I am not a gym enthusiast. My friends can confirm this – I never knew how to tone up my body and how to lose weight. When the pandemic started, I had to start doing something for my health, so I got a squat rack from here: https://www.northernfitness.ca/collections/racks-rigs.
Did it help me get my body toned up? Of course, it did wonders for both my physical health and my mental health, too! Squats helped me warm up my body and prepare for intense workouts!
A squat is a physical exercise that engages most of your lower body. It is very demanded as it trains multiple sets of muscles, while also engaging the core. To be able to do a correct basic squat, you will have to:
- Straighten your legs and keep them in a slightly wider than hip-width apart position.
- While engaging your core and keeping your chest up, shift your weight on your heels as you change your position into a sitting one
- Be sure that your thighs are almost parallel to the floor
- Stay safe – make sure that your knees are not positioned beyond your toes
- Get back to the initial position
This basic squat is targeting all your lower body areas, but also your obliques and your abdominal muscles. I wanted something more – I wanted to do a squat that helps me train my upper body, too. That’s how I ended up doing back squats, but we will talk about this a little bit later.
What are the benefits of squats?
First of all, they help you strengthen the core and building resistance for many other intense workouts that you plan on having! They also improve your posture, and honestly, this is exactly the reason why I decided to work out since I am sitting 8 hours a day at my desk at the office.
Then, you should know that squats help you build muscles in the lower body which results in an increased capacity to correctly execute all kinds of movements, even intricate ones. Squats reduce the risk of muscle injury, too. Most of the time, people who are doing squats are working out to lose weight, and this type of exercise is perfect for calorie burning.
Since this type of exercise is a high-intensity one having a complex movement that engages multiple muscles, squats also burn a serious amount of calories, helping you lose weight faster.
Also, we know from school that the lower body has the biggest muscles from all the human body, and the fact that squats do train them all couldn’t make me any happier! Your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, hip flexors, and calves are all engaging while you do a set of squats, thus helping you work out more efficiently!
Since I found myself stuck in my room, I knew that after a while I am going to need a workout plan. I started gaining a lot of weight and with the pandemic still posing as a threat to all of us, I couldn’t go to the gym.
That’s when I figured that I don’t need a lot of space to start doing squats – I can even do them in my living room, or my bedroom. I started training like this, alternating with other exercises too, and soon I found myself purchasing a rack for back squats – that’s how much I enjoyed working out like this!
Once you master the basic squat, there is so much more you can do! You can also do some interesting variations that engage multiple muscle groups! You can also spice things up by adding some weights, some dumbbells, belts, or use resistance bands!
I started using the back squat because it trains your upper body, too! I love the fact that you can gradually increase the intensity of the workout by adjusting the weights. My lower back used to hurt since I am spending so much time sitting at the desk, but as I progressed with my workouts the pain started vanishing too.
All in all, I am excited about this type of exercise that I have discovered during the pandemic, and I can’t wait to try different variations as my body gets even stronger. I know bodybuilding is a long journey, but even the longest journey starts with one little step, right?
I hope this little article gave you an insight into why are squats so important for the human body and how they can help you get toned!