when prepping for contest which is better to bring out seperation in quads?

[bigron2828]

I've always done uphill walking on treadmill at about 3mph or so when getting ready for a show. Ive heard some people say that interval sprints will bring out the seperation better.... I assume this means sprint for a brief period than walk, than sprint again etc..... Anybody know if this is true or if it helps? This isnt a question in terms of burning fat, just for seperation in the quads.

 

[buselmo]

Ive heard some people say that interval sprints will bring out the seperation better.... I assume this means sprint for a brief period than walk, than sprint again etc..... Anybody know if this is true or if it helps? This isnt a question in terms of burning fat, just for seperation in the quads.

If it isn't a question about burning fat... ask the people who advise this crap (sprints to bring out seperation) "how many pounds did you lose after you started to sprint?"
they always say "4 weeks out, i only have a little fat left and i only need to get the seperation in the quads to be ready... after 2 weeks of sprinting, my quads got seperated!"
no shit... it's called losing fat...
i'm sorry if i come off as offensive, but i just hate this crap.
same with abs... we don't believe the whole "do 500 sit ups a day to get a six pack"... cuz we know it's bullshit AND if anyone did that and actually had a clearer six pack, it would be do to those 500 sit ups acting as cardio and creating a greater caloric defecit.

if you want them to be really seperated, just make them grow as big as you can get them to make the fascia thinner, and get as lean as you can. bigger muscles mean better seperation in low bodyfat levels

 

[BigCracker]

Posing always seems to help.

 

[latimus]

i have heard something similar. that some people have develped better striations in there quads from incorporating hit cardio into ther regimine. I am not sure if this would work while dieting. but it could possibly be true if you did it in the offseson. I just started doing this every once in a while and you will hit some leg muscles that you never never will hit when doing leg workouts. I did a v0-2 max testing and did hit cardio the day before. my legs were sore as shit in places they have never been. so who knows maybe it could bring out somthing you didnt have before. but while dieting probably not because your not building shit while dieting you are just trying to maintain what you got.

I am going to continue to do this once a week. when I am done with my next show I will let you know if I think it helped at all.

 

[buselmo]

Not necessarily disagreeing or agreeing,
it's just a new concept, something I have
not heard of before. Care to enlighten me
buselmo?

it's not scientific or anything, it just makes a lot of sense to me. lets think of it as muscle under fat... if you have a 2 inch thick layer of fat on top of your arms before you worked out... say you increase the size of your arms without decreasing the amount of fat on your body, what will happen? the arm will take the shape of the muscle, because the muscle is stretching the fat above it due to it increasing in size, and it will be "more defined". now, if you don't have fat on top of the muscle, but you have a thick layer of fascia, if you increase muscle size, the layer of fascia won't grow, but it'll stretch due to the increased muscle size. this should make your muscle "more defined".

 

[full_belly]

its the concept behind the extreme stretching in DC.... stretching the fascia allows the muscle to "pop" more... def helped me

 

[vadim_b1]

I've always done uphill walking on treadmill at about 3mph or so when getting ready for a show. Ive heard some people say that interval sprints will bring out the seperation better.... I assume this means sprint for a brief period than walk, than sprint again etc..... Anybody know if this is true or if it helps? This isnt a question in terms of burning fat, just for seperation in the quads.

seems like a good way to lose muscle

pose, learn muscle control and diet down to the lowest possible bodyfat, and you wont have problems with separation

 

[bigron2828]

thanks for the replies, its def not issue of losing body fat as I have always come in lean before and have had seperation in my quads....its just something I read about a while ago and was inetersted in. I didnt know if anyone had tried it and had success with it. I def dont WANT to do any sprints haha. I just read that a guy would do 100m or 200m sprints and then walk a lap, do it again and walk a lap. Would do this about 8 times and claims it helped with quad seperation. I had never heard about it before so I just thought I would bring it up and ask on here, thanks.

 

[joshbarnett]

combo of bodyfat and amount of muscle you have on legs.

 

[mr. boom]

Stair steper after training legs!

 

[joshbarnett]

i agree-the stepper does make the legs have a harder look but only if they are lean enough.

 

[bigron2828]

stair stepper huh? I know ive seen a lot of pros use them in their videos and dvds but it seems like everyone thinks that uphill tradmill walking is the way to go. Is it only good to use stair stepper after a leg workout? Seems like if you did it everyday it would be like a mild leg workout, at least the few times ive done it felt that way. Ive never done it as part of precontest though.

 

[b-boy]

stay leaner in the offseason where you don't have to do extreme dieting and cardio and your legs will be big full and seperated

I also agree with steele in thats its also genetics and size. the mass from this board has striated quads in the offseason :O

 

[unoigo]

I'm no expert but agree it's mostly genetics...striations that is. As far as separation, I like BB Lunges and the step mill/ stair climber.

 

[buselmo]

regarding leg size

Personally, i know it's a matter of leg size and bodyfat% to get seperation clearer... you have to also take into consideration the shape of the different heads of the quadriceps. I have a different shape pattern in my right side of the body than the left. my right quad cannot show any kind of seperation even with low body fat, because the heads are... how can i say this... intertwined i guess? ... i don't know the correct anatomical naming of the different heads, but the outter head overlaps and covers the medial head, and the tear drop goes up under the medial head. with the left quad, it looks normal and doesn't have any of those problems... so, again with genetics, it depends on where your muscle insertion points are and the shape they take.

regarding the stairstepper and stepmill to increase leg size... i have noticed that even when i'm in a caloric deficit, overtraining, doing cardio 2 times per day... etc. if i chose a cardio routine that involves resistance on the quads, hams, and glutes (i.e. high incline treadmill) my legs get smaller and feel burnt out... BUT, on my days off, i can actually see them growing bigger than before i started dieting! seperation increases, and the veins are just crazy! 2-3 days back to cardio and they shrink.