Should You Feel a Pump in Your Legs When Squatting?

Muscle pump occurs when blood and muscle glycogen cause a muscle to engorge. This assists in muscle growth and causes the muscle to temporarily grow in size, making the muscle pump effect particularly of interest to bodybuilders or those who want their muscles to appear bigger. When squatting, depending on the type of squat performed, you should feel a pump and see an increase in muscle size throughout your legs.

  1. Squatting

    • The squat works most of the muscles in the body, but specifically hits the hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes, the erector spinae of the lower back and the rectus abdominis. Therefore, when squatting, you should feel a pump predominantly in the quadriceps and the hamstrings, followed by the glutes and lower back. I's not uncommon to also feel a slight pump in the calves. If you do not experience any signs of muscle pump while performing sets of high-repetition squats, then you may be performing them too slowly or for not enough time. Add a few repetitions to the end of each set until you attain the desired pump.

    High-Volume Training for Muscle Pump

    • One of the conditions of muscle pump is that the exercise is performed at a high volume. High-volume training refers to weight training exercises performed for high numbers over several sets, typically with low rest periods between sets. This training uses muscle glycogen stores for its primary fuel, as ATP, the body's preferred fuel, is only available for around 12 seconds. This causes muscle pump to take place. Therefore, performing high repetitions of squats of any variation, you should feel a pump in the legs. Lower-repetition exercises tend to use less muscle glycogen and therefore do not produce a similar pump.

    The Science

    • Muscle pump -- or hyperaemia -- is a common goal in bodybuilding, being the focus of some workouts. Hyperaemia occurs when the muscle swells up and becomes bigger for a period around anaerobic exercise. This manifests in two main ways. First, blood flow is increased to the muscle being worked. The blood swells the muscle and delivers the extra nutrients needed to complete the exercise. Second, an abundance of muscle glycogen causes the muscle to swell. When performing weight training exercise with high repetitions, glycogen is converted to energy, powering the muscle. When high repetition exercise is performed, the muscle sends a signal to the brain to produce a large quantity of glycogen quickly.

    Benefits

    • While it is bodybuilders who most frequently strive to attain muscle pumps, the phenomenon is beneficial to weightlifters as well. This is because muscle pump provides both aesthetic and physiological benefits. The actual stretching of the muscle itself -- the swelling that takes place when the muscle fills with blood and glycogen -- sends important signals to the brain to grow the muscle. Therefore, weightlifters who want to make their muscles bigger as well as stronger may incorporate high-volume training to encourage hypertrophy. For bodybuilders, a bigger muscle is the goal, and high-volume training is frequently used to grow muscles as well as to provide a temporary aesthetic boost to the muscle.