FTW, I'd argue unless you're BB'ing there's probably little need for anything other than squat variations and to a lesser degree lunges for quad movements.

I'd contest that a led press has a higher risk of lower back damage than the squat,
 
I would doubt that very much, we should  have a poll.
 

Ha, yeah maybe.
 
I'm fairly confident that gyms are full of people who get back ache from god awful leg press machines so I'm up for that.
 
I'll hang around on here for the biomechanics experts to arrive, they'll no doubt put us both in our place, as usual!