You may not realize it, but a squat is something you already do every day. When you sit down and get up from a sitting position, you are essentially doing this movement. But squats are not only great for performing basic everyday functions. Strength is also a reflection of your overall level of fitness.
Your legs contain some of the largest muscles in the body. So doing this type of exercise will help you develop strength and improve muscle mass. You will recruit a lot of energy and burn fat, and this will help you strengthen yourself in your activities of daily living.
4 benefits of squatting every day
Expand your total body strength
Squats are a compound movement, which means they leverage multiple muscle groups through multiple joints. Basically they work the whole body. And if we do it consistently, in the right way, it can help build everything from strength and power to balance and flexibility.
The lower part of the body carries most of the movement, specifically your quads, which extend along the front of the thigh, and the three muscles of your butt: the gluteus maximus, middle and minimal.
But other leg muscles, such as the hamstrings and hip flexors , are activated. And let's not forget your core stabilization efforts, which keep your torso upright during movement and reduce stress on your lower back.
Although squats work different muscle groups at the same time, doing it every day does not necessarily mean that the upper body and core are receiving the same tension as the quadriceps and glutes. Therefore, it is important to do exercises that focus on other muscles throughout the week.
Also, squats are "push" exercises because they involve the movement of pushing through the legs. Balancing them with other lower body and upper body "pull" exercises, such as deadlifts, rowing, bench press, and bicep curls, ensures that you are not neglecting other muscles.
Improve your mobility
As basic as the squat seems, this compound exercise has some challenges. For example, it takes a little mobility to perform a perfect squat. Things like stiff ankles and knees, and locked hips (thanks to sitting) can limit your range of motion and really make it difficult to sink your butt back and down in a squatting position.
According to a March 2015 study published in the Journal of Human Kinetics, limited range of motion in the hips, knees, and ankles can affect squat depth . By improving mobility and strength at the ankle and hip joints, you can improve squat depth and prevent squat-related injuries.
Not sure if mobility is your problem? Some telltale signs are that you are leaning your torso forward, rounding your spine, and / or lifting your toes while squatting. These interruptions in shape not only put you at risk for injury, but also force your muscles to compensate so that exercise is less effective.
But doing squats daily doesn't automatically improve you at night. Taking a break from squatting every day to do ankle work and mobility (think ankle circles and hip stretches) will finally help you get more out of this lower-body focused movement.
Increase progress in your training
When you do the same squats every day, your muscles adapt to movement. So while you can keep your achievements, you won't continue to progress. You will know that it is time to push your squats to new lows when they start to be relatively easy to perform and you recover faster.
To avoid getting stuck, it is important to practice progressive overload , which means increasing the volume, load, and tempo / rhythm of your squats to make them more challenging. If you can complete 8 squats with the proper technique, try increasing up to 12 repetitions, for example.
Although doing them with body weight is great for every level of fitness, adding different types of squats to your training routine provides other benefits. It is essential to use the different squat variations to see the changes and target different areas of the leg muscles.
For example, jump squats are a plyometric movement that will raise your heart rate, adding a cardio element to your squat routine. Bouncing holds forces you to hold the bottom of your squat for a longer period of time, increasing the time your muscles are under tension.
If you're doing 12 reps of the same squats like it's no big deal after three to four weeks of training, consider adding more weight and reps. Choose a new weight that allows you to do 5 to 8 repetitions with the proper technique.
You can also make things more challenging by testing your one- sided (or single-legged) strength. Try doing heavy Bulgarian squats to make sure one leg is not stronger than the other.
Strengthen your bones
Once you feel comfortable progressing to weighted squats, you have the opportunity to bring your upper body to the party and support strong bones.
According to Wolff's law, bones adapt to the stress imposed on them ; Increased muscle tension with weighted squats (and other exercises) stimulates bone tissue growth, and strengthens. By adding some weight-bearing exercises to your routine, such as barbell or dumbbell squats or cup squats, you finally strengthen your bones. Keep in mind that bone resistance begins to decline after age 40 , according to Harvard Health Publishing.
Just be aware that too much of a good thing can be bad if you're not careful. Inadequate recovery between squat workouts, especially heavy ones, can lead to muscle fatigue rather than growth. Also, exercising with muscle aches can make your workouts less effective.
