eng International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health volume: 19 number: 23 startpage: 1 endpage: 9 MDPI Does Back Squat Exercise Lead to Regional Hypertrophy among Quadriceps Femoris Muscles? Abstract: The present study investigated effects of squat resistance training on intermuscular hypertrophy of quadriceps femoris muscles (i.e., rectus femoris, RF; vastus intermedius, VI; vastus medialis, VM; and vastus lateralis, VL). Eighteen university students (age: 24.1 ± 1.7 years, 9 females) underwent 7 weeks of parallel squat training (2 days/week) preceded by a 2-week familiarization period. Squat strength (1RM) and cross-sectional area (CSA) of four quadriceps muscles were assessed at baseline and at the end of the study. At posttest, 1RM and CSA of quadriceps muscles significantly increased (p < 0.01), with moderate-to-large effect (ES = 1.25–2.11) for 1RM (8.33 ± 6.64 kg), VM CSA (0.12 ± 0.08 cm2), and VL CSA (0.19 ± 0.09 cm2) and small effect (ES = 0.89–1.13) for RF CSA (0.17 ± 0.15 cm2) and VI CSA (0.16 ± 0.18 cm2). No significant differences were found in the changes of CSA between muscles (F = 0.638, p = 0.593). However, the squat 1RM gain was significantly associated only with the changes in CSA of the VL muscle (r = 0.717, p < 0.001) . The parallel squat resulted in significant growth of all quadriceps muscles. However, the novelty of this study is that the increase in strength is associated only with hypertrophy of the VL muscle. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16226 Kojić, Filip Ranisavljev, Igor Obradović, Miloš Mandić, Danimir Pelemiš, Vladan Paloc, Miloš Đurić, Saša application/pdf 1575253 bytes https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:35470 doi:10.3390/ijerph192316226 ISSN: 1660-4601 Keywords: knee extensors; resistance training; strength; cross-sectional area 2022 All rights reserved info:eu-repo/semantics/article