Johnny Bravo Syndrome: Leg Day And Upper Body Development
Intro
The Signal
Observed Anomalies
Research
Application
Wrap Up
Intro
I was reflecting on some of my training back in the day and started to look into some of my old training logs. Back then I had gotten up to 175 Ibs through progressive calisthenics alone. What took me so long to realize is that my leg volume just with pistol squats was much higher than I had been doing for the past few years. Although the pistol squat may seem more of a balance exercise the better one gets at it the less likely balance will be a major factor. Is it possible that my leg training volume among several other factors contributed to my weight gain in muscle?
There are narratives out there that state that in order to grow your upper body you must train your lower body. There might be some truth to this depending on the individual. Since the body is a unit it would make sense that training one portion would benefit those around it or are part of the system. But can one train to develop that Johnny Bravo look without paying too much attention to the legs?
The Signal
Sorry, not this signal. Very good movie by the way with a twist at the end.
The signal I’m talking about is the one for any type of growth or improvement in your training. There’s a specific signal you need to send to your body if you want to
Run Faster
Jump Higher
Lift More
Or Get Bigger
When it comes to building muscle I believe there might be some variation between individuals in how that signal can be sent. For myself, having my pistol squats in the dozens of reps per week could have been a contributing factor to my growth. For most workouts, my pistol squats were performed with a tempo of two seconds down, one second hold, and then two seconds up. These were in two sets of 20 at the very least. Sometimes I changed it up and had
8 x 8
or 6 x 10
Or 2 X 20 follwed by 1 X 15 to mix it up.
Observed Anomalies
With my own body, I believe the louder the signal I can generate with my leg training the more the rest of my body will benefit. But not everyone is the same. I believe there are some who can make their upper bodies grow with their legs being out of sight and out of mind.
I’ve been big on calisthenics since 2012 and am familiar with most of the heavy hitters and groups within the game. But one of the main criticisms of those involved is that our leg development as a whole is lacking. I’m not saying there aren’t outliers. But you can tell when watching certain park-calisthenics videos that some don’t train their legs as much either
by wearing pants,
super long shorts,
or super long socks.
There have been very few videos where I see dudes repping it out with
Pistol squats
Jumping Pistol Squats
Shrimp squats
Sissy squats
Etc
If you do see one, most of the time it's just endless walking lunges and two-legged squats with little depth to them. Can this build and send the correct stimulus? Sort of, but it takes a great deal of time and you’ll be approaching Great Gama levels of repetition ranges. With the value of our money taking a nosedive and an increased transit time to and from work for the average individual, we don’t have much time these days.
But look around long enough on YouTube you’ll find some observational evidence on how folks can put mass on their upper body without much devotion to their legs. But what does the literature have to say about this?
Research
Unfortunately, there’s not much beyond personal anecdotes. Most of the studies I have found focus on how lower body strength, or hypertrophy training affects the strength in the upper body (nothing on hypertrophy). At the time I was sorf of doing this anyway so there is some truth to this. 20 reps for the lower body and 8-12 reps for the upper. Although not focused on maximal strength my numbers were improving. My only problem is that eventually I didn’t give myself enough rest and started to plateau after a few months.
But, most studies show either no relationship between lower-body training and upper-body strength or a beneficial one. But even if all that leg training provides nothing but improved strength and no hypertrophy, with that strength you can later achieve hypertrophy. What do I mean by this? 8 reps of close Handstand Push-ups will develop more muscle than 5. This is the same with any other movement. Pour interest and focus into your strength and the mass will come if you desire to travel down that route.
Application
You might have heard of various 20-rep squat routines but the main principle you need to follow is to perform high repetitions of your lower body movements for each workout. Not too high though, we’re not running a marathon here.
Here are some leg exercises to start you off.
Try the lunge press first and see if you can reach 2 X 20 with slow and controlled reps. Two seconds down, one second hold, and then two seconds up. No momentum or bouncing your knee off the ground!!!! Get to around 2 X 25 then graduate to the deep lunge with your pressing foot placed on a higher surface and do the same thing.
After this, partial pistol squats with the same rep range and rep tempo. Lower the depth of the squat or choose a surface to gently let your butt touch and increase that range of motion over time.
If your knee starts giving you problems cut back on the volume for a short period of a few weeks and add in some of the bridging exercises you see here. Also, try to incorporate some backward walking or backward sled pull(if you have one) into your day as this will aid in the strengthening of your connective tissues.
For frequency, no more than twice a week is necessary with this. Split body or full, just stick to this twice a week.
Wrap Up
Some might be able to throw on upper body mass without any leg days in their training schedule. But if this isn’t you throw in some difficult, high-repetition bodyweight squats into your routine.
Thank you for making it to the end and let me know your thoughts below.
Until next time.
