We have always taught the squat as a “hips” exercise – it was presented that way in the Blue Book, because this approach trains more muscle mass over the longest effective range of motion, allowing the use of heavier weights and thus producing the most force against the bar and the most effective strength adaptation. Squatting down and standing back up is one of the progressively-trainable bilateral human movement patterns that comprise the basic exercises of strength training. But it is not a “quad” exercise.

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