Squatting is one of the popular exercises that serve a number of functions besides fitness. The biggest advantage of squatting is that you do not require any specialized machines or equipment to perform squatting and it can be performed at any location. Know the benefits of squats and choose one of the squats to start your daily practice.
Squats are considered a complete body workout with special focus on lower part of the body. When you are performing squatting, your hamstrings, calves and other pelvic and lower limb muscles receive direct stimulation as well as produce an anabolic state that stimulates protein growth in the entire body.
By regular squatting, you can develop strong muscles and connective tissue elements that stabilize your limbs and pelvis. In addition, squatting also target the small muscle groups of your limbs that are less mobilized or exercised by traditional exercises. Strengthening of small muscle groups further improve the joint motion and activity.
Squatting improve the circulation from your body by increasing the cardiac output to the heart, which enables your body to get rid of toxins and chemicals that may lead to diseases and inflammatory reactions. Squatting also improves the blood supply to your gut improving the digestive junctions and metabolism to improve the symptoms of constipation.
With the help of squatting, you can achieve a better control of your limb muscle activity due to persistent remodeling of tissues. Moreover, squatting is also known to enhance the quality of communication between your limb muscles and brain cells that helps in forming joint memory. This is helpful in old age to decrease the risk of falls, injuries and accidents.
In order to achieve the best results, it is recommended to continue simple exercises periodically. There are a number of different varieties of squatting, a few popular varieties include:
1. Perform simple warm- up exercise to steady your muscles and joints
2. Stand straight with your limbs shoulder-wide apart
3. Align your back in a straight line and extend your arms forward
4. Now flex your hip joint, knee joint and pelvic region while your arms are still in front of your body in full extension.
5. Hold the position for a few seconds and return to neutral position
6. Perform this exercise 3 to 15 times a day (for beginners, keep the frequency low in the first few weeks).
7. You can further make this exercise more intense by inhaling in while bending down and exhaling out while returning to the normal position.
See detailed instructions
1. Stand on a mat with your feet approximately shoulder- width apart
2. Make sure to extend your arms in front of your body.
3. Perform one simple squat (mentioned above) as a warm-up exercise and then jump on your feet as high as possible.
4. While landing on the ground, keep your feet ready for another set of jumping squat by lowering your back.
5. Perform jump squatting in rounds of 10 jump–squats.
6. Make sure to perform squatting periodically.
1. Stand straight on the mat with dumbbells in your both hands.
2. Now flex your knees and hip in such a way that your knees points in the same direction as that of your feet and your thighs are just parallel to the ground level.
3. Hold the position for a few seconds and then extend your hip and the knees.
4. Repeat this exercise at least 10 times per day
1. Stand straight on the mat with your limbs apart (at around shoulder-width)
2. Lift and support the barbell at your trapezius muscle (a little above your shoulder joints)
3. If you have sensitive back muscles or you want to take extra caution to prevent injury, you can always use back padding to prevent direct pressure on your back muscles
4. Using the force from the barbell, slowly flex your knees in a squat position (in a way that your thighs are just parallel to the floor
5. Hold the position for a few seconds and slowly return to the neural position.
6. Make sure to keep your thighs just in line with the floor.
For more variations of squats, please see