What are the benefits of doing squats?

nick fitness expert

What are the benefits of doing squats?

The Benefits of doing Heavy Squats

ever skip leg day! Keep Your Squats low and your standards high!

Squats: If you’re looking for the perfect exercise to fit into your workout regime, then look no further. Because of its all-round benefits, it really is the mother of all exercises. The squat is one of my favourite exercises and in this answer I will tell you why. So, if you think squats are only for building strong legs, let me prove you wrong!

Squats work your whole body

Everyone knows squats are great for working your leg muscles. But the truth is, they will build muscle in your entire body. You will not only work your quadriceps, your hamstrings, your calves, your adductors and your glutes.

You’ll need your upper-body to support and balance the bar too. To perform a heavy squat you’ll have to use your abs, your back, your shoulders and your arms to stabilize and lift the weight. By doing squats, you’ll be getting more than an awesome core workout.

A while ago I was doing the Stronglifts program. Stronglifts uses squats in every workout (3x a week). While I was on the program I never did any direct exercises to train my abs. Yet, during those months my abs were becoming more and more defined. I never realized before that I could build a six-pack without doing a single crunch!

Because squats work your body from head to toe, it will allow you to lift heavier than most other exercises. This makes the squat the ultimate tool for building overall strength. This strength will carry over to your daily life.

Squat for anabolic hormones

Most people you see at the gym skip squats. They will find all kinds of excuses for why they’re not squatting. That’s because squats are hard. And yes, they can be a bitch. But nothing I ever did in the gym worked until I started to squat.

I started to build bigger shoulders, bigger arms,… at a much faster rate. But how was this possible?

The reason I was building muscle in my upper-body much easier is because of what the squats were doing to my hormones. As it turns out, squatting is super-effective for increasing testosterone and human growth hormone.

These hormones were creating a muscle-building anabolic environment in my body. Testosterone and human growth hormone were working as a catalyst for muscle growth. And because I was working so many muscles at the same time, I was becoming a muscle building machine.

So if you’re still skipping out on the Squat, you better think twice!

Use Squats to burn fat

One of the best ways to keep the fat from piling on is to build muscle. The more muscle you have, the more energy you’ll burn throughout the day. This is where the squat comes in. Because it’s great at building muscle, it will increase your metabolism over time. That way you’ll become a calorie burning machine.

Squats burn more energy than any other exercise. So while you perform the squat, you burn a ton of calories.

The Squat will increase your fitness

Compound exercises like squats are a great tool to get your heart rate up. Even though it’s an anaerobic exercise, your cardiovascular abilities will definitely improve. As the weights go up every week, you’ll notice yourself sweating your ass off.

Squatting is very functional

Squats will strengthen your legs. So if you’re a runner or an athlete, you’ll notice you’ll be running faster and easier. Because of your strong leg muscles every step will take less effort .

Logically, you’ll also be able to jump higher. Squats will increase your power and explosiveness.

You’ll also improve your balance and coördination, especially when you’re using free weights. Combined with increased flexibility, this will make you a better athlete.

Squatting below parallel demands flexibility, because you’re moving your legs through a full range of motion. By doing this, you’ll maintain proper hip flexibility.

Squatting is super functional and will make real-life activities easier. Just think of all the times you’re running after your kids, picking up heavy things…

The squat will help prevent injuries

Squats will strengthen your stabilizer muscles, ligaments and tendons. These work to keep you steady while your primary muscles are doing their job. They also prevent injuries because they improve your flexibility.

Make sure you perform the squat with perfect form! Squats can help strengthen your knee joints and your back, but only when performed correctly! Otherwise, you will only cause problems.

Doing squats will build discipline

Most people you see at the gym don’t do squats. They waste their time doing leg curls and leg extensions. That’s because squats are hard. Doing hard things, even when you don’t feel like it, will also train your mind. Yes, doing squats will make you a bad ass!

Doing hard things will give you the best results. If you manage to train your mind to do this at the gym it will transfer to other areas of your life. You train yourself to create good and healthy habits for long-term benefits instead of choosing short-term gratification.

Originally from full article:

This is why the Squat is the king of all exercises.