Drop It Like A Squat

There are probably a million reasons why you should include squats in your workout regimen. Today, we’ll include only a couple of those for time’s sake. The squat is probably one of the most commonly used exercises in a strength training regimen and there’s good reason why. How many times a day do you do it? Sitting in a chair, getting into your car, going to the bathroom…

A couple of years ago, there was a big shift in the fitness industry where functional training started becoming more popular. Professionals started pushing the idea of ensuring the movements we focus most on are those that we do daily. This is why you won’t see many personal trainers using the selectorized machines on our fitness floor…. it’s not super functional.

So, why should we squat? Well, first and foremost, we love the “bang for your buck” exercises. When squatting, you’re not just strengthening your quads and glutes, you’re also strengthening the muscles around your knees and getting activation from your entire trunk. Now if that’s not a reason to take some focus off of your biceps for a moment, we don’t know what is!

Squats look like a pretty easy movement, but there are some common mistakes with them.

• Ensure you’re fully engaging your core to give your lower back the support it needs. Too much curvature of the spine means that there isn’t proper abdominal bracing and can lead to injuries, especially when performing a weighted squat.
• Also watch that the knees never go past the toes. It helps if you think about sitting down and back, like you’re going to sit in a chair. When the knees come too far forward, the joint comes under more stress and can increase the chances of injury, especially when doing a high amount of repetitions.

Check out this video for more visual cues:

 

Now let’s say you’ve mastered weight bearing squats but don’t quite know where to go from there. Try out some of these variations with weights as well:

If after watching this, you still have questions – reach out to our personal training team at [email protected]. We’d love to meet and walk you through some other exercises specific to your needs.